Seedlings growin in multicell punnets.
Build your garden

Top tips for making the most of your garden’s growing potential

Armed with a bunch of clever techniques and ideas, it’s easy to maximise your garden’s potential and enjoy an abundant supply of fresh, organic, homegrown produce all year round.

A henhouse with a number of chooks scratching in a sandbox. One chook, a barnevelder, is sitting on the edge of the sandbox.
Build your garden

How to maximise your hens’ egg production with a balanced diet

If you are dreaming of an achievable and rewarding way to supply some of your own food, you can’t go past keeping laying hens, such as the barnevelder.

Long-term wet weather poses a threat to fowls’ health.
Bees, poultry & livestock

Wet-weather proof your poultry

While ducks may enjoy downpours, backyard poultry are not so happy. Our chook expert, Jessamy Miller, has some tips to take care of your feathered friends.

Soil pests and diseases can accumulate in a bed if the same crop is grown repeatedly.
Build your garden

How to put in place a crop rotation plan

A crop rotation plan will help avoid pest and disease build up in your garden.

Any herbivore manure makes a great soil conditioner.
Soil

Which manure is best?

Asking yourself whether chook poo or that bag of horse manure a friend has offered you for free is what you need? Consider these points first.

Picking your own fruit fresh from a tree is one of the top gardening joys.
Basics

Plan for the future: grow fruit trees

Honey and Leonie Atkinson transformed a patch of kikuyu grass into a thriving orchard, here's their planting advice to help you have your own bumper fruit harvest.

A juvenile eastern spinebill uses its curved beak to access nectar in kangaroo paws.
Build your garden

How to bring more birds into your garden

Insects play a vital role in supporting native birds. Here's how you can plant to attract more bugs, and so more birds, to your backyard.

Don't throw that old milk out, you can use it on your garden.
Basics

Don’t cry over out-of-date milk & other tips

Our experts have some simple solutions to help you grow your harvest organically.

As soon as you stop digging the soil starts to repair itself.
Basics

Join the no-dig revolution

There's a growing number of gardeners who have hung up the spade and adopted the no-dig approach. Phil Dudman explains why.

Red wrigglers are the best worms to use.
Soil

Worms in small spaces

Not everyone has a backyard with space for a compost or worm farm, but these ideas from Kate Flood will work on a benchtop or balcony.

Guano is a word that originates from the Andean indigenous language, and means, “the droppings of seabirds”.
Build your garden

From seabirds to soil: the use of guano to boost soil health

Sponsored content

Guano is a natural fertiliser that, once harvested, can be processed sustainably. The result? A soil additive that provides essential nutrients for plants.

With a bit of prep work you'll have a bountiful garden this summer.
Maintenance

Your end of spring to-do list

Before spring ends and the worst of the heat arrives, take some time to prepare your garden for a successful summer, writes Angie Roach.