By Mark Evans
There’s no such thing as a weed, botanically speaking, just a plant growing where we don’t want it. Years ago, we removed a Lagerstroemia indica (crepe myrtle) from our garden. It had been lovely in its day, but it had to go. The rootstock never got the memo and sends up suckers through our beds – that decision we made then is now the thing we’re fighting to keep out.
Wrong … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Bare-rooted plants look like they shouldn’t work. A rose or fruit tree dug straight from the ground with no soil or pot, roots wrapped only in damp hessian or sawdust. Yet this has been the standard way to grow and sell deciduous plants for centuries, long before plastic pots existed, and it remains one of the cheapest ways to build a garden.
The trick lies in dormancy. Once a deciduous plant drops … Read more »
by Mark Evans
One of the advantages of gardening is that very few decisions are permanent. Plants can be moved, divided and rearranged as your garden evolves and your ideas change. That supposedly short plant you tucked in along the edge grows much taller than expected, the one you planted in the shade needs more sun (or vice versa), that climber would be better suited elsewhere, that perennial needs … Read more »
By Mark Evans
In a formal garden, every hedge is crisply clipped, plant spacing is precise and repeated planting patterns create an immediate sense of calm and intention. The effect is composed and deeply satisfying.
Yet this same symmetry carries a hidden vulnerability. When a plant dies, the gap becomes glaring. Replacing it with a small, inexpensive specimen may leave an obvious void for years, whilst buying a … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Proteus, the Greek sea god who could change shape at will, gave his name to the plant family Proteaceae, via the genus Protea. When Carl Linnaeus encountered plants that varied wildly in flower, leaf and habit, he knew exactly what to call them.
The Proteaceae family now includes around 83 genera and some 1,700 species. Australia is the great stronghold, holding roughly half the genera and the majority of … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Gardening columnists like to hand out rules. Prune here, plant then, wait for this, avoid that. Advice pages tend to work that way because readers like certainty. But too many rules can make gardening sound intimidating, so it may come as a relief, or an annoyance, to hear that many of those rules are really just guidelines.
Of course, … Read more »