The Garden Clinic

Fettucine of Gete Okosomin Squash Brown Butter and Fennel Pollen

18 March, 2021 | Peter Gilmore

Peter Gilmore’s delicious ‘fettuccini’ uses golden squash as both noodle and sauce in a dish that’s much easier than it looks.

Frost Watch

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Frost-sensitive plants such as hibiscus, frangipani, passionfruit, citrus, deciduous fruit trees, and some vegetables can be adversely affected by frost.

How to plant a bare-rooted rose

18 March, 2021 | Mez Woodward

It's easy to be seduced by the colour, forms and perfumes of roses, but not as easy to successfully grow them. Here Mez Woodward shows us how to plant your bare-rooted rose.

How to: arrange flowers

18 March, 2021 | Annabelle Hickson

In this edited extract from A Tree in the House, self-taught florist Annabelle Hickson shares her key tip for arranging flowers beautifully.

When I was a child all our neighbours and friends had a large tub - generally an old enamel washing machine tub - buried close to the vegetable garden. This was the ‘brew’ tub. Ingredients for the brew - compost, manures and seaweed - were widely discussed and benefits widely acclaimed. And it turns out these gardeners were onto something!

How to: clip balls

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Plants clipped into balls add form and structure to the garden, and beautifully balance wilder, looser planting. The repetition of shapes develops rhythm which holds the garden together, while the contrast with other shrub shapes adds variety and interest.

How to: cope with a deluge

18 March, 2021 | Arno King

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.

How to: fix the lawn

18 March, 2021 | Narelle Smith

Most warm-season grasses stop growing when the nights turn cold, allowing weeds to get a foothold while your attention has turned indoors. So now is the time to target terrors like bindii, wintergrass and dandelions and avoid seeding - and many years more weeding - before boosting growth for lush summer lawns.

How to: fix the lawn

18 March, 2021 | Narelle Smith

Most warm-season grasses stop growing when the nights turn cold, allowing weeds to get a foothold while your attention has turned indoors. So now is the time to target terrors like bindii, wintergrass and dandelions and avoid seeding - and many years more weeding.

How to: fix your roses

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Many questions from radio callers to Garden Clinic on 2GB on the weekends involve roses. We feel your pain! These are our go-to fixes for six common rose problems.

How to: fix your tomatoes

18 March, 2021 |

Fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes are one of the great joys of summer. The best way to ensure that your tomato-growing experience delivers baskets of delicious fruit is to keep plants healthy.

How to: grow African violets

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

African violets are treasured, long-lived indoor plants. Make them shine with these tips.

How to: grow amazing geraniums

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

The plants I'm talking about here are botanically speaking Pelargonium though commonly called geranium. True Geranium species are delicate-looking perennials, usually with blue flowers.

How to: grow an edible hedge

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Trade up from murraya and lillypilly to a hedge you can eat! These four flavoursome options tick the boxes for pretty, practical and productive.

How to: growing vegetables from seed

18 March, 2021 | Arno King

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.

How to: Make Potting Mix

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Plants in pots need the right nutrients, water, air and a quality potting mix to live happily ever after.

How to: prune a camellia

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Ken Lamb, Australia's master of Japanese pruning techniques, took to a historic, mature camellia at Retford Park as part of a three-day, hands-on workshop on creative pruning, held at the Southern Highlands National Trust property last winter. The camellia, an old japonica with a pendulous habit and flowers in both solid and variegated pink, had only ever been pruned to stop it intruding onto the driveway, and it now formed a solid wall of dark green, shutting off views to the house.

How to: prune climbing roses

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The first thing to know about pruning climbing roses is not to do it in winter when you do your other roses. Here Robin Powell shares some of her other climbing rose insites

How to: Strike a Queen of the Night cutting

18 March, 2021 | Dan Wheatley

For stunning contrast of texture and form, huge repeat flowering and fragrance to die for there is nothing quite like the Queen of the Night orchid cactus, a plant that is as easy to propagate from cuttings as it is to grow.

How to: style balcony pots

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

To make a balcony feel like a garden it needs to surround you with plants. Somehow you have to get some plants up at eye level, and even above it. A small tree would be just the thing, but on most balconies a pot big enough to support a large plant is just too heavy once it’s filled with moist soil - and a tree! A more pragmatic approach is to arrange smaller pots at different levels. You need to get those pots up off the ground to really appreciate your balcony garden. Here are a few ideas.

How to: use coconut peat

18 March, 2021 | Arno KIng

Need a lightweight, easily stored, highly effective potting medium? Look no further than this byproduct of coconut production, which has advantages for plants as well as gardners.

In my kitchen garden: Camden, NSW

18 March, 2021 | Mickey Robertson

Mickey Robertson’s kitchen garden at Glenmore House is as beautiful as it is productive, experimental and instructive.

In the garden: August

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

The winter show is packing it's bags and making way for spring. It's time to plant some potted colour, prune the perennials and clear out the compost

In the Garden: Broughton Hall

18 March, 2021 | David Musker

Find out what David Musker is up to at Broughton Hall in Victoria

In the Garden: February

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Humidity in February is at it's summer peak. The garden will need a helping-hand to get through the next few weeks and into the cooler weather.

In the Garden: January

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Clip, snip, mow and trim. It's time for the post festive clean-up in the garden

In the garden: July

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

The winter chill is settling on the garden. It's time to enjoy winter flowers, sharpen up the pruning tools and get those spring bulbs in

In the garden: March

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

It’s time to get busy this march. Back by popular demand - our reminders of what to do in the garden this season.

It's time to: August

18 March, 2021 | Elizabeth Swane

Get ready, spring will be here before we know it. It's time to get the last of those last-minute winter jobs done

It's Time To: December

18 March, 2021 | Tammy Huynh

Summer is gardenia season! Pick their blooms to enjoy delicious scent indoors. Watch out for scale and spray with eco-oil. Best to spray early in the evening to prevent leaves burning during the day.

Kitchen Garden Spring Jobs

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

This spring try something new: a vertical pumpkin patch; a fence line of sweet potato or a hanging basket filled with the sweetest, most productive strawberry ever.

Kitchen Garden Spring: Soft Herbs

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

The key to a thriving herb garden is to give each plant the conditions it needs to prosper. The result is easy gardening, and delicious pickings. Here Linda Ross shows you her favourites and the conditions they need to thrive in spring.

Kitchen Garden: subtropical winter

18 March, 2021 | Arno King

Arno is a garden designer and writer whose garden in Brisbane is mostly edible. He is constantly testing the received garden wisdom for its relevance to subtropical gardeners, and trialling new products. Lets see what Arno's growing this winter

Know your: ferns

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Many ferns have a soft feathery quality that makes a great contrast with other plants - in the garden or indoors.

Know your: indoor plants

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Plants make indoor spaces beautiful and people happy. Here are a few easy-care options to start - or enlarge! - your indoor garden.

Magic Magnolia Mulch

18 March, 2021 | Sandra Ross

Sandra's special recipe does magical things to sulking magnolias!

Meet Keith and Maureene Smith

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Cancer fundraisers and plant propagators

Meet Mark Jury, magnolia breeder

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

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.

Meet Ros Loftus

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Riversdale is a National Trust property in Goulburn where volunteers have battled drought, rabbits and running bamboo to recreate a beautiful, much-loved garden.

Postcard from the garden world

18 March, 2021 | Ross Tours

See what's happening in the world of Ross Garden Tours this spring

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