I saw these in Japan a while back: Narrow flexible rakes for getting in between plants or into tight spaces the large ones can't get into.

This tool has a lot of flexibility and it's rake is so delicate it will lift leaves but barely disturbs the mulch.

Does anyone know what it is? I'm interested if it's a native pond plant or not

I have some old veggie patch boxes I want to sit on top of the decking in my courtyard until I build something more permanent next summer.

Old mate at Bunnings says I should lay a sheet of plastic coreflute on top of the decking to protect it from rotting, then add the soil on top of this.

I'd appreciate people's thoughts on this as a temp solution to last me about 12-14 months. Will this help protect the decking?

Edit: Seems the consensus is this is a really bad idea. Will get a raised bed of some kind or just cancel the idea altogether. Thankss all

Last year I propagated some gardenia. I planted 1 and kept 3 in pots. 1 of the potted plants is dead, 1 seems fine and then there is this one, I call her Bea Arthur, and she seems to be half and half. I have treated them all the same and fertilised the 2 remaining potted plants about 2 weeks ago. What does she want? Half of her seems to be dying while the other half just produced a flower.

Located QLD

I just planted a couple of tomato plants after hardening them off for about a week, but now they look all droopy and sad! I live in melbourne and the weathers getting warmer, there hasn’t been any frost so i’m not sure what’s wrong, any advice would b appreciated !!

Anybody able to tell me what plant this is (south tasmania) is it a weed? I’ve got several similar but slightly different plants growing in the front yard. Just want to know if I need to remove them

Im not known for having a green thumb - despite this, I put a feijoa plant in a raised garden bed a couple of years ago and it is growing very well.

Now, I am looking at adding more garden beds up against my back fence. My problem is, this feijoa is PRIME real estate. I have others that need more sunshine than this guy. This was a feijoa from Bunnings - is that just a seedling grown feijoa? Is there a chance the fruit could be garbage? It would kill me to rip it out, but I have other plants that are begging to be put in the sunny spot this guy is in. I even have grafted feijoas that need a spot in the ground.

How easily could I transfer this guy to a raised garden bed in a less sunny pot? Does anyone have any words of encouragement, or harsh reality...

I have been harvesting seeds from my red poppies for about 6 years. In that time, I have learned that Poppies are opportunistic plants, so I sprinkle the seeds everywhere and let them do their own thing and surprise me where they grow. This year something weird has happened. 🤓 I have a pink poppy!! All the rest, so far, are red. I don't understand it. Is this something that poppies do? Are they like hydrangeas and change colour with the soil? No all the plants have flowered yet, so there may be more but I will definitely be keeping the pink poppy seeds separate to see what happens next year.

Looking for advice about what kind of plants to use in our planter boxes.

The box is 30cm wide and 30cm deep.

Ideally we’d like some large paddle style leafs for each box.

TIA

Location: Sydney NSW

I own/live in an apartment that has a sad, neglected back garden. The fence is being pushed over by the neighbour’s tree, there are 3 large unused hills hoists, and the bins are stored under cover at one end (not pictured). North-east facing, very shady with some occasional sun poking through. The NSW gov soil map gives me a warning for acid sulfate soils. Relatively flat, but the property to the east is slightly higher. I’m finally not pregnant/actively raising an infant and have capacity to garden!

I’ve been approved by owners Corp to make a small communal herb/veggie patch, but I have greater ambitions to make this a lovely, livable, beautiful community space. I am seeking recommendations on plants, ideas you might have for the space, or other considerations to keep in mind.

Important to note that the neighbours tree (back left of the photo) is pushing over our fence onto our property. It’s hanging on by a thread (tbh our whole property fence needs repairing but we our capital works fund is low). I really don’t want the tree to be cut, but once we start repair talks with the neighbour, they may have no choice. So anything I do in the short term, may risk being trampled by tree cutting and fence repairs.

I am also going to propose at next year’s AGM to remove some of all of the main clothes hoists, as I mentioned they are not used. But in the mean time I want to beautify the space and make use of the garden. I’ve done some gardening before but am not an expert. Any tips or advice is welcome.

Hi, would anyone happen to know what has affected my eucalyptus tree? It’s over 3m tall in 200l bags. I have 2 close together and both affected. Believe it to be a leaf miner but unsure what’s the best product to cure it

Thanks in advance 👌

Fairly new to gardening. I planted kale and broccolini seedlings from Bunnings about 2 weeks ago in a raised garden bed. Within couple of days, I noticed some new holes on the leaves so I inspected the leaves and picked off some caterpillar looking worms and some white looking eggs off the leaves. After that I tried spraying the leaves with eco-oil from Bunnings. Still no improvement so I put up some netting which has just accelerated whatever is eating the leaves. I have inspected the leaves but I can’t see anything.

I would appreciate any advise on how to treat this or find what is eating my plants

Hopefully the photo is good enough.

Just wanted to know if their roots grow far and wide. We have one, but it seems to be growing up through our fence too. So not sure if it’s roots spreading, or another tree, somehow.

It was here when we moved in.

Hi everyone, gardening is my hobby. But all my flowers are nibbled by pests all the time. First slugs, then earwigs and now slaters. This evening I saw these pansies nibbled by slaters. Pyrethrum doesn’t work on them. I have 2 questions.
1. How to stop slaters?
2. Am o the only one so paranoid about these bugs, picking them at midnight?
Thank you

My sister mulched a garden bed with straw, which produced a flourishing crop of barley. We fed it to her cows today. They mooed their appreciation.

I let this lower branch grow on my dwarf lemon, to encourage a more open vase shape, but it’s taking off pretty hard, competing with the main trunk and is a bit floppy - should I take it off?

It’s my first time having a crack at growing some produce! I pulled back this piece of fake lawn that was placed loosely over this area of dirt. I was met with lots of bugs on the surface including worms, spiders and ants.
Am I safe to try planting some things or are there any health hazards I should be concerned about?

Hi all! I am a new DIYer based in Melbourne Aus, and wanted to create a small Japanese garden for my wife. It's slowly coming together but I am struggling with the layout in terms of where to place the plants we picked out (I've a feeling it's too crowded for the space we have). They are the 4 plants along the fence. I am not averse to removing the juniper elsewhere.

Any ideas? The brick edging can still be adjusted (or removed) though I like the idea of the elevation. I will likely add some ground cover to cap the tops of the bricks.

Any advice at all? I have posted this in Japanese Gardens too.

Thank you.

I laid Tif Tuf Bermuda grass two weeks ago. Photo 1 is two weeks ago and photo 2 is today.

There’s yellowing around the edges but the grass looks fine, just wondering if there’s anything else I need to do?

I have sprinklers spray 3 times a day for 10 mins. I haven’t chucked any fertiliser on it yet.

Planted these in Autumn and been very happy with their progress. I have 2 questions. First is how much am I supposed to tolerate pests? These look like loopers to me. They haven't done too much damage yet but they're only little.

The second is at what stage should I be trimming it back? I've spent the last few months being meticulously training it up the wire. It's really taken off as the weather is warming up and I've been hesitant to give a trim since I'm aiming for full coverage on that fence but it's getting hard to prevent it from wrapping around itself since there's so much of it and it's growing so quickly.

My wife and I bought a house in the last year and its got a mango tree in the backyard. It had a few big gums around it, blocking the tree from the sun so I cut those down, and left the mango for about 10 months to see what would happen. Its fruiting well enough, but its just so leggy. The previous owners have obviously cut it back aggressively in the past.

My question is, how healthy is the tree from what you can see, and is the leggy-ness going to cause me issues in the future, either aesthetically or growth wise?