Net Gains

22 November, 2021  |  WORDS AND IMAGES: ANNE MARIE CRAINE Read More

Award-winning Azaleas

22 November, 2021  |  WORDS GRAHAM ROSS, IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK Read More

Begonias - On angel’s wings

22 November, 2021  |  WORDS AND IMAGES: GRAHAM ROSS Read More

True blue

23 November, 2021  |  Words: Sandra Ross (Images: Shutterstock) Forget buying a punnet of blueberries this summer. Here’s how to grow your own! Read More

Brass off

23 November, 2021  |  I’m wondering if this is tea mite damage? This bronzing is on most of my camellias. ‘Tinsie’ is the worst affected and has been declining every year. I thought it was lack of watering until I recently identified this possible problem in a book. Do you have a cure suggestion, please? Read More

Spirit of the Garden

21 October, 2021  |  Book written by Trisha Dixon This book, commissioned by The National Library of Australia, and beautifully written by Trisha Dixon, will really set you thinking; reimagining the spaces where you live. Read More

How to: Attract pollinators

21 October, 2021  |  Words: Angie Thomas The key to a productive, fruitful garden comes down to pollinators. Here’s how to let them know your garden buzzing for business.    Read More

How to: Fruit fly control

21 October, 2021  |  Words: Graham Ross (Images: Shutterstock) It’s fruit fly season. This pest, if left to its own devices, will completely ruin your crops. We look at the latest industry advice on how to best control and protect your plants from this destructive pest. Read More

​How to: sow seed indoors

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

If you’d like to be enjoying fresh tomatoes from your garden before Christmas, start in winter, sowing and growing indoors so that you have advanced seedlings ready to plant out once the cold weather, and chance of frosts, has passed. 

Read More

10 things you didn’t know about fruit flies

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

Robin Powell reports from behind enemy lines on the fascinating, infuriating fruit fly.

Read More

A lesson in clipped hedges

18 March, 2021  |  Graham Ross

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.

Read More

August Jobs

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

Daffodil displays are the prize in August. It's time to get out there and enjoy them.

Read More

Black Spot on Roses

18 March, 2021  | 

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. 

Read More

Bugwatch: Bronze Orange Bugs

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross & Dan Wheatley

Just when your poor citrus tree thought it would be safe to put on some new growth, this dreaded pest arrives with its stinky, squirty spray, sucking all the vigour from the new spring shoots. Yes, its stink bug time again. But this year we we mean business!

Read More

Bulb Time

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Plant these time bombs in autumn for an explosion of colour in late winter and spring. Linda says they are bulbalicious!

Read More

Climbing Roses

18 March, 2021  |  Sandra Ross

Climbing roses give height, floral interest and elegance to a garden. They can tumble over fences, cascade from pergolas or screen water tanks and dunnies. Here are some of my favourite ways with climbing roses.

Read More

Edibles everywhere

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell Delicious ideas seen on our travels this year Read More

Flower Farm: Summer jobs

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

We've dedicated a part of the patch to growing flowers just for picking. And the bonus? Armfuls of flowers for vases and arrangements.

Read More

Flower farm: Winter jobs

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Here Linda gives advice and plans for winter; planting sunflowers, ranunculus, and spring bulbs; admiring the pansies, and picking winter flowers.

Read More

Home grown: Lemons

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

The plant that gives Garden Clinic gardeners more grief than any other is the lemon. Here’s how to grow gorgeous lemons.

Read More

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.

Read More

How to prune roses

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Jaws were on the floor at one of our rose pruning demonstrations last year, when

members watched Finbar O’Leary from Swanes Nursery pruning a rose the right way!

Read More

How to: 4 bulbs that make a longer lasting spring display

18 March, 2021  |  Sandra Ross

Who doesn’t love the vibrant dazzle of tulips? But blink and you'll miss them. For a longer-lasting, less expensive bulb display that builds, becoming better and better each year, try these:

Read More

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.

Read More

How to: attract bees into your garden

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Bees are at the heart of the grow-your-own game. No bees, no pollination, no fruit. To ensure that summer sees us picking buckets of passionfruit and barrow-loads of pumpkins we integrate bee-attracting flowers into and around the orchard and vegetable garden.

Read More

How to: Attract Beneficial Insects

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

Help tip the scales in the garden war between the good bugs and the bad guys by planting flowers that attract beneficial insects such as lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic wasps and ladybirds.

Read More

How to: brew compost tea

18 March, 2021  |  Arno King

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!

Read More

How to: build a salad bar

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Our salad bar makes the most of winter’s great salad greens.

Read More

How to: care for azaleas

18 March, 2021  |  Shane Neill

Azaleas bring in spring with a blaze of glory. We love them in hot pinks and bold magentas, in pale pastels and in pure clean white. But in warm subtropical areas these are not set-and-forget plants. To get the most from them gardeners need to pay attention and provide some nurture. Here’s how.

Read More

How to: care for deciduous fruit trees

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Get ahead of the game by using a variety of strategies to prevent pests and diseases attacking fruit trees, such as apples, peaches, nectarines, apricots and figs. Some work now will mean bounteous harvests later!

Read More

How to: care for lawns

18 March, 2021  |  Jake Byrne

With the weather cooling we can back off the mowing but the lawn work is not done. Autumn is a good time to address any problems to ensure that the grass is even greener on the other side of winter.

Read More

How to: choose a chicken

18 March, 2021  |  Claire Bickle

Choosing the best chook for your garden can be confusing. Here Claire Bickle makes it simple for you.

Read More

How to: Christmas colour

18 March, 2021  |  Linda Ross

Pots of poinsettia and ixora are a colourful beginning. Masses of other options are blooming at the local nursery: petunias, fuchsia, begonias, coleus.

Read More

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.

Read More

How to: colour flowers

18 March, 2021  |  Isla Barlow

The stem of a plant works a bit like a straw, sucking up water for its flowers and leaves. To see how this works, try out this fun experiment at home and watch flowers change colour.

Read More

How to: cook spinach pie

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

In Greece local cooks prefer to make their spanokopita (spinach pie) with the mix of wild greens known as horta. To do the same from you own garden pick a mix of spinach, silverbeet, sorrel, endive or other dark leafy greens

Read More

How to: cook with bayleaves

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

The winter cook’s herb supply is much depleted but the noble bay tree is still offering leaves to flavour savoury and sweet dishes. Robin Powell shares some favourites.

Read More

How to: cook with broad beans

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

Cast yourself back a thousand years and the humble broad bean could have made you king of France for the day! 

Read More

How to: cook with cherries

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

Even though only gardeners in cold climates will be picking their own cherries over the summer, we’ll all find ways to celebrate Christmas with a fruit that is still stubbornly, deliciously seasonal.

Read More

How to: cook with lavender

18 March, 2021  |  Robin Powell

Lavender’s flatmate from the hot dry rocky spots of the Mediterranean is rosemary. Both share a fabulous fragrance that scents the garden, especially when summer’s heat draws out the essential oils in the foliage. And both can be thugs in the kitchen: cooks must proceed with caution.

Read More