Garden Clinic Blog

Even the smallest balcony plots can produce crops from an interesting range of small-fruited, ‘patio’-sized vegetables. Linda Ross shares tips on making it work.

Courtyard and balcony gardens are less forgiving than suburban gardens. A big garden can ramble a bit, drawing you past a bit of a dead patch with the lure of the something great glimpsed just around the corner. But in a small garden everything is on show, all the time.

Join or renew your membership this week and you will receive ECO Oil, Hydrate & Fungicide and OCP Slasher. And to celebrate upcoming Springtime, included is a gorgeous potted Garvinea courtesy of Majestic Young Plants.

Add some summer dazzle to a sunny balcony with these pot-loving beauties.

As obsessive plant collectors we can’t help bringing home interesting plants from friends and fellow plant-lovers. Our enthusiasm had resulted in an unlovely clutter of pots. Something had to be done. Here are our tips for turning Plant Lovers’ Clutter into a pleasing display.

If I could print Constance Spry's 1953 book How to Do the Flowers here in full, I would. It is not a big book, but it is a thoughtful one, and full of very good information. It is this book that first got me thinking about ‘arranging’ flowers, as opposed to simply plonking them in a vase.

Magnolias can languish in their formative years, but perseverance will be rewarded. Here Graham discusses his favourite magnolia's story.

Magnolia not happy? Try a Magic Magnolia Mulch. Sandra's special recipe does magical things to sulking magnolias!

If there’s a stunning deciduous magnolia in your garden with enormous cup-shaped blooms and rich colour, chances are it was bred by New Zealand plantsman, Mark Jury.

Need new delicious ways to serve Brussels sprouts? We’ve got 3 simple ways that will wow the crowd.

Deciduous magnolias thrill us in winter with cup-shaped blooms on bare grey stems.

Got an abundance of cauliflower?Give this delicious soup a go. Perfect for a cool winter's night

Meet Pat and Bill Rhodin, Tulip Tops gardeners. They work hard all year to make this garden's spring display something memorable

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.

Sydney-based designer Marcia Hosking gave a holiday vibe to this compact garden.

Match our cauliflower salad with roast chicken or barbecued lamb. My Nanna never served cauliflower that wasn’t boiled and drowned in a thick white sauce.

Add a splash of summer colour to your garden with Garden and Oriental Lilies. Each bulb produces 30-40 flowers per stem and just keeps on giving every single year. Our friend Tim Drewitt from Red Earth Bulbs has Liliums going at unbelievable prices. Drum roll please.

Back in 2015 we declared it the Year of the Cake with this mouth-watering recipe.

For wow factor in the summer garden it’s hard to go past lilies, and a new bunch of liliums is now opening bold big blooms across the country.

Graham’s upside-down orchid (Stanhopea tigrina) has grown old and unproductive, and this year treated us all with only five flower spikes, instead of the usual 30!

Inspired by a trip to Singapore and the gorgeous Gardens of the Bay, Graham decided to create an orchid tree.

One of our most-asked questions to the Garden Clinic helpline and to radio is about caring for moth orchids so they flower again. Here are our top tips.

The orchid family is so extensive, and so wonderful in the garden. Here we introduce just the essential exotics for your garden. The exciting native orchids we’ll save for another day.

Orchids are found in every corner of the planet and come from the biggest family of cultivated plants on earth: 30,000 wild species. There are twice as many orchid species as there are species of birds! Orchids have had a 200-year journey from the tropical jungles to become the nation's most popular houseplant.

A special gazette published by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) last month detailed the proposal to cancel the registrations of the 27 chemical products containing the active ingredient chlorpyrifos

Ever wanted to grow your own veggies but never knew where to start? Here are five steps to consider when starting a patch from scratch.

For home-grown tomato tragics like Linda late winter doesn’t signal a time to ramp up the gym membership and line up a fake tan. Rather she is busy germinating heirloom tomatoes seeds. Whether you are joining her in growing from seed, or skipping that step with seedlings from the nursery, here are her top tips for growing a great feed of tomatoes this summer.

Give the warm season vegetable patch a big boost before seedlings go in. Use our Power Soil recipe and get ready for take-off!

If you planted out root vegetables in early autumn you’ll be harvesting them now. While roots make great side dishes for whatever you’re cooking for dinner, your home-grown produce also makes the best stock.

Planting punnets of vegetable seedlings is easy, but it is much more cost-effective and more fulfilling - not to mention offering wider choice and better results - to sow seed directly into the garden. The key is to sow plants suited to your climate, at the appropriate time of year.