The Garden Party

From the “slaughterous red, luscious and fantastic” rhododendrons of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca to Beatrix Potter’s perilous kitchen garden to George Eliot’s hot house flowers to the festooned Deep South of Laura Child’s Tea Shop Mysteries, we explore some of our favourite fictional gardens.

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Where should you put your indoor plants? How much light do they need? How much water? When should you fertilise them? We answer all the common questions about how to grow beautiful, healthy indoor plants. We recommend plants that you pretty much cannot kill, Instagram ready favourites and the plants that we love to grow.

From window taxes, to glasshouses, to fern-mad Victorians, we explore the history of indoor plants.

There is no other flower on our planet that is as evocative and as celebrated as the rose. Join us for a brief history of the genus Rosa, or skip straight to 28 mins to learn how to grow roses.

Why we prune, the four golden rules of pruning and specific tips for pruning roses, hydrangeas and hedges.

Let’s propagate! There is nothing like watching a seedling push through the soil or popping a cutting in the ground and seeing it grow. It takes some preparation and practice, but once you know how you’ll be thrilled with the results. Here is everything you need to know about the art and science of propagation.

Wondering about winter vegetables? Here’s our best tips from our radio show to keep your vegetable garden thriving over the colder months. Because who doesn’t need a hearty vegetable soup or a zesty stir-fry to lift the spirits? Join us each Sunday streaming live from noon (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1 FM.

Colourful, emotive and sometimes illegal, poppies have long been an inspiration for artists and poets. We unearth the facts behind the folklore and discuss how to bring a little poppy panache to your garden.

Music may conjure up great memories of a time and a place, but so can plants. From the bougainvillea and wisteria-festooned patios of Clare’s childhood to the begonias and roses of Colan’s past and present, we remember the plants that have marked a time and place in our lives. Co-starring chainsaw-wielding dads, very bad neighbours and drunken kangaroos.

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Did you know your trusty pair of secateurs were invented by a French aristocrat who escaped the guillotine? Do you know the difference between a shovel and a spade? Or where can you buy the most beautiful gardening tools? All this and lots of other fascinating facts about gardening tools.

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