How to...

​How to: sow seed indoors

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. 

A lesson in clipped hedges

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.

Black Spot on Roses

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. 

Bugwatch: Bronze Orange Bugs

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!

Bulb Time

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

Climbing Roses

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.

Flower Farm: Summer jobs

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

Flower farm: Winter jobs

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

How to plant a bare-rooted rose

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 prune roses

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!

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

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:

How to: attract bees into your garden

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.

How to: Attract Beneficial Insects

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.

How to: brew compost tea

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: build a salad bar

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

How to: care for azaleas

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.

How to: care for deciduous fruit trees

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!

How to: care for lawns

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.

How to: choose a chicken

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

How to: Christmas colour

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

How to: clip balls

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: colour flowers

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.

How to: cook spinach pie

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

How to: cook with bayleaves

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.

How to: cook with broad beans

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

How to: cook with cherries

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.

How to: cook with lavender

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.

How to: cook with wattleseed

It’s said that there is a wattle in flower somewhere in Australia every day of the year. Not all of the seed of these 1000-odd species are edible, indeed some a slightly toxic, but there is evidence that aborigines ate the seeds from at least 120 of them. Wattleseed has a unique fragrance and flavour – mocha-chocolateyy, smoky and nutty all at once.

How to: create a dazzling basket

No one does a hanging basket of summer flowers quite like the English, and, inspired by a recent trip, we’re determined to give it a good shake this summer. We’ve included here some favourite basket-happy plants with the right cascading habit - and some options for really hot spots. The thing is to design an arrangement like a posy, with a mix of textures and colours. Have fun, be bold, try something new, and toss it all at the end of the season.

How to: create a low-allergen garden

For many Australians spring launches a misery of sore eyes and runny nose. Linda Ross lines up the perpetrators of this annual horror and reveals the safest, low-allergy choices for the garden.

How to: create a water wonderland

You don’t need a big space to have your own water feature: a sunny spot on a balcony or in a courtyard will do. You can use any container, as long as it hasn’t had chemicals in it that would kill the fish. Isla made her water feature in a half wine barrel. Here’s how:

How to: create an orchid tree

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

How to: deal with zucchini overflow

What we love about growing zucchini – it is so generous you need to harvest every day all through the summer – is what drives us crazy about growing zucchini - you have to harvest every day all through the summer! Around about now gardeners are on the lookout for some clever new ways with zucchini.

How to: declutter your pots

Tips on how to display your collection of plants.

How to: decorate with water lilies

Waterlilies are shy until the mercury hits 30, and then they unfold into beautiful blooms. We grow them in large bowls and pots, and pick them to decorate the table through summer.

How to: divide upside down orchids

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! We checked it out and found the basket lining had disintegrated and the pine bark mix had completely decomposed. It was time to divide and conquer!

How to: enjoy peonies

Are these spring’s most romantic flower? The small round buds open to a gorgeous, generous, glamorous semi-double or double flowers. Shades range from white through various pale pink blushes to a rich dark scarlet.

How to: entice a cyclamen to flower again

A pot of cyclamen is a favourite winter present, but by now you might be wondering what to do with it. Don't throw it away. A cyclamen will repeat its beautiful dispaly year after year if you treat it right.

How to: fix geraniums

We recognise that these are properly pelargoniums, but as most gardeners know them and love them as geraniums, that’s fine by us. The most popular type are the zonals, identified by the ‘zones’ or patterns on their leaves. We also love ivy-leafed types for their indestructible nature and perfect hanging basket habit; and the scented geraniums whose foliage exhibits such a wealth of different fragrances. No matter which you choose to grow, keep them in tip-top shape with this handy guide to common problems and remember to refresh your collection every few years with fresh cuttings.

How to: Fix The Compost

Compost can be the greatest free source of nutrient for your garden. Here our very own compost queen, Sandra Ross answers some of the most frequently-asked compost questions.

How to: fix the lawn

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

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 lemon

If our hotlines here at the Garden Clinic, and on Garden Clinic Radio on 2GB and 2UE are anything to go by, lemons cause gardeners much heartache. We’re here to help! Here are solutions to six common lemon problems.

How to: fix your roses

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: garden under trees

Growing plants beneath established trees can be challenging. There’s no direct light, roots take up space and water, the soil becomes dry and compacted, and to compound the problem, the tree roots sucks up the available nutrition, leaving precious little behind. 

How to: get to know your tools

Ever wondered which tools you should use to do different jobs around the garden?

How to: grow a 'coral reef'

Such a simple idea – a coral reef garden full of dazzling succulents – and so fun! Philip Withers’ imitation of a world seen through water thrilled visitors to the Australian Garden Show Sydney and won him the people’s choice award.

How to: grow a living screen

Judiciously planted privacy screens can create excellent neighbourly relations. Green screens or hedges are a much better choice than a 4m fence. They offer essential privacy in this crazy overlooked world, and also contribute a tremendous feeling of sanctuary and enclosure.

How to: grow a salad bowl

Eden, Isla and Skye amazed their school friends when they took their own salad greens for lunch. Lettuce show you how easy it is!

How to: grow aloes

The dazzle of fiery candles shown on this page comes courtesy of modern hybrid aloes. These plants are a great way to add colour to the winter garden.