Emily Turner

Heavy clay drowns roots in winter and bakes hard in summer. These floodplain natives and tough exotics thri...

Blossom in late winter comes down to matching the tree to your winter chill. Variety sizes, planting on cla...

Brown crispy edges and tightly rolled leaves are the same plant telling you the same thing two ways. What c...

Heliconias give the biggest tropical payoff of any plant we sell, provided they get warmth, food and water....

English, French, Italian and Allardii lavenders behave very differently in Australian conditions. Here is h...

Roses are easier than their reputation once the calendar is Australian. Position, the winter prune and deep...

August is the last quiet month before bud burst. Here are the pruning, feeding, mulching and planting jobs ...

Salt wind, sandy soil, blazing sun: the conditions that kill most trees are exactly where the native tucker...

Full sun in Australia is not full sun anywhere else. Fifteen plants that genuinely cope, and the one year o...

Heatwaves, drying winds and hungry pests all arrive at once. The watering, mulching and feeding routine tha...

If leaves yellow despite regular feeding, alkaline soil may be locking up nutrients. How to test soil pH an...

Western character with almost no upkeep. The drainage, sun hours and sparing watering routine that keeps a ...

The pattern of the browning tells you the cause. In Australian gardens it is usually heat, wind, water or s...

Some pest repelling plants earn the name and some do not. What lavender, marigolds, citronella and tea tree...

Training a tree flat against a wall turns a metre of garden into a screen, a feature and a fruit crop. What...

Root rot kills more Australian garden plants than any pest. How to tell it from drought, why the cause diff...

Where the yellowing appears, on old growth or new, is the single most useful clue. The deficiencies by symp...

Waterlogging is usually a soil structure problem, not a rainfall problem. How to test your drainage, the fi...

Spills two metres down a wall and thrives on neglect. Why it turns green, and the watering mistake that kil...

Most repeated garden advice was written for the northern hemisphere, and some of it is actively wrong here....

Some companion planting is well supported and some is folklore. Which pairings are worth using in an Austra...

Pulling weeds is the last resort. Understanding their lifecycles, planting dense ground covers and mulching...

Most of what circulates about coffee grounds is wrong. They are close to neutral, mildly fertile and useful...

Almost every pruning mistake is timing. Which plants flower on old wood and which on new, why many natives ...

Watering well is about depth and timing, not a fixed routine. When to water, how to spot over and underwate...

The five usual causes of a plant that will not flower, five less obvious ones, and the specifically Austral...

Autumn beats spring across most of Australia because the tree gets a whole cool season to grow roots before...

That little plastic tag holds everything you need: light, water, mature size, frost tolerance and the botan...

Coffee grounds, eggshells, banana peels, vegetable scraps and tea leaves can all go back into the garden. W...

A long flowering season comes from choosing plants that flower for months, staggering them across the year,...

Day length, temperature, chill and soil moisture set a plant's calendar, and the calendar differs between D...

Shrubs help the plants around them by sheltering birds and insects that eat pests, shading soil and breakin...

Good plant pairings start with plants that want the same conditions. After that, contrast the foliage, laye...

A single hot northerly can scorch a plant that looked perfect the evening before. Here is how to read the d...

Almost every persistent garden problem traces back to soil. How to identify yours in two minutes, and what ...

How to propagate plants from cuttings, division, layering and seed, with the right timing for Australian se...

Eumundi quandong is a narrow, glossy native rainforest tree used for tall screens. Where it grows, how to p...

A garden seat gets used when it has shade, shelter and something worth looking at. How to site a sitting sp...

Most garden damage in Australia is not a pest at all, so rule out sun, wind, salt and root rot first. Then ...

Sustainable gardening in practice: native plants that need less water, compost and manure in place of synth...

Why most suburbs are full of noisy miners and empty of fairy-wrens, and the planting that reverses it: shel...

A colourful garden is planned, not accidental. Choosing a palette, grouping plants by shared needs, and usi...

Bougainvilleas need at least five hours of direct sun to flower well. Watering, pruning after bloom, feedin...

Unlock the secrets to thriving with your spider plant in this guide. Easy tips ensure its lush growth, addi...

The Queensland bottle tree stores water in a swollen trunk and takes drought and frost. Where it grows, how...

Transform your garden with the vibrant variegated trach jasmine for easy ground cover suitable for paths, b...

Ferns fail in Australian gardens for one reason more than any other. Everything else is secondary.

Citrus fruits in every Australian capital if the variety suits the climate. Which lemon, lime, orange or ma...

The forgiving plants to start with, the three mistakes that kill most indoor plants, and the Australian lig...

Soil preparation depends on the soil you have. How to identify sand and clay, what each needs before planti...

Where to start when you are staring at an empty yard: setting goals, choosing the position and getting the ...