Brian and Kaylene (founders of Aussie Gardener) celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary with a little getaway down to Merribee Gardens on the NSW South Coast. Merribees history Merribee was originally part of Alexander Berry's 1850s estate. Located on the southern side of the mighty Shoalhaven River. Merribee has been part of the local dairy farming community from early settlement. Richard and Lucy Marshall purchased the property in 2000 when it was mostly empty pastureland with some buildings in poor condition. With a lot of hard work they have turned it into a show garden that feature ..read more

Welcome to Episode 5 of our Veggie Classes! Today we are going to look back at the progress of our seedlings and learn when is the right time to plant them out and how to prepare the beds ready. We'll be discussing plant spacing, whether to add manure and how  to give your seedlings the best start in their new home.  Thanks for joining in with all 5 episodes. Your thumbs must be getting greener by the minute!  We mention amgrow plant starter. This product has been discontinued so now we use a half strength seaweed solution. see below. Brian and Kaylene :-) p.s. The Communi ..read more

Welcome to Episode 2 of our Veggie Classes! Today we are going to look and planning out your veggie beds and deciding on whether you can use the soil you already have, or whether it would be best to put in raised beds.  Since filming this episode we have added another planter bag option that is a step down from the big one. Scroll down to see them.  More than 50,000 families have signed up to our FREE veggie classes which is very exciting for us. Our goal is to see 100,000 Aussie families start growing their own food in these coming months. Help us achieve that by spreading the ..read more

Here's a little inspiration for you.  This is our Tuscan themed garden that was inspired from photos of gardens in Europe and is made of rustic materials to give the feel that it has always been there.  When we first bought our property in Dural NSW, it was just overgrown grass and remnants of the previous tenants who had a thing for horses.  There was buried star pickets, bits of wire in the grass making it hard to mow and big Scotch thistles everywhere. No doubt lots of snakes but we were probably too excited and naive to worry about them. Thankfully we didn't meet.  ..read more

Kaylene and I completed a little project in the veggie patch yesterday that was very satisfying.  Simple enough for anyone to do and will be great for growing climbing beans and cucumbers.  See the details below.  I've laid out all  the materials and why we used each one so you can avoid the mistakes we started to make.  Brian :-)  p.s. If you find this article helpful, share it with your gardening friends and introduce them to Aussie Gardener too.  Material List 2 x Star Pickets 2.4m ht 2 sheets of concrete reo mesh 7mm diameter  1800mm x 1000mm&n ..read more

Take a look at these Broccoli plants and heads starting to form. This excites me because each leaf is perfect, the plants are thriving, and in a growing space of 65cm wide we have 4 broccoli plants happily growing. These are in a black geofelt planter getting 2 min of irrigation a day via an automated timer. They are covered with a Pestfree Mini which is fully protecting them from white cabbage moth and other pests. Normally when planting in a veggie patch I would have the broccoli spaced about 60cm apart, whereas in the geofelt planter we are able to plant 4 in the ..read more

Fruit Fly - Please help A question I received today from Abdullah about fruit tree pests (fruit fly) Good Morning Brian It is a long time I have been receiving your emails and following Today I would like to share the issues I have been facing for the last couple of years in my back yard garden I have planted 1 Peach tree, 1 Apricot and 5 pomegranates which bears fruits but none of them were useable. Before ripening, they were full of worms inside. I have done fungicide 2 times a year and pesticide many times but never been effective and through discussions, was told it is fruit flie ..read more

If you have got the exciting task of planning out a vegetable garden, rather than inheriting one from the previous occupants, it is worth taking a few moments to really think about the most effective and practical design for the space you have available. Read on to find out the 5 mistakes commonly made when starting out in gardening for vegetables and how you can turn them into a positive with a bit of creative thinking. Mistake No. 1 Putting the Veggie patch in a spot where no one sees it. In every yard there is usually that one neglected spot, tucked away in a corner or where you keep th ..read more

It’s the Queen of the Greens and yet most people aren’t eating it. How many foods can you say are Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, Anti Cancer and has Vitamins A, C and K, Iron, potassium, calcium, folic acid and plenty of fibre. Kale is related to Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts as part of the Brassicaceae family. The main difference though is it doesn’t produce a ‘head’ like its fellow siblings. It’s easy to grow and you can keep picking leaves off all through the season which will encourage it to sprout new ones. It’s also tolerant of frosts and in fact cold weather ..read more

You know that big patch of grass you have in your front yard? The one you mow every Saturday morning when you'd rather be doing something else. What if you decided to ditch the grass and instead turn your front lawn into a big veggie patch that will not only feed your family but also grow a little extra to share with neighbours. It's a bit of a radical idea because in Australia we are so attached to the idea of the front yard being green lawn… but times are changing. Kids are spending more time indoors (unfortunately) and the grass is no longer getting any use as a cricket pitch or footy tr ..read more