The Garden Clinic

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: grow hydrangeas

18 March, 2021 | Sandra Ross

Hydrangeas are old favourites, yet myths about growing them persist. Sandra clears the air.

How to: grow tulips

18 March, 2021 | Isla Barlow

Find some time this summer holiday to create a wonderful picture of tulips.

How to: grow your vegies on the verge

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

We are fortunate to have a reasonably big space in our garden that we can allocate simply to growing food. Other gardeners make the most of space on a sunny balcony or terrace. If that’s not an option for you either, consider what might done on the verge!

How to: lay a lawn

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Did you know? The average turf backyard captures carbon and produces enough oxygen for a family of four?

How to: lift your courtyard

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

In just one weekend the Garden Clinic team transformed a chilly corner into a welcoming sanctuary, that is simple to pack up and move to a new location when necessary.

How to: lush the lawn

18 March, 2021 | Matthew Carroll

Come the warmer weather and the lawn needs a makeover! Follow these simple steps to grow the lush green carpet of grass you’ve always wanted.

How to: make a spiral topiary

18 March, 2021 | Sandra Ross

A spiral topiary makes just as good a focal point in a small domestic garden as it does in grand gardens like the one shown here.

How to: make a summer vegetable tepee

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

For space saving nothing beats a tepee! A single structure will provide 36kg of cherry tomatoes, cucumber and green beans over a 3 month stretch.

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 Make Magic Mix

18 March, 2021 | 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: overhaul your irrigation system

18 March, 2021 | Matthew Carroll

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

How to: plant bare-rooted plants

18 March, 2021 | 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

18 March, 2021 | 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: propagate begonias

18 March, 2021 | 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

18 March, 2021 | 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: prune a cloud topiary

18 March, 2021 | 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

18 March, 2021 | 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

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: rejuvenate the lawn

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

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

How to: remove rose suckers

18 March, 2021 | 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

18 March, 2021 | 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: save your garden when off on holidays

18 March, 2021 | 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: scare birds

18 March, 2021 | 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

18 March, 2021 | 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: sharpen the pruners

18 March, 2021 | 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: sow seeds

18 March, 2021 | 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: stop snails invading precious pot plants

18 March, 2021 | Matthew Carroll

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

How to: style an ikebana

18 March, 2021 | 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

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: take cuttings

18 March, 2021 | Libby Cameron

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

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.

How to: use plants to deter pests

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Strongly scented herbs planted throughout the garden help put flying insects off their food – whether that’s your treasured plant, food crop, or body!

How to: use seaweed

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

Seaweed is a versatile natural resource that does great work in the garden. We use it on a fortnightly basis to keep plants healthy.

How to: use seaweed in the garden

18 March, 2021 | Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar

In their new book ‘Milkwood’, permaculture gardeners Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar devote a whole chapter to the glories of seaweed. Beyond its uses in the kitchen, seaweed is great in the garden.

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: December

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Summer is upon us now and our gardens need special attension to survive the heat and prolonged dry weather. Here are some jobs to help get the garden through this challenging time.