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The appearance of white butterflies around Spring in my garden signifies one thing: the quiet but deadly march (and munch) of the 's larvae. The first sign of an impending chomp fest are the orange-coloured egg sacks which you can find, carefully hidden on the underside of brassica leaves. Before you know it your brassicas are depleted or, if they are seedlings, completely destroyed except for the poor, denuded stalks which wave apologetically in the air. It's not their fault, the White Cabbage larvae is clearly a force to be reckoned with, but is there an organic way to prevent...

We've mentioned native gardens quite a bit in recent columns here on the Evergreen Growers blog but this week we'd like to take a look at cottage gardens in an Australian context. Cottage gardens have been popular in Australia since colonial days with settlers looking to plant their gardens in a reflection of the style they were used to in England. The cottage garden has little in the way of rules ” perhaps that's part of its charm ” although the style is usually typified by a riot of glorious plants and flowers in soft shades and colours and with...

One of the things I do to relax these days is annoy my kids with tales of "the good old days". Many the times their eyes glaze over as they indulge what is affectionately called one of "Dad's rants". The subject can be as varied as history, politics, music, or indeed anything that casts my mind back. However one particular recent rant was one about the "back to the future" in regard to gardening. My rant to the boys this time came under the topic of "there's nothing new under the sun" and was on the subject of the latest...