How to...

How to: make fruit ice-blocks

10 February 2015 | Linda Ross

When it’s sweltering outside and the kids need some cool relief, homemade fruity ice-blocks are the answer. When they’ve been demolished, ask the children to help make a new batch, ready for the next hot afternoon.

How to: make 'Grassy Heads'

15 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Kids can make their own grass head person or maybe even a monster to scare friends and parents!

How to: make heart-shaped topiary

24 February 2015 | Isla Barlow

Topiary is the garden art of trimming plants into shapes. You can make geometric shapes like balls or cones, and animal shapes like peacocks or chickens - even elephants! Isla decided on a heart for her topiary treasure.

How to: make living art

17 March 2015 | Isla Barlow

Eden, Isla and Skye create cool living sculptures from plants that live on air.

How to: make moss art

13 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Graffiti is so much more appealing when it’s green! Toronto is the home of moss graffiti but we think it’s worth bringing home. In fact when we posted about moss wall art our Facebook friends were thrilled. In case you missed that, here’s how to do it.

How to: make pistou

19 February 2015 | Robin Powell

The difference between a pistou and a pesto is pine nuts. The Italians use them, and the French (who took up the basil and garlic paste when Italian migrants moved into Provence in the 19th century) don’t. Typically a pistou is served with a soup made from summer vegetables and white beans.

How to: Make Potting Mix

01 October 2015 | Linda Ross

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

How to: make rose petal jam

03 March 2015 | Robin Powell

Life’s good when we stop to smell the roses; and even better when we stop to eat them! Scones fresh from the oven, spread with fragrant rose petal jam and cream, and shared with friends in the garden: what could be finer!

How to: make rosella jam

18 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Rosella is a fascinating member of the hibiscus family grown for its delicious calyx which makes irresistible jam. Linda Ross tells how it’s done.

How to: make sweet chilli jam

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

This recipe is easy to increase to meet your chilli surplus. Every year I team up with my father-in-law for our Chilli Jam Day - We turn six kilograms of chilli into 25 jars of delicious ruby-red sticky jam.

How to: make tabouli

26 February 2015 | Robin Powell

I like a tabouli that is mostly green with herbs, not beige with grains, but you can adjust the balance to suit your own palate. Serve it with lamb backstraps that have been rubbed with ground cumin, olive oil and salt then barbecued. Add a dollop of yoghurt or baba ganoush for a sensational late summer meal.

How to: make the most of mint

03 March 2015 | Robin Powell

The zingy freshness of mint smells of summer. It adds life and lightness to salads, both sweet and savoury and is indispensable in any number of summer cocktails and mocktails.

How to: make tomato ketchup

18 December 2015 | Alex Elliott-Howery & James Grant

Try this ketchup just once and you and the kids will never go back to shop-bought again. Spice it up with chilli or smoked paprika if you like. The recipe makes six 250ml jars.If you are cooking to share with friends and consume within weeks there is no need to heat process the sauce, but if you’d like to store the ketchup for up to two years, you need to protect against bacterial growth by heat-processing

How to: make up a Magic Mix

08 December 2016 | Robin Powell

At a Garden Clinic class held at Honeysuckle Nursery in Mosman we wondered aloud at all the plants bursting with health and vitality, with shiny, glossy leaves and so much energy they seemed about to leap off the shelves. The answer? This Magic Mix!

How to: make vegetable stock

17 March 2015 | Linda Ross

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.

How to: mix the best salad dressings

20 March 2015 | Robin Powell

Dress summer salads fresh from the garden in something new. We asked three of our favourite cooks to share their best-ever dressing.

How to: overhaul your irrigation system

15 May 2015 | Matthew Carroll

Here's how to give your irrigation system a once over.

How to: pickle olives

12 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Olives are one of those foods that conjure a sense of awe about the culinary curiosity of our forebears. Now is the time to make like the ancients and soak down olives for enjoying over winter.

How to: plant a deciduous tree

17 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Never grown a deciduous fruit tree? Now’s the time!

How to: plant bare-rooted plants

30 April 2015 | Linda Ross

In winter trees and roses are often sold ‘bare-rooted’. They are simply a skeleton of stems, with the bare roots often wrapped in hessian or plastic for protection.

How to: plant propagation

06 March 2015 | Isla Barlow

Want plants for free? Winter is the right time of year to take cuttings from established plants to create new ones.

How to: preserve lemons

27 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Winter’s gorgeous harvest of lemons offers steaming lemon delicious puddings, and zesty additions to juices, stews, and salad dressings. But to really extend the glory of the harvest, try preserving the lemons in salt to use for the rest of the year.

How to: press flowers

03 March 2015 | Isla Barlow

Isla and her friends Abbey and Elise chose some of spring’s prettiest blooms to press and turn into cards for Christmas.

How to: propagate begonias

28 May 2015 | Sandra Ross

You don’t often see these plants for sale in commercial nurseries, so the best way to introduce them into your garden is to find a friend who is willing to share, and practice your propagation skills.

How to: propagate hibiscus

16 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Many of the most exciting hibiscus are found in gardens rather than in garden centres, so it’s handy to know how to propagate your own plants.

How to: protect against fruit fly

03 March 2015 | Jake Byrne

The most feared pest of the fruit and vegetable grower is the Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni). Hard work turns to horror when fruit is full of fruit fly grubs. Follow these tips to ensure that cutting open your home-grown treasure is thrilling rather than chilling.

How to: prune a camellia

28 February 2019 | 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 a cloud topiary

13 February 2015 | Graham Ross

After decades of admiring beautiful specimens of cloud-pruned trees in China and Japan, I finally decided to create my own cloud topiary. When our editors discovered what I’d done they asked me to write about it.

How to: prune angels trumpet

13 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Angels trumpets (brugmansia) are native to the subtropical forests of Brazil and Chile. There they grow beneath other trees in an unruly and tangled mess of branches, illuminated by those sensational flowers.

How to: prune climbing roses

23 August 2017 | 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: rejuvenate the lawn

16 February 2015 | Robin Powell

It’s time to refresh tired, stressed turf and transform it into lush, green lawn.

How to: remove rose suckers

20 March 2015 | Sandra Ross

Rose suckers can overtake a precious rose if you don’t act early. Sandra Ross explains how to identify and remove them.

How to: repair a patchy lawn

20 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Autumn is a great time to oversow a balding lawn, grown patchy from the extremes of summer weather - and holiday entertaining!

How to: rid the lawn of pests

14 May 2015 | Matthew Carroll

Keep an eye out for the following invaders of your lawn to keep it in tiptop condition this summer.

How to: save your garden when off on holidays

14 May 2015 | Linda Ross

We’re all going on a summer holiday - and the garden is staying behind! But with a little forward planning your garden can be just as lovely when you return as it was before you left.

How to: say 'Holidays!' with flowers

19 February 2015 | Robin Powell & Linda Ross

In the dictionaries of florigraphy there are floral choices for expressing emotions as complex as a tepid affection (daffodils!) and appreciation of loyalty (violets) but there is no floral choice expressing the sentiment ‘Yay it’s holiday time!’ To redress the lack, here’s our choice of the top 5 flowers that wave happy holiday flags though summer.

How to: scare birds

18 March 2015 | Linda Ross

This autumn don’t lose your precious fruit harvest to the birds. These are our favourite – proven! – techniques.

How to: set up a hen house

09 August 2016 | Claire Bickle

Thinking about keeping chooks? Good plan. But before you put in an order for fluffy little chickens, get the henhouse right. Whether you are choosing a ready-made option, or building your own from new or recycled materials, here’s what you need to know to create a happy home for your hens.

How to: set up a worm farm

15 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Linda caught up with some school students using the power of the worm to decrease their waste, increase their vegetable harvest and raise money for their school. Here she shares some tips on worm farming.

How to: shade veg

20 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Making shade on extremely hot days is important for vegie plant health.

How to: sharpen the pruners

13 February 2015 | Shane Neill

A good crisp cut is one of the joys of pruning. Blunt tools not only deprive you of this simple pleasure but do a poor job and damage your plants.

How to: soften a driveway

19 February 2015 | Shane Neil

Driveways are a necessary practicality for most of us and all too often they are uninspiring. Clever plant choices can bring the area back to life, softening the look of all that concrete or brick and creating a space that really does welcome you home.

How to: sow seeds

15 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Start planning in winter to sow seed for summer. There are two ways to raise vegetables from seed: sow them directly into the soil in which they are to grow; or raise them under cover in your house or greenhouse.

How to: sow wildflowers

26 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Our bush wildflowers make a stunning display. Now is the time to sow wildflowers for a swathe of colour through your own garden.

How to: stop snails invading precious pot plants

15 May 2015 | Matthew Carroll

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

How to: Strike a Queen of the Night cutting

03 May 2016 | 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 an ikebana

05 September 2018 | Linda Ross

The key difference between an ikebana approach to flower arranging and a Western style is that in ikebana the focus is on line and space rather than mass. Instead of adding more flowers to make it look better, ikebana is about what can be taken away. The space between the elements is as important as the elements themselves.

How to: style balcony pots

26 August 2019 | 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: take cuttings

20 March 2015 | Libby Cameron

When you have an hour, take cuttings of favourite plants.

How to: understand humates

31 January 2018 | Arno King

Humates are prehistoric (20-50 million year old) decomposed organic matter, which is why they are sometimes referred to as ‘dinosaur compost’. They are increasingly being used by gardeners as a soil additive - with impressive results. In fact you may already be using humates on your garden as they are a component in many high-quality fertilisers.

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