Solve a problem, find a plant or look for a design inspiration
Lawns A lush, green lawn adds beauty and value to any home, but many backyard lawns are thin and patchy, and struggle to survive. The problem is that most of us are ordinary gardeners, not greenkeepers, and we don’t have time to give our lawns constant care and...
Don reworked an azalea hedge that had grown so tall it was blocking the light and obscuring the view from the house. It is very difficult to keep a hedge at exactly the same height. Even when hedges are trimmed regularly, they gradually grow taller and eventually need...
Tibouchinas are native to south-east Brazil, where people use the massed purple blooms to decorate churches at Easter time. Here in Australia tibouchinas also make quite a statement in autumn, with their riot of purple flowers. Don looked at Tibouchina...
Tree Farm Ten years ago landscape designer, Michael Pfahl and horticulturist, Ronan O’Connor had problems finding large trees suitable for the landscaping projects they were working on, so they decided to grow their own. Today their nursery, Treekeepers Nursery...
Variegated Eucalypts Recently on Burke’s Backyard we featured ‘Summer Beauty’ and ‘Summer Red’, wonderful hybrid gum trees developed specially for the home garden. They produce masses of flowers, and you always know exactly what colour...
Deciduous magnolias are wonderful small trees which produce large scented flowers on bare branches in winter and early spring. Although there are about 100 species of wild magnolias and many of them (such as Magnolia campbellii, M. sargentiana var. robusta and...
If you want a big, bold foliage plant for the garden, you can’t go past the tree philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum). It is often confused with its close relative monstera (Monstera deliciosa), but they are really easy to tell apart. Monstera is sometimes...
Pomegranates The pomegranate is one of the all time great plants of horticulture. It is native to the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, Afghanistan and Iran, where it has been grown since ancient times. Plant details Common name: Pomegranate Botanic name: Punica...
A few weeks ago on Burke’s Backyard we featured a lovely ornamental variety of pomegranate called ‘Legrelliae’ (Punica granatum ‘Legrelliae’). It has very attractive double salmon/scarlet flowers with a white edge to each petal, and like...
[metaslider id=31356] Don looked at a new dwarf variety of the evergreen or Bull Bay magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora). ‘Little Gem’ was developed by Warren Steed of Steed’s Nursery in North Carolina in the U.S.A. It has many of the attributes of its...