Gardening Basics

Capsicums love our climate.

Growing colourful capsicum

January 2022

These beauties come in a vibrant array of shapes, colours and flavours, and with careful nurturing can be an essential part of your summer vegie patch, writes Helen McKerral.

Growing plants that are indigenous to your area will help attract native bees.

Encouraging native bees

January 2022

If you follow these basic principles in your garden, native bees and other beneficial insects will know they’re welcome, writes Karen Sutherland.

'Gympie Gold' cucumber.

Cucumber: a salad essential

December 2021

Simon Webster loves his cucumbers and has had bumper harvests over the years. Read on for his tips for growing this summer salad essential.

Teddy bear bee (Amegilla bombiformis)

Bring in the bees

December 2021

There's heaps to do in the summer garden, including encouraging bees to visit and stay. Our horticultural experts have some tips to help you take care of these precious pollinators.

Jian Liu's Melbourne garden is a productive space, teeming with life and colour.

Gardening success in Melbourne

November 2021

Jian Liu has gone from a Beijing concrete jungle to a lush Melbourne backyard, where she and her husband have created a wonderful food forest.

Beach Bananas

Native plants for indoors

November 2021

There’s a stack of Australian native plants from rainforest areas that are naturally suited to low light, so are perfect for growing indoors, writes Karen Sutherland.

Dwarf pineapples.

Get started with pineapples

November 2021

Growing a pineapple can be as simple as twisting the top off an existing fruit and planting it. 

You can mix up different varieties of zinnias for a colourful garden.

Plant colourful summer zinnias

November 2021

Looking for an easygoing plant that doesn’t mind the heat of summer and does equally well in sprawling gardens or containers on balconies? Zinnias are the answer. 

'Majorca Pink' rosemary.

Growing rosemary

October 2021

Rosemary is an incredibly versatile and beautiful plant, writes Penny Woodward. It attracts birds and insects, flowers in winter and lifts the spirit if drunk as a tea.

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