I had a fantastic time speaking at Bess Flowers in Paddington a few weeks ago, surrounded by stunning native flowers and great company! I spoke about growing natives in urban settings, as Bess had a lot of customers who had asked about growing Australian plants in their gardens. To finish up, we did a demonstration […]

Deep (Long Stem) Planting In Action This month, I want to show you what I think are some inspiring ways to mitigate climate change, whilst also growing beautiful native plants. With the planet in a more critical state than ever, planting trees and shrubs is a fantastically simple way to stabilise soils, store carbon, provide […]

The Worm Lab Onion Experiment My informal composting and worm lab has been a busy place these past few months! During the month of June, I put onion to the test in a few of my worm farms to try to bust the myth that worms hate onion in a more graphic way for those […]

Mad About Dirt: What a fun weekend event this was, starting at Narara Valley high school on the Central Coast NSW and then heading to Narara Eco Village for the afternoon session and a more in depth session on Sunday. The weekend was dedicated to dirt and learning more about this amazing substance that we […]

Creating an Australian Native Garden Using Tube Stock Have a look at this garden, which is being purposefully created to be a refuge for smaller birds, away from the larger more aggressive birds that also frequent their garden. A habitat within a habitat! It was a bare blank canvas a short 5 months ago, then […]

Kangaroo Paw Makeover -Going From Drab To Fab In Five Minutes Kangaroo Paws are a magnificent addition to any Australian garden. They come in many different varieties, sizes and colours. Their dense foliage and unique flowers can really give that ‘wow factor’ to your garden. But around Autumn, people will ask me what they can […]

In light of recent articles about the rapid decline of insect numbers, I’d like to take the opportunity in this month’s newsletter to look at practical ways we can personally help. There are many things we can do on an individual level, whether you live in a terrace or apartment with no back garden, a […]

It’s been a busy Spring for me, so apologies that there have been no newsletters for a while. I’ve been working away on plans for my property, plenty of horticultural therapy in my garden and out bushwalking, and on some exciting projects I look forward to sharing more about in the future. One of the projects I […]

Winter Frost Going from the warmth of the top end of Australia on my last tour, and now being back in crisp and cool Tasmania, I was sent this question which seemed appropriate as I went from t-shirts to jumpers and jackets:  Q- I have a small kangaroo paw which has been flowering for months. Had a frost two […]

Using Native Plants in Place Of Exotics I love exploring creative ways to use Australian native plants in place of exotics. Working on ideas for my new plot down in Tasmania is proving to be an exciting opportunity to experiment with garden design in a different climate using a range of native plant cultivars as […]