A horticulturalist is someone that has studied the practice and science of cultivating plants and gardens. A horticulturalist has been to Technical College or University to study plants and anything to do with growing them. They then apply this knowledge to different areas within horticulture. Some horticulturalists will work at garden centres and give gardeners…
There are bacteria everywhere, even on us! Some of them are bad and some of them are good. The good ones work really hard to make sure that the bad ones don’t take over. The good ones are called ‘beneficial bacteria’. There are beneficial bacteria in the garden as well and they are working hard…
A weed is a plant that is growing where it’s not wanted! In most cases, garden weeds grow from seed that has blown into the garden or has been transported by birds and insects. Sometimes weeds such as couch grass creep into the garden and although it might be fine when it’s lawn, when it…
Gardeners apply a wetting agent, sometimes called a soil wetter, to the garden to make sure that the water from the sprinklers and the rain soaks right down into the soil. Over time, the soil in the garden or in pots becomes ‘hydrophobic‘ which means that the water won’t soak into it. If this happens,…
Controlled release fertiliser are tiny granules called prills that are packed with food for plants which they release gradually over a long length of time. They are really useful when gardening because they can be applied to a pot or a garden and feed the plants for between 3 and 6 months. A prill of…
Vegetables, herbs and flowers are almost all annuals which means that they grow very fast but for just one season. But, the faster they grow the more they need to be fed! In gardening, feeding plants is called fertilising. To fertilise plants we use fertiliser which has lots of nutrients in them. Liquid fertiliser is…
The word ‘carnivorous’ means something that eats meat. Normally we think of animals such as tigers and lions as being carnivorous but actually, there are some plants that are carnivorous too! The Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula) is probably one of the best known. It is absolutely fascinating because it is only small, growing to…
Seaweed extract is not a fertiliser for plants but a tonic – a bit like a multivitamin. It is actually made from seaweed that is harvested from areas of the ocean where the seaweed is overgrown. Products with seaweed in them are almost magical for a vegie and flower garden. Even though they aren’t a…
Compost is a mixture of decaying organic matter such as leaves, manure and kitchen scraps which is used to improve the soil in the garden. Compost can be bought in bags or by the trailer load but it can also be made in the backyard at home for free. To make compost at home, you…
A hydroponic garden is a method of growing plants in nutrient rich water instead of soil. In most gardens, the roots of the plant would be potted into a pot or planted into the ground where the soil that surrounds them are filled with nutrients and it gets watered every day. In a hydroponic garden,…