The charms of French country living inspired Marian Somes to create her own version at her beautiful garden Picardy in the Gippsland hills. How did she do it? Here she shares four underlying elements of the French country garden.
Simple and delicious, Libby's Armenian Nutmeg cake, with a nice cup of tea, is the perfect treat after a hard spring morning's garden.
Roses mix it up at Wisley, blooming brilliantly with a range of other flowering plants.
Opening pale pink then fading to soft coffee cream ‘Cafe au Lait’ is a celebrity-status dahlia. The multi-petalled blooms are up to 25 cm across and there may be 40 on a plant at once, so strong support is essential.
The purple veil that floats over Sydney in November is an international star – but not one most of us can bring home.
Inspired to get hedging? Choosing the right plant for your hedging plan is critical. Look for a height range and maintenance regime that suits your needs, as well as plants that will do well given the soil and position you can offer. Here are a handful of the hedging plants we think should be on your shortlist.
It’s time to pull out winter crops to make room for summer’s great produce. Here Linda Ross shares her know-how and experience about what to plant now to keep a family of four enjoying delicious home-grown food all through summer.
Eating flowers sounds exotic but in fact we do it all the time. Some are disguised, like saffron, which is the dried stigma of the crocus flower; others are obvious, like the gold flowers of zucchini.
Peas are one of those crops that can make the home gardener feel smugly self-satisfied because they taste so good fresh from the garden.
A hedge is many things. It can define areas of the garden; shield you from the curiosity of passersby; block ugly intrusions into your view; protect your privacy; offer favourite plants a green backdrop against which to dazzle; or simply give your garden a nestling sense of enclosure and cosy comfort. Here Graham Ross answers the most-asked questions on hedge cultivation and care.
In their floral history of Australian art, mother and daughter team Peneloep and Tansy Curtin uncover the stories behind some of our favourite floral artworks.
Betty Maloney was a pioneer of bush gardening whose advice on finding serenity in the garden is as relevant now as it was half a century ago.
Prune rhododendrons when they finish flowering to maintain shape. Plants grown too tall will respond well to a hard prune. Follow with a feed formulated for acid-loving rhodos, and mulch with cow manure.
Zinnias are the happiest of summer’s flowering annuals and come in vibrant colours of cerise, terracotta, gold, and lipstick-pink.
Asparagus is so fresh right now and Robin Powell has 3 ways to make the most of a fresh harvest.
Riversdale is a National Trust property in Goulburn where volunteers have battled drought, rabbits and running bamboo to recreate a beautiful, much-loved garden.
Winter is rose-planting time, and to help you make the most of these much-loved flowers, we’ve put together all the information you need. Armed with some growing advice you'll be picking armfuls in no time at all.
Pretty pinks are a huge feature in the spring time native garden. Here are Nola Parry's best pinks for the season.
Mulberries flooding in to the kitchen? Here are some quick and tasty ways to use them.
No summer goes by in the Ross family household without mulberry jam, mulberry pie, and swirled mulberry icecream. Fancy the menu? Take Linda’s tips on growing the hero ingredient.
This classic pudding is a simply delicious taste of summer. This is the kind of recipe that reminds us how inventive the cooks of previous generations were in turning leftovers into dinner or dessert, especially bread.
A few years ago we wanted to get our gardening family together to talk about what we're growing, share secrets and exchange some of our favourite treasures from the garden. It's turned into one of our most popular events, and it's free!
Linda caught up with some school students using the power of the worm to decrease their waste, increase their vegetable harvest and raise money for their school. Here she shares some tips on worm farming.
This home-grown fertiliser contains more potash, and more nitrogen, than commercial feeds, and costs only the price of a bucket and its water. Your vegetables will love it, especially your tomatoes.
These fragrant fish parcels are tasty, healthy and quick. And as a bonus, there’s no washing up!
Flowering shrubs are the backbone of the garden. Get familiar with these beauties to add some spring bling to your garden.
Out, damn’d spot! The dark side to growing roses is fungal disease. Knowing your enemy is the first step in ridding yourself of this problem for good.
Seduced by the colour, forms and perfumes of roses, Ali Mentesh has already collected some 200 to adorn the garden rooms at Red Cow Farm. Can he choose a favourite?
Spring brings a new bunch of roses to nurseries. These new introductions are the latest in a long history of rose evolution.
Some of the best performing roses for warm climates are old favourites -and we mean old. Search out these hardy centurions for fragrance, generosity and trouble-free beauty
Facebook