Toggle navigation
What to do this week: Prune climbing roses

What to do this week: Prune climbing roses

Every suburban paling fence should be swaddled with a rose! Our fence at The Garden Clinic HQ is adorned with Crepescule, a glorious old rambling rose from 1904. It can be trained against a trellis or as we have done, along wires attached to the fence. Some people are intimidated by climbing roses, uncertain of how to prune them. It’s not difficult; all you need is a sharp pair of secateurs and long leather gloves to protect your arms.

Read More
What to do this week: Plant ‘Crown Vegetables’

What to do this week: Plant ‘Crown Vegetables’

Asparagus and rhubarb are two long-lived plants you can grow from crowns planted in winter. The crown is a section of the plant with roots attached. Crowns are more expensive than seed but offer a shorter wait till harvest.Both these plants do best with an entire garden bed to themselves

Read More
The Brilliant Banksia

The Brilliant Banksia

Do you remember the Big Bad Banksia Man from the pen of May Gibbs in her famous classic, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie? May had a soft spot for banksias and so do we. Their golden candles are a beacon for bees and a haven for birds. Grow it as a dense shrub to provide safe haven for little birds such as the blue wren.

Read More
In the Vegie Patch: Sow tomato, eggplant and capsicum seeds indoors

In the Vegie Patch: Sow tomato, eggplant and capsicum seeds indoors

Last week we sowed five seeds of an oxheart tomato (Cuore Di Bue Rugantino) in small pots in a mini greenhouse sitting on a heat pad in our laundry.

Read More
In the Vegie Patch: Time to sow tomatoes

In the Vegie Patch: Time to sow tomatoes

July is a good time to sow tomatoes. It takes 6 to 8 weeks for seeds to germinate and seedlings to grow big and strong enough to be planted out in the vegetable garden.

Read More
A Camellia Update

A Camellia Update

This week all the delectable varieties of Camellia reticulata are coming into flower. Flowers are massive; some as large as dinner plates, up to 25cm across. Flowers have a ruffle of petals, and come in rich reds, deep pinks and crimson. These beauties flower later and longer than other camellias, blooming between early May and late September. Most varieties bloom for two months.

Read More
Plant of the Week: Luculia

Plant of the Week: Luculia

The lovely Luculia is a wonderful addition to your winter garden. We have just planted two of them in a new east-facing position in our patch with morning sunshine near the front entrance to our home.
Read More
What to do this week: July Rose Pruning

What to do this week: July Rose Pruning

July is rose pruning month if you live in a frost-free garden. It’s best to wait until frosts have finished before pruning roses because new shoots will be frosted and the rose plant will suffer. Take a small container of Dettol and a cloth to clean secateurs between roses.

Read More
What To Do This Week

What To Do This Week

As the cold weather continues its good to prune plants like bamboo, shell ginger, palms and canna. Feed native plants, in particular the hybrids, which will respond with fabulous flowering latte winter. Use a fertiliser specially for native plants. We love Bush Tucker (Neutrog). Cultivate between rows of vegetables using a single tine, made by removing two tines from a three-pronged cultivator. This opens the soil allowing air and water to penetrate and dislodges weeds.

Read More
Winter Orchids

Winter Orchids

Dancing Lady (oncidium) is a captivating orchid, much more forgiving of bright light than the Moth Orchid. You can grow oncidium on bark slabs and in baskets and hang them in trees. With large fleshy pseudobulb and masses of roots, its prone to rotting if you over-water. Keep them between 18 - 22C during daylight and 10 – 18C at night and you will be rewarded with sprays of ‘dancing ladies’.

Read More
What to do this week

What to do this week

The good news is that as winter arrives, weed growth slows. Here are a few jobs that will really make a difference.


Read More
In the Vegie Patch … it’s time to plant rhubarb

In the Vegie Patch … it’s time to plant rhubarb

Winter vegetables are growing well in our patch despite the fact they don’t receive full day sunshine.


Read More
Mad About Orchids

Mad About Orchids

Orchids, like our Stanhopea (Upside-down orchid) need feeding each month. So if, like me, you're mad about orchids take care of them now for the floral reward later. Here are some tips about three of my favourites to help make orchid care quick and easy.

Read More
Winter Wallflowers

Winter Wallflowers

Wallflowers make the perfect winter and spring cut flowers; keep picking and dead-heading and they'll flower right through to spring.It is one of our favourite flowers, deliciously fragrant, a soft mix of mauve and apricot.

Read More
What To Do This Week

What To Do This Week

This week in the veggie patch we're planting out and watching out for early winter pests.

Read More
What to do this week: Graham's to do list

What to do this week: Graham's to do list

Time to build a compost system and turn the green waste your garden generates into a priceless resource.

Read More
In the Veggie Patch: It’s time to plant strawberries

In the Veggie Patch: It’s time to plant strawberries

It is remarkable how the taste of home-grown strawberries is so much sweeter than the ones from the supermarket. Delicious sweet strawberries grow well in pots, vegetable gardens and ornamental garden beds.

Read More
Time to Plant Flowers

Time to Plant Flowers

Stock, pansy, viola, poppy, primula and polyanthus can all be planted now.

Read More
Persimmon: a Touch of the Orient

Persimmon: a Touch of the Orient

This small, upright, deciduous tree makes a fine autumn accent in any garden. Its spreading canopy, glossy green foliage, brilliant autumn colour, and a bounty of sweet, flavourful, bright orange-red fruit make it very desirable. Sadly the persimmon has gone out of fashion and needs to make a come-back.

Read More
The Amazing Amazon lily, the Eucharis Lily

The Amazing Amazon lily, the Eucharis Lily

Also known as Amazon lily (Eucharis grandiflora), is a member of the Amaryllis family and was originally collected along the Rio Magdalena.

Read More
Sydneysiders called on to look out for parthenium weed

Sydneysiders called on to look out for parthenium weed

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has urged the community to be on the lookout for parthenium weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, following confirmation of the first incursion of the weed in Sydney.

Read More
Plums

Plums

As if the beautiful spring blossom of the plum were not enough to make it a lovely small tree choice for the home garden, it also deliver splump juicy fruit for eating, stewing, bottling, drying and cooking. The only question is which plum to plump for. Here we consider the options.

Read More
Plum clafoutis

Plum clafoutis

This easy batter pudding, fragrant with late-summer fruit, is delicious warm from the oven, and any leftovers are just as good served cold for a breakfast treat with a dollop of thick yoghurt.

Read More
Know your: indoor trophy plants

Know your: indoor trophy plants

The houseplant community has christened its collectible rarities ‘unicorn plants’.Linda is a unicorn hunter and grows her burgeoning collection in her indoor tropical jungle, occasionally giving them a summer holiday outdoors under the banksia.

Read More
Meet Justin Buckley, Gardens manager, National Trust Victoria

Meet Justin Buckley, Gardens manager, National Trust Victoria

Rippon Lea’s fernery is a rare gem of 19th century Australian gardening, and a favourite spot for the Gardens Manager of the National Trust Victoria.

Read More
How to: stop snails invading precious pot plants

How to: stop snails invading precious pot plants

Keep both pets and snail-sensitive plants safe with these solutions.

Read More
Barewood

Barewood

Best known for sauvignon blanc, the Marlborough region in the north of New Zealand's South Island is also a centre of great garden making. Barewood is one of the gems.

Read More
Star of the season: Empress of Brazil

Star of the season: Empress of Brazil

Empress of Brazil seems to have captured everyone’s imagination as they start to flower late summer. Learn more about this beauty.

Read More
How to: bake a honey and rosemary cake

How to: bake a honey and rosemary cake

Rosemary is a reliable stalwart in the herb garden. We love it finely chopped and pressed with fresh pepper on to steaks before barbecuing or sprinkled over roasting potatoes. This cake shows off rosemary’s sweet side.

Read More
How to: cope with a deluge

How to: cope with a deluge

While subsoil drainage, such as drainage grates, gravel pits and sumps, are effective in light rain, heavy downpours overwhelm pipes and the water sheets across the landscape. Arno King has some tips top help cope when the heavens open up.

Read More
Displaying results 121-150 (of 533)
 |<  <  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  >  >|