Being a dog lover, my garden and I have been through a few puppies over the years, and it can be quite a challenge to keep that sweet demeanor when you find half the garden dug up, chewed or both.

There has been a lot of discussion on the causes of declining populations of bees after the January 2016 European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) review on the ban of certain pesticides. This could pave the way for a EU ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides that are believed to be partially responsible for the decline of bee colonies.

A guide for more fire resistant plants than many of our bush plants, that would be more suitable for Western Australian conditions.

If you ask any passionate gardener they will tell you the two best luxury items on top of the list would be a mature tree and/or garden ornamentation. Hell, we are talking luxury here – go for both!

Plums vary greatly in flavour, colour, texture and scent. They actually quite hardy fruit trees and seem to just carry on in spite of neglect.

Tomatoes would have to be the most popular homegrown vegetable in Australia. We are all hanging out for sweet, tasty fruit (botanically they are a fruit) after going through winter with mostly tasteless, hard semi-ripe tomatoes.

The warmer summer months are definitely the time to get your cucurbits into the ground. Not it’s not your old smelly sock pile, but the melon family. Temperatures above 15 degrees will be needed for germination to be successful. The cucurbit family is made up of watermelon, pumpkins, cucumber, zucchini, squash, marrow and rock melons. […]

There is something very rewarding about growing your own plants from seed you have collected. It is also a very cheap way of expanding the number of plants in your garden. Thankfully, many of out Australian natives are easy to grow from seed, but some will need pretreatment in order to geminate.

Lilly pilly psyllid: a funny name for an insect that is incredibly annoying. If you have a Bush Christmas hedge or a Tiny Trev in your garden, you will have made acquaintances with the Pimple Psyllid.

A couple of months ago Perth was inundated with a swarm of the little Hover Fly. I had so many calls on the programme about these little fella’s most people anxious that they were stinging bees. They are in fact a very beneficial insect that prey on whitefly and aphids.