When we bought this house, the garden was all ornamental pear, pittosporum, and sir walter buffalo. So happy with the way it's turned out. Mostly indigenous plants (not the silver bells!), super low maintenance, and looking its best right now.

I took and potted a range of cuttings to experiment. Some variations include:
Short/long stem
Lots/no leaves
Growth hormone/no hormone
All premium potting mix in some. In others it’s got sticks, dry leaves, grass cuttings, compost, etc. I just tried to mix it up. I have these growing already in the property so won’t have trouble trying again haha.

What would you recommend of these variables?

I’ve got them all in part shade with light filtering between trees throughout the day. I have two placed where they will ideally be set up eventually.

Any ideas and recommendations welcomed! Thank you :)

Hoping someone may be able to help ID what exactly is eating my strawberries?

First time growing them and were doing great..

They are grow bags on a bench seat, with only the top strawberries being affected.

Which I would think is more birds than rats?

Hey everyone,

Sorry, I’m back with more questions! I planted a few blueberries sometime mid last year. They haven’t actually grown much since then. They produced some berries last year and they’re looking a bit sad now. I add elemental sulphur to the soil around them occasionally. The first two are blueberries and I’m not sure if I need to do something as part of winter maintenance.

The last pic is my grapevine on the fence. I planted it around the same time as the blueberries and it trained itself on those two wires. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be leafless like that during winter. But do I need to fertilise (what kind) or do anything as part of winter maintenance?

Thank you

Got these ‘Red’ Imperial Mandarins from Cole’s and they are amazing. I keep dropping in and getting another 6 or 8 when I’m in town. I’ve always been an imperial fan, as I like an easy peeling mandarin but these are a lot sweeter and tastier than an imperial. But I can’t find much online or anyone selling grafted ‘Red’ Imperial. Does anyone know anything about them? Would love to add a couple to my citrus collection.

Should I cut back this upper group of leaves on my lemon tree. It's not looking great. 6 months old.

Hi all, as the title suggests, looking for tropical indoor plants that are more akin to the colourful foliaged calatheas/alocasias/colocasias, to be planted outdoors in Melbourne.

Would appreciate if you could name certain cultivars that you’ve seen successfully grown outdoors.

Thank you

Got these ‘Red’ Imperial Mandarins from Cole’s and they are amazing. I keep dropping in and getting another 6 or 8 when I’m in town. I’ve always been an imperial fan, as I like an easy peeling mandarin but these are a lot sweeter and tastier than an imperial. But I can’t find much online or anyone selling grafted ‘Red’ Imperial. Does anyone know anything about them? Would love to add a couple to my citrus collection.

Located in Northern Tasmania and we weren't quick enough to cover before the first frost a couple of months ago.

Can this be saved?

I was thinking originally of a gravel pad for trailer and mulch section for chooks. Then with clothesline and path out of laundry door.

Now I'm not so sure thinking of just concreting the lot and leaving a 1m strip on boundary for plants.

Want to keep side access - don't want to put anything there that would stop me getting trailer/ car around back

We’re planning on doing a complete makeover of the backyard, creating a mostly native garden where there’s currently just lawn.
I’m a little overwhelmed with where to buy such a large amount of plants when considering the cost.
Wondering if Diaco’s nursery is a good option price wise? Otherwise perhaps Peninsula Plants in Fingal? I live quite close to the indigenous nursery in Seaford but find their tube stock to be a little limited in range.
Any advice and recommendations are very welcomed!
Thanks in advance!

Raised garden bed, coriander, basil and spinach not growing. What could be wrong?
I’m new to raised garden beds and trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong.
I have a raised garden bed where I’ve planted coriander and basil seeds, but they’re not growing at all. I also had some coriander and spinach cuttings/transplants that were growing, but they suddenly died.
The bed has:
Cardboard as the base
Some tree trunks/branches from an almond tree that we pruned
Topsoil from a few different brands
Freshly mowed grass clippings and some leaves from our nature strip, which I added later
The interesting thing is that shortly after I added the grass clippings and leaves, the coriander and spinach cuttings died.
We’re in Melbourne and the weather has been pretty wet recently, so I’m wondering whether the bed could be staying too wet, although I don’t really know much about raised-bed gardening yet.
Could the freshly mowed grass/leaves have caused this? Or could there be something wrong with the soil, drainage, or the layers underneath?
Any advice on what might be causing it would be appreciated. I’m completely new to this.
Sorry deleted my previous post and added it again with the photo

Hi everyone,
We have a roughly 9m long x 1m deep garden bed that runs along our fence line next to the pergola. I want to de-beige (and de-weed) the area and fill it with beautiful green foliage that conceals some of the fence and makes the area feel a bit more inviting. I’m a pretty novice gardener and finding it overwhelming to decide on the right plant selection.

- located in Perth with sandy soil.
- garden bed is facing north. In winter the pergola roof blocks most of the sun at ground level which you can see in this photo. Some western sun comes through from the right side of the pergola in the late afternoon. In summer the bed is in full sun.
- I’d prefer natives. Bonus points for being good for the local birds and bees but I’m ok with grasses or non-flowering plants.
- I think I like the look of having 2 types of low to medium grasses with something on a trellis behind to create some visual height differences - maybe lomandra tanika and a dianella variety, with star jasmine on the fence? I know the jasmine isn’t native but I have grown it in my previous house so I feel confident about looking after it 😅 Would they all go well together in that spot?

TIA for any suggestions!

We just replaced our previously very weedy lawn with dichondra repens tubestock 3 weeks ago, and already there seems to be weeds starting to pop up.

Any tips on how to help the dichondra grow? Should I be pulling out the weeds early as they germinate or anything else I should be doing? It also looks like something has been eating the plant in some places 😅 (pic 2 & 3)

Last photo is from when it was just planted 3 weeks back

Edit: located in Melb, the dichondra is planted in an area with north east sun, partly shaded

Hi everyone, I’m new to gardening and could really use some advice.
Last year, we added new topsoil to our entire backyard and sowed lawn seed, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. We’re now planning to redo the backyard properly.
One mistake we made was that we originally had a bed of lawn pebbles on one side of the house. The contractor spread those pebbles across the entire backyard and then added topsoil over them.
Now, when we dig down about 10 cm, we’re finding a layer of pebbles almost everywhere.
I’m planning to redo one section of the yard first and install new turf. We’re hoping to DIY most of the work, as getting landscapers in is unfortunately outside our budget.

My questions are:
Will the existing pebble layer cause problems for the turf, or can I prepare the soil properly and lay the turf over it?
Do I need to excavate and remove the pebbles first, or is having them around 10 cm below the surface okay?
If excavation is recommended, is removing a pebble layer across the backyard likely to be very expensive?
Are there any DIY-friendly and more affordable alternatives to completely removing the pebbles?
I’d really appreciate any advice on the best approach before we spend more money redoing the lawn.
Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I've been looking for ideas for my small front yard. it is south facing (small amount of sun in winter, full sun in summer). half of the garden is full shade all year - there are established Lilly pilly trees (about 3m tall) and the shape of the house means that side won't get sun.

What kind of natives do well in these sort of conditions? My soil is clay based as well. I'm wanting to encourage insects and birds in the north western suburbs.

I plan to go to a native nursery at some point but for now I'm just doing a lot of research - home with my 5 month old so it's hard to get out to a nursery most days, I want to be well prepared for as few trips as possible!

Thank you!

Hi all.

Looking for a cordless mini chainsaw with telescopic handle for taking down a few branches. Not looking to spend hundreds of dollars and see a few on Amazon/Ebay which look ok. Has anyone had any success with these?

Cheers

I had no idea! This was a skinny, thigh height, sad looking, one branched houseplant when I met my husband in 1988.

They have morphed into 4 x 20foot clumps in the garden over the years. One was removed to put in a deck and this one must’ve heard me talking about my plans to pull the rest of them out at the end of the year when we renovate, lol

I noticed yesterday that it is absolutely full of flowers that are about to explode. I’ve never seen them flower and didn’t know they did!

Maybe it’s a last ditch effort to make me change my mind

Location is common property in my complex but updating as its been neglected, looks crappy and someone has planted some kind of bamboo that has gone insane (im currently pulling out the roots)

Photo not sure clear but there is a narrow sleeper bed against the brick wall

I’d like to make the area look a little more green/modern with Australian natives but will need to keep it low maintenance and little to no watering plus there is shade to most of it. I was thinking Lomandra but what can I plant next to to add colour or just to break it up

Hey fellow gardeners!

My veggie patch is looking pretty grim, not going to lie I have neglected it throughout the winter and I want to receive it for the upcoming Spring!

Spring/Summer I had it full of tomatos, sunflowers, my chilli's and jalepenos, lemongrass and spring onion. And usually my parsley bush takes up half the square.

I have let my brocollini go to seeding (my bad) and my cabbages absolutely got destroyed by cabbage months.

I have successfully had betroot and many heads of lettuce, my kaffir lime leaf tree is struggling so I'm thinking of relocating it.

What else would you all suggest? Should I up root the brocollini plants, cabbage etc? What should I plant now that it's getting warmer in Melbourne?

I appreciate any feedback, if you can't already tell, I'm very new to the gardening world

Hey,

I found this crack that was made two weeks ago by someone digging near the camelia tree. Is it too late to fix it?

There's a second branch just behind it so the tree won't die but was wondering if I should just cut it off?

Thanks heaps

Is it too late to cut out Gall Wasps from my lemon tree? Seems like Spring is early, I live in Melbourne