Isaac Olson

A productive backyard is a layout problem before it is a gardening problem. Map the sun, anchor with citrus...

A summary of what the Australian violet societies, the AVSA, The Gesneriad Society and the RHS publish on g...

Grass keeps a septic land application area working; trees, edibles, paving and vehicles can damage it. This...

What Australian poisons information centres, a children's hospital network, Kidsafe and the early childhood...

Koalas feed on a short local list of eucalypts. The food trees we grow that appear on the NSW Government, Q...

An evergreen Australian climber that will cover a fence in two seasons and flower from early spring right t...

Chinese fringe flower holds burgundy foliage all year and flowers from late winter. Which cultivar to plant...

Brown tips, no flowers and sudden wilting are the three peace lily complaints. Light, water quality, winter...

Dietes flowers in waves from spring to autumn on almost no water and tolerates clay, sand, salt and frost. ...

Winter roses flower in shade from May to September. Which types suit your climate, where to plant them, and...

Nandina is not a bamboo, does not run, and colours scarlet through the cold months. A guide to the dwarf cu...

Indian hawthorn flowers in late winter, handles salt wind and heat, and asks for almost nothing. Here is ho...

Aloes flower in winter, drink almost nothing and feed every honeyeater in the street. The hardest part of g...

Cycads have survived 200 million years by being nearly impossible to kill. In the garden they trade speed f...

Nothing transforms a shaded corner like a tree fern. One trunk, a two metre canopy of lace, and suddenly th...

There is a reason every landscape architect in the country specifies lomandra. It is the plant that keeps l...

Fast growing, drought tough and dressed in gold every winter and spring, wattles are the easiest way to put...

Blue flowers, purple berries and foliage from silver to cherry-flushed green. Dianella is the strappy nativ...

Velvet flowers, honeyeaters on tap and months of colour. Kangaroo paws are easy once you learn the one brut...

When an azalea flowers, it does not hold back. Here is how to give it the acidic soil, dappled light and li...

Indoors in a dim corner or outside in baking sun, yuccas keep their architectural looks on a watering sched...

One good agave does the work of a whole garden bed: bold, symmetrical and alive on rainfall alone. The tric...

Sandy, compacted or nutrient-poor ground does not have to limit a garden. Natives, hardy shrubs and tough t...

Overcrowded beds, narrow paths, blocked sightlines and too much paving all shrink a garden visually. Ten co...

Dichondra 'Silver Falls', Cousin It, Pigface and Hardenbergia spill over hard edges and soften stone. Plant...

Rooftops are windy, hot and weight limited, which narrows the plant list fast. Container planting, screenin...

Outdoor kitchens, less lawn, more natives and materials that weather with age. The garden design shifts sha...

Swap soil for clay balls and a water reservoir: a cleaner, lower-maintenance way to grow peace lilies, poth...

Which tropical-looking plants genuinely tolerate hot wind and full sun, which ones shred, and how to lay ou...

River red gum, spotted gum, kurrajong and more: wide-canopied trees that shelter livestock and hold up in e...

Professional gardens look balanced because they are built in tiers. Background, mid layer and groundcover, ...

Five tough performers for spring planting, from Lomandra and Agapanthus to Westringia, with the light, wate...

Overwatering is the most common winter mistake, even in mild Brisbane and Sydney winters. How often to wate...

Native gardens are cheap to run once established, but only if the groundwork is right. This is the full seq...

Let’s be honest: keeping indoor plants alive isn’t always as easy as it looks on Instagram. But the good ne...

Warm colours energise and cool colours settle. How the hues in your garden and indoor plants affect mood, s...

Plants do signal to each other. The popular version of that story has outrun the evidence. Here is the hone...

A shrub is low maintenance only where it suits the site. Which shrubs need the least work in each set of co...

Renting, moving or setting up a pop-up? Ten plants that travel well, forgive a missed watering and make a t...

Shade in a few seasons rather than a few decades. Fast growing natives and exotics for Australian gardens, ...

Which orchids grow outdoors where in Australia, and the light, watering, potting mix and feeding that keep ...

Plants need 17 essential elements, and each does a different job. A look at photosynthesis, water movement ...

A solid fence does not block wind so much as launch it. What to plant, and how to lay a windbreak out prope...

Beach spider lily carries scented white flowers above strappy leaves and takes salt, sand and heat. Where i...

Lantana, mimosa pigra and bitou bush all spread far beyond where they were wanted. How invasive species tak...

A crisp edge is the cheapest way to make a garden look designed. Which plants hold the line, how far apart ...

Cousin It softens retaining walls and covers slopes that cannot be mown. It is also slower to establish tha...

Mature height, sun and frost tolerance for eight ornamental grasses and strappy plants, plus the two things...

Before the first storms hit, thin your tree canopies, reinforce stakes, clear drainage and move pots underc...

The six signs of too little light, the four signs of too much, why northern hemisphere aspect advice is bac...

Variegated foliage lifts a shaded corner all year round. It also behaves differently under Australian sun, ...

Plants can be arranged as artwork rather than decoration. Choosing species for texture and colour, then des...

Seaside daisy flowers for most of the year in sun, poor soil and salt wind, and it seeds itself around. Whe...

City gardens live in pots, on balconies and in whatever light the building allows. The hardy perennials, su...

Every step on an outdoor staircase gets different light. How to match succulents, ferns and climbers to eac...

Some of the most remarkable plant histories in the world are Australian. The Wollemi pine, foxtail palm, bu...

Maturity is a stage, not an age: a seedling, a sapling and a young tree each look and behave differently, a...

Salt spray, sandy soil and constant wind rule out most plants. The hardy picks for each exposure zone, how ...

A shaded path is cooler, quieter and far nicer to walk. Choosing the right tree comes down to canopy densit...

A plant is the rare Christmas gift still alive next December. Ideas sorted by budget and by recipient, incl...

A border is one plant repeated along the front of a bed. Which low plants suit sun, shade, paving and the c...

A balcony is harsher than almost any garden bed. Why plants fail up there, and what genuinely copes.

Colourful perennials, an evergreen backbone and native flowering shrubs: a simple planting formula that lif...

Learning how to prevent and treat windburn on plants is crucial for garden health. Understanding its causes...

A low-maintenance garden is a design decision, not a plant list. Six approaches that cut weekly work to nea...

Kidney weed is a native groundcover that makes a soft green carpet in shade, between pavers and in place of...

Transform your space with plants for ground cover offering elegant foliage that captivates both the aesthet...

Crassula arborescens undulatifolia, the ripple jade, is a slow, sculptural succulent with wavy blue-grey le...

The plant behind almost every crisp green wall in Australia, and the thing it does at ten years old that no...

Most indoor plants fail because of the room, not the owner. A room-by-room guide to matching plants to the ...

Understanding how to repot your plants correctly will help them flourish, showing signs such as roots emerg...

What "low light" really means in an Australian home, the seven plants that cope with it, and the watering a...

A north or west-facing front garden is the hardest position on most Australian blocks and exactly where cac...

Swapping lawn for natives cuts mowing and watering and brings birds in. How to kill the grass without herbi...

Shaded ground is where most Australian gardens look worst. What to plant, sorted by how much foot traffic t...

Grass under a tree competes for light, water and nutrients. These shade-tolerant and drought-hardy varietie...

First impressions form in seconds. How to use planters, layered foliage and colour at an entrance so the fr...