If you have sandy soil, you will be well aware of their difficulties in holding both water and nutrition. Gardeners who live in Perth are used to dealing with this issue, and every garden centre, soil and landscaping yard there
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Reducing the heat with vegetation
As the temperature begins to rise and water conservation continues to impact on gardeners, people are watering less and are looking to find alternatives for vegetation. But by using some simple planting techniques you can help to decrease the heat
More...Healthy Soil is Easy
Soil… most people just think of it as dirt, something to grow a few plants in, and maybe something to play in when you are young. However, (healthy) soil is a living, breathing organism, vital for the health and well-being
More...Encouraging native beneficial insects
A healthy garden is full of life, from deep in the soil to the tree tops there should be fungi, bacteria, spiders, insects, worms, and innumerable other living creatures. These all cohabit in a generally harmonious way. Sometimes, however, a
More...Insect Hotels
Beneficial insects are insects you want in your garden, either for pollinating or for predating on pest insects. To encourage them into your garden you can provide them with nesting and hibernating sites, if a garden strewn with dead branches
More...Why your garden matters!
Every garden is its own (or is a unique but connected) ecosystem containing an extraordinary array of living organisms including plants, fungi, bacteria, microbes, insects and animals that all impact on the health and resilience of the living network. We
More...What is Urban Ecology? – A few thoughts from BAAG’s CEO
I have been lucky to have been able to spend much of my working life surrounded by plants; studying and working in the natural environment, in local gardens and in garden centres. Like many of us, I love the opportunity
More...Community Gardens
What is a community garden and what’s the fuss about? There are many fabulous advantages for your community to have a shared garden. If you’re curious, or thinking about getting involved, here are a few aspects of community gardening you
More...Benefits of being in the garden
When I feel blue, or need a distraction from the stresses of life, I head into the garden! Time slows and my mood becomes lighter when my fingers are in the dirt and the intricacies of the world beyond my
More...Starting a gardening group
I love working in the garden. However when you have limited time and/or small children, sometimes the hard yakka you want to put into gardening is pushed down the list of priorities after changing nappies, making a kite, sticking feathers
More...Renovating and sealing ceramic and terracotta garden pots
How to clean and disinfect old ceramic and terracotta garden pots Given enough time, even the best quality ceramic and terracotta garden pots can be marred by mould, dirt stains, watermarks and efflorescence (the salty white bloom that you sometimes
More...Produce Gardening in Small Spaces
We do not all have access to large sunny gardens or even any garden at all. If you would like to grow food at home but feel like you don’t have the room, help is at hand. If you have
More...Fruit Tree Espaliering
Espaliering is a fantastic way to grow trees (including fruit trees) in smaller spaces. It does require regular work and is definitely not recommended for the lazy gardener or those scared of secateurs, however the effort is well worth it. Espaliering
More...Pruning hydrangeas (Melbourne and Victoria)
Sharpen your secateurs and get stuck into one of the most rewarding shrubs to prune. Few shrubs respond as positively to pruning as hydrangeas; old woody and diseased hydrangeas turn into vigorous healthy flowering shrubs after a good rejuvenating prune.
More...Drought Tolerant Produce Plants
With Melbourne’s potential for very hot periods during summer, for exposed positions we need to think about heat tolerant produce plants. Even though there are many garden plants that burn and suffer through the heat without protection, there are also
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