WALTER Burley Griffin’s vision of a garden city has long given way to the bush capital, which has now been replaced by a concrete jungle as block sizes shrink and towering high-rise developments reduce the […]
IT takes just a few warm days and, suddenly, there’s an explosion of growth in the garden. Bulbs, corms and rhizomes all store energy in various forms during the dormant winter months until nature decides […]
WISTERIA is in all its glory in some places and, in others, coming to the end of its flowering period with its almost-overwhelming fragrance. There are two main varieties of wisteria, W. sinensis (native to […]
LILAC is a hard plant to kill, which means it’s one of those that anyone can grow successfully. It’s almost a given that lilacs, renowned for their colour and fragrance, will do well. Most grow […]
GARDENS shouldn’t be solely focused on plants, but should be fun places for adults and children alike. Today I’m illustrating a couple of fun ideas; one that costs serious money and space to build, and […]
NATURE is truly amazing; no matter how hard the ground, bulbs have a way of pushing their leaves through in places that I cannot remember ever planting. I am also looking at the buds of […]
AS we head towards warmer weather and the prospect of spending more time outdoors, now’s the right time for spring cleaning in the garden. I’ve just taken a large boot load of unwanted garden products […]
ROSES can be pruned at any time, it doesn’t have to be traditionally at the end of August/early September. Some readers, who have attended rose-pruning demonstrations, have been told timing is very important; prune too […]
SPRING is one of the most exciting times in the gardening calendar and the Pieris family, commonly called pearl bush (the panicles of flowers resembling strings of pearls) provides a special delight this time of […]
AS the days get longer and warmer, blossom trees are starting to burst in all their glory, none more so than the spectacular Magnolia stellata or Star Magnolia by our front door. One of my […]
I HAVE been writing a regular gardening column for more than 30 years and one request I receive from time to time is for me to share what I’m doing in our garden in downtown […]
AS spring arrives our national floral emblem, Acacia pycnantha (or Australian Golden Wattle) patiently waits for warmer weather to fully open in flower. More of a small tree rather than a shrub, it is considered […]
LAWNS look understandably sad at present with little or no rain and severe frosts. But will the lawn recover? As in the bush with the severe drought, the grass is still there and with good […]
WITH barely a couple of weeks until the official start of spring there are early blossoms out in abundance, the first being Prunus mume or flowering apricot. As local gardeners know, spring really starts in […]
AS we appear to be having increasingly longer periods of dry weather, it’s worth considering drought-tolerant plants for the garden. While some think them uninteresting and lacking in colour, nothing is further from the truth. […]
A LACK of space is no impediment to enjoying fruit from one’s own trees. There is a range of miniature fruit trees that can be grown in tubs in the ever-so-small garden or on a […]
THE popularity of indoor plants waxes and wanes with an upsurge in popularity at present. Not only here, but quoting from “The Garden”, the journal of the UK Royal Horticultural Society: “For the first time […]
THIS time of the year is perfect for planting trees, if for no better reason than Sunday, July 29, is National Tree Day (or for schools, Friday, July 27). Planet Ark’s first National Tree Day […]
STRAWBERRIES would have to be the world’s most popular fruit and now’s the perfect time to replant strawberries that have been in for more than three or four years or plant new ones. When replanting […]
THERE are more than 220 species of magnolias. The evergreen varieties are mainly from North America and deciduous, with their spectacular flowers, are native from the Himalaya to Japan. At this time of the […]
“What must the Sydney based and essentially nameless and faceless members of the Suburban Land Agency board think of their first year’s effort?” JON STANHOPE doesn’t spare them on Page 3.
IN the dizzying European summer of 1990 a former Canberra public servant took part in a defiant street demonstration in Berlin directed against the looming disappearance of the East German state. The name of this […]
MANIPULATIVE, terrible and fierce, yet William (Billy) McMahon was, until now, the only Australian prime minister who didn’t have a biography written about him. The 250,000-word, 766-page biography, “Tiberius with a Telephone”, by Patrick Mullins […]
3PM UPDATE: MADISON HAS BEEN FOUND SAFE AND WELL, SAY POLICE TEENAGER Madison Clews-Proctor hasn’t been seen since last Thursday, November 8, at her home in Kambah. The 15-year-old contacted her family on Friday but there […]
MORE than 70 per cent of staff at the University of Canberra voted to reject UC management’s new enterprise agreement. The National Tertiary Education Union has been negotiating with UC management for a new agreement since August. […]
