Also at Gardeners Best, we know how gardeners like you value the need to create garden spaces and activities. We know they are essential tools in how we express our individuality, creativity with practical results that are visual, investment in our properties and the creation of our own sanctuaries.

We are now in the process of changing our garden habits because of water and how we use it- or really how we should have been using it for a long time. In fact it can be fun…to do it differently. Big clusters of coloured pots full of Gardeners Best WaterWize^tm plants. Courtyard planters that are self watering (from below – that saves water and evaporation with the same results as twice as much from above). Adding soil conditioners is getting easier all the time because of improving technology. Learning more about plants in groups that have similar water, sun, shade and feeding needs makes good sense anyway, rather than a pock marked landscape that is often doomed to failure.

Gardener’s Best is more than plants, we are about the whole experience of gardening as you would like it to be, while helping you with plants and information on water usage ideas to get the best garden performance.

Water Wize^tm
Kalanchoe ‘Quicksilver' meets the efficiency criteria to one of the many plants in the Gardeners Best WaterWize^tm range.

‘Quicksilver’ will grow to about 80cm. It likes well drained soil in sunny to slightly shaded positions – around the base of trees, rocks, garden edges, in generous and coloured pots with two or three plants for courtyards and podiums and needs very little care. The reward – plenty of amazing flowers as the plant starts to divide by itself.

Click here for more Gardeners Best WaterWize plants.

Gardener’s Best introduced Revolution Green^tm and Revolution Gold^tm some time ago and these Melaleucas have become two of the best plant releases of all time.

As we seek privacy in the newer style urban settings, Revolution Green^tm and Revolution Gold^tm will make excellent dense green or golden screen hedges or free form shrubberies. They will also work well together for colour contrast.

Both will grow to about 4-5m tall and spread to about 3m wide. (There are always exceptions). They like open sunny positions, well drained soil and native fertilisers. Prune when they are young to develop the desired shape and height.

Apart from a good soft looking shrub, Revolution Green^tm and Revolution Gold^tm will attract birds to form a regular habitat.

SUMMER GARDEN TIPS

Summer is the most challenging time of the year for garden plants and gardeners!
The extremes of temperatures mean that heat stress is what you need to manage first. And….. This means also that these measures could be ‘set up’ well before summer arrives. If you haven’t prepared try some of these suggestions in your garden.

• Make a decision about the lawn. Whether to water or leave until rain or autumn – surprisingly- it will survive.
• Consider replacing some or all the lawn with different materials. Geometric patterns of coloured mulches about 75mm thick. Blocks of hard mulches like red bauxite or crushed decomposed granite. See what you come up with.
• Small flowering daisies, short ornamental grasses of different varieties will absorb run off and make good edges.
• Encourage the spreading of different plants to cover open soil areas to avoid weeds. Weeds rob water!
• If you can’t paint the insides of porous pots, sit plastic tubs in the ‘outer’ pot until you get to painting. It makes both pots interchangeable and more mobile.
• As you would with a house plan, get a professional to design an irrigation system. DIY materials are cheap and easy and sometimes that’s the result you will get.
• To avoid container plant stress, cluster potted plants together to keep moisture in and find the dampest spot in the garden that suits their general needs of shade and sun.
• And... You expected this- mulch, mulch, mulch and more mulch – BUT keep it away from the base of trunks.
  

Plenty of parks to visit for picnics. Botanic Gardens are open every day to see their collections and new additions. Snoop around for ideas on how they manage their water and plant challenges.

• Walks, tours and holiday programs at Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens (check out the award winning Children’s Garden) www.rbg.vic.gov.au
  
• Australia’s Open Garden Scheme
  Jan 14 and 15 Adelaide
  ‘Mandalay’ 16 Morecombe Street Stepney (inner City)
  Balinese garden that will open at night (for a special light show).
  10.00to 10.00pm Saturday and 10.00am to 4.30pm Sunday.
  
• Summer Fun in the City is an annual event in Melbourne based on events and attractions in Melbourne’s parks and gardens. www.thatsmelbourne.com.au
  
• If you’re in Brisbane - Cultivating Eden. 150 years of The Old Brisbane Botanic Gardens for summer school holidays. www.ourbrisbane.com
  
• Australian City Farms and Communities Garden Networks
  Have an active events and community involvement program around Australia.
  www.communitygarden.org.au