Topdressing Lawn: When, How Deep and How Much
Topdressing lawn hollows only works while grass is growing. Use washed sand, keep each layer thin, fill deep dips in stages and feed straight after.
Field notes from the growers.
Expert advice, seasonal tips, product guides — written by the team.
Featured
Mycorrhizal Fungi: How Living Soil Grows Better Plants
Mycorrhizal fungi partner with plant roots to reach more water and nutrients. See which plants benefit, the native trial results and how to apply them.
Read the article → 
Soil Wetter for Lawns: How to Fix Water Not Soaking In
Water running off your lawn or sitting on top? Your soil may be hydrophobic. Here’s how to check, which soil wetter to use, and how to apply it before summer.
Updated
How to Control Queensland Fruit Fly in Your Home Garden
Fruit fly pressure builds across Queensland and NSW from October. Hang traps now and leave them up all year, net fruit before it colours, and pick up fallen fruit every day.
Potting Mix vs Garden Soil vs Seed Raising Mix: What Goes Where
Potting mix goes in pots, garden soil goes in beds, seed raising mix goes in trays. Here is what actually separates them, why garden soil drowns a pot, and why the ticks on the bag are only a floor.
Your September Lawn Reset: The 5 Jobs That Set Up the Whole Season
September is the shortest working window in the lawn year. Short answer: mow low, dethatch, aerate if compacted, wet the soil, then apply your lawn fertiliser. Do those five jobs in that order and the feed reaches the root zone. Do them in any other order, or skip straight to the fertiliser, [...]
When to Apply Pre-Emergent in Australia: The 14°C Rule
Short answer: apply pre-emergent while your soil temperature is still under roughly 14°C and climbing. That is the point summer grass, crab grass and crowsfoot begin to germinate, and it lands on a different date every year, in every state, and even between your front yard and your back. Every spring the same thing happens. You [...]
Scale & Aphids on Citrus in Winter: How to Knock Them Down Before Spring (Australia)
The short answer: winter is the smart time to get on top of scale, aphids and other sap-suckers on your citrus and fruit trees. A thorough spray of botanical or horticultural oil smothers the soft-bodied pests and the overwintering stages clinging to your stems and leaf undersides, knocking populations down before they explode on the [...]
How to Get Winter Lawn Colour Without the Extra Mowing (Australia)
The short answer: to green up a winter lawn without forcing a flush of growth, feed it with an iron-rich liquid fertiliser built on stabilised nitrogen rather than fast-release nitrogen. Iron drives the deep green colour your lawn is missing, while stabilised nitrogen feeds the plant steadily instead of pushing the soft, fast top growth [...]
Winter Weeds in Australian Lawns: How to Identify and Kill Them
Quick Answer The five most common winter weeds in Australian lawns are bindii, white clover, creeping oxalis, cudweed, and winter grass (Poa annua). Most broadleaf winter weeds respond to selective post-emergent herbicides applied through winter. Winter grass requires either a specific selective post-emergent applied early in the season (May to July) or [...]
What to Plant in May: Your State-by-State Vegetable Guide for Australia
What to Plant in May: Your State-by-State Vegetable Guide for Australia The window is open. Here's exactly what to do before it closes. May is the most important month in the Australian vegetable garden. Not October. Not [...]
How to Use Coco Coir in Your Garden: Pots, Raised Beds, and Seed Raising
How to Use Coco Coir in Your Australian Garden: Pots, Raised Beds, and Seed Raising Coco coir gives Australian gardeners a growing medium that holds more water, lasts longer, and rewets more easily than the bark-based potting mixes most of us grab off the shelf. If you've picked up a compressed coir block and wondered what [...]