In the old days, we didn't have gutters. Then when we got them we employed slave labour to clean them for us or flipped a few coins to our eager children as a Saturday chore.

Today, we hire contractors. Those fearless risk-takers who shimmy up your down pipes and charge handsomely for the privilege. And why shouldn't they? If it was such a great job you'd clean your gutters yourself, wouldn't you?

Fortunately, you no longer need to and you can save yourself a few bucks as well. Looj™ is a new gutter cleaning product soon to be released from manufacturers iRobot® that boasts 60 feet of guttering cleaned in 10 minutes. Not bad considering it would have taken you at least an hour or more.

If you're thinking this is just another gimmick - think again. iRobot® is not a fly-by-night company having major contracts with Lockheed Martin and NAVSEA for producing bomb-disposal robots. But they're no visitors to the home market either producing the Scooba® Floor Washing Robot and the ConnectR™ Visiting Robot to keep tabs on your loved ones while your away.

Does the Looj™ suddenly look expensive? Apparently, the price tag that will be attached could be less than $100US. Not bad for a gizmo that can save you hours in the yard, let alone on a step ladder.

Want to see it in action? Check out the video.

Source: Jonathan from Apartment Therapy: Los Angeles

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We're having a few problems with our camellia at the moment so I'm keen for anyone to help identify the problem and offer any suggestions for how to fix it. If the problem can only be solved by using chemicals then so be it, but we would rather a more organic solution if one exists.

After finishing another magnificent seasonal flourish tender green leaves began to sprout in early spring. No sooner had they appeared then this brown began to invade them like a camellia bubonic plague. Now most of the plant is covered in these hideous brown spots and while the camellia doesn't appear to be dying nor leaves falling off, it certainly isn't looking like a picture of health.

It resides in a garden bed that receives mostly afternoon sun, if any at all, and has never suffered from this before. I initially diagnosed this as sunburn but after watching the sun's movement through the sky don't believe that this could be the reason.

C'mon all you camellia lovers...have your plants ever suffered from this before and how can it be rectified. I'd love to hear your comments.

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Described as the hybrid saint of soil-based gardening and hydroponic gardening there are many gardeners who profess to this style in the same way that devout followers of Islam espouse their religion.

But is it a veritable gardening method or just another way to sell a heap of DVD's and books?

If you want to know the truth, you need dig a little below the surface because the proponents of the Mittleider Method are the ones making the most from it.

To understand the method you need to understand the man. Dr. Jacob Mittleider was certainly an enigma in the sustainable gardening world and his efforts have helped families, communities and nations. He transitioned traditional gardening practices into a method that did more than become another alternative.

Mittleider understood that food production was more a management system than it was an environmental rape and pillage. Fruit and vegetables required minerals in the soil to produce better yields and healthier foods and that crop rotation, while it's good, cannot give everything back to the soil. So he developed a 13 mineral formula (which you obtain when you buy the books and DVD's) that fertilised the soil and continued to build it up regardless of what was being planted.

History has proved Mittleider's methods and I would certainly advocate on behalf of implementing his philosophy. Whether you need all the books and DVD's to start practising his methods is another question entirely.

So where does Jim Kennard and the Food For Everyone Foundation come into the picture? Kennard has been a Mittleider gardener for more than two decades, even teaching courses with Dr Mittleider. He started the FFEF in 1998 with the aim of helping gardeners implement better gardening practises.

Dr James Mittleider took his method throughout the world, especially developing countries where good gardening knowledge was in short supply. There have been projects in more than 30 countries and currently the Food For Everyone Foundation is working in Madagascar.

I'm really intrigued to know who has had experience with this method and what results they have had with it. If you have implemented the Mittleider method in your garden please share via the comments.

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Irrigation for outdoor plants has been available for aeons yet to water our indoor plants we've used a jug from the kitchen, a watering can or even set up these new water bulbs.

But, there is another alternative. In this great step by step tutorial you can install your own automatic irrigation system that keeps your plants moist even when you're not around. And it only cost US$45 (A$60) to make it.

The downside of the operation is that it relies on a reservoir rather than a constant source of water but for the cost and peace of mind it seems a small price to pay.

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I've never been keen on planting seedlings only to watch them eaten overnight by snails, slugs, slaters and any other pest that starts with 's'. I've tried pellets, powders, sawdust, copper [Insert others I've missed] yet while they may stop one pest they don't stop them all.

That is until a friend put me onto this great idea for a garden cloche - the humble 2L (4 pint) plastic PET bottle. It works a treat.

Just cut the bottom third completely off and remove the lid and these can be placed straight over seedlings and even propagated cuttings. They act as a barrier for most, if not all, pests and as an added bonus create a mini-greenhouse effect for your plants.

I've used these ones for my sweet basil not only to stop the pests but the soil is still a little too cool for them. By placing this cloche over the basil it will help warm up the soil at the same time that it warms the seedling.

I like this idea because it has so many benefits. The obvious is the garden cloche and mini-greenhouse but it also is great environmentally. Re-using is far better than re-cycling because there are no increased processes. And, these little cloches can be used more than once.

If you're looking for some ideas for larger, more permanent, garden cloches then take a look at Travis' How to Make a Cloche

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Forget your Scotts and Bayer chemical fertilisers it's time to get dirty with your soil and leave the environment alone.

If you've ever dug up a healthy sod of soil the first thing you notice is - movement! You have just disturbed some very willing volunteers in your garden who don't understand the phrase "Smoko break!" Not only have you disrupted their efforts but you've exposed their nakedness - a shame far greater than revealing your own.

Here's why worm castings are considered the best form of fertiliser known to the human race;

1. They're all natural.

Worm castings are basically worm crap and as natural as you like. They're odour-free and pH neutral so working with them isn't going to reduce your efforts to a nauseous malcontent.

You have two options here: the first is to encourage the multiplication of your own earthworms and leave them to do the work for you. The second option is to build your own worm farm. It's a little more effort but you have far more control as well.

2. You don't have to spread it

Ok. If you decided to set up your own worm composting farm you may have to but if you encourage growth of your own earthworm population they do it all for you. Plus, they aerate the soil while their casting of their inhibitions.

If you want to increase your earthworm population here's how you do it, accoridng to Seeds of Change;

For earthworms to thrive, they need an ample supply of organic matter, adequate moisture, and oxygen. Additions of compost or well-rotted manure to the soil and thick mulches of shredded leaves, grass clippings, and other organic materials will encourage worm activity by providing food and habitat. In soils that have been severely depleted or heavily treated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides it may take many years to build healthy populations. If good conditions are present for worms and none at all are spotted for a year or two, it might help to bring in a can full of worms from a neighbor's garden for "breeding stock."

Because you're encouraging growth of your own worm stocks you shouldn't need to purchase any more fertiliser for your garden. You can produce liquid fertiliser by placing a generous handful or two of the worm castings into a 9 litre bucket and then apply to your plants, during the growing season, once per week.

Worm castings can also be used when planting trees and shrubs, preparing containers and hanging baskets and even preparing your vegie patch for the next season's plants.

4. Their castings are a result of your rubbish

If you had already been convinced that composting was a good thing then telling you that worm castings takes this to a whole new level won't be difficult. Worms are incredible recyclers of your waste food scraps and animal manures. Apparently, one pound of worms can convert one pound of pig manure into compost in 48 hours!

If you're wondering what to do when your neighbour's dog poops on your lawn - try thanking them for the contribution they're making to you garden and add the poop to your worm composting farm. Your red wrigglers will have it composted in no time.

5. They multi-task

As I mentioned before, not only do worms produce your fertiliser via worm castings they also aerate the soil. It's like having a 24 hour gardener tilling the soil and enriching it. And, because they keep the soil so healthy there is less chance for soil-borne diseases and pests to become a problem.

6. You don't have to buy the worms

If you have been composting using a compost bin system you will have noticed that worms just turn up all by themselves. The right food source, correct temperature and they'll head for you garden as if you had placed a neon "Wanted" sign on your front gate.

So, if you're into low-maintenance gardening you can't go past worms and their castings. To use anything else means more effort on so many levels that your efforts required in the garden will become high maintenance.

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Is it possible to over-mulch your garden?

Like anything, moderation is good. As shown here before mulch volcanoes around the base of trees can actually prohibit the tree's success. The same can be said if too much mulch is applied to a garden bed. When landscaping your garden the most mulch you would want to apply is 10-15cm (4-5in) of organic material and approximately 5cm (2in) of inorganic material.

In spring we will commence the annual mulching of our garden beds before the summer season arrives. This will aid in halting evaporation that removes the water from our plants that we pay so much for. I'm a big fan of mulch, not only for its purposes but also for its aesthetic qualities. It's like putting a black background behind a photograph.

If you want to neaten your garden before you put it on the real estate market - mulch the beds. It makes an incredible difference. I've seen homeowners who have done this and instantly the house looks better.

So what types of mulch are there and what are their purposes? Read on...

Continue reading "Mulch your garden" »

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I have a favourite nursery that we visited just recently and the reason that I like them so much is because they carry many of the plants that big nurseries don't. Walking through Bunnings and Waldecks you get a sense of Blah! as you see rows and rows of the same thing. Then as you travel past home gardens you notice that this is all they have as well.

Unfortunately though, the type of nurseries that usually carry a vast array of plants are predominantly husband and wife teams who are trying to compete with these big companies and suffer from a lack of manpower (or womanpower). Many of the plants you find at these nurseries are often neglected, unappealing and more seriously - rootbound.

While this turns away many consumers and eventually puts these nurseries out of business, I make it my personal campaign to shop at them. I know that whatever I buy can usually be revived and will eventually do well. Alas, many gardeners want instant and will pay for plants that will grow and flower as soon as they put them in the ground.

So, if you join my personal campaign for keeping these nurseries open you will need to know how to plant rootbound plants, because I can assure you that most plants you buy from them will be.

Continue reading "Planting rootbound plants" »

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If you've ever had a rampant dog in your neighbourhood who enjoys nothing more that to spoil your manicured lawn in a defecating kind of way then you will have undoubtedly tried almost everything to stop him in his tracks. Vandalism of this nature can bring out the worst in any gardener. It's hard enough to see a disrespecting youth throw their cigarette butt in your camellia hedge than have to endure this as well.

I think I've just about seen everything when it comes to remedies for keeping dogs at bay. So I hope to unveil some of the common ones and give some tips for effective ways to keep dogs doing their doo doo's on their own lawns. In fact, it may make a good story for Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage.

Continue reading "How to stop dogs pooping on your lawn" »

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This week we're asking the question, "How much time do you spend gardening per week?" I know this is a fairly subjective question and can depend on many variables such as; the busyness of life, the current season and even what counts as "gardening"?

So, taking all those variables into consideration if you had to calculcate an average number of hours per week over a whole year how many would you spend in the garden? It may give us an interesting snapshot of how different gardeners enjoy their hobby as well.

If you want to explain your answer to us, leave a comment at the end of this post.

Last Week's Poll Results

Last week we asked the question "Are Australian gardener's the best in the world?" Please understand that this was a very tongue in cheek poll. I certainly don't ascribe to this position and I think Alice summed up the best response to the question. [Read the comments at the introduction of last week's poll]

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At Gardening Tips 'N' Ideas we've looked at building our own compost bins and being able to recycle our own waste materials through the process of composting but I didn't really touch on the humble compost tumbler. Hopefully this post should clear that up and help you see what a wonderful garden tool the compost tumbler is.

The first compost tumbler I saw when growing up was my father's home made job that consisted of a 44-gallon drum suspended by a metal frame. It was kept behind the shed in the veggie patch and was always filled with veggie scraps, garden prunings and manures. It wasn't a hard tumbler to rotate so we would often find it enjoyable twisting the handle as all children do.

The difference between compost bins and a compost tumbler is the amount of time it takes to produce an available source of composted material. Compost tumblers will produce compost within 14 days provided the mixture is kept moist and turned 2-3 times per day. Compost bins, at a minimum, will take at least 1 month to produce rich, broken down compost and they require far more energy to achieve the same result.

So let's introduce a couple of the star compost tumblers and discuss the pros and cons of each tumbler.

Continue reading "A review of garden compost tumblers" »

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There have been moments in my gardening journey where I have attempted to record what happens in my garden but these are usually short, spontaneous bursts of enthusiasm. I usually buy myself an exercise book, fervently fill in the first couple of pages and then store it on a bookshelf somewhere never to be opened again.

A garden journal for me is a novelty but I'm not organised enough to continually keep one. However, I have been thinking of late that maybe I should be recording what I do and keeping it in a gardening journal. I certainly don't think that it would be worth anything by keeping one for posterity's sake but for my own gardening journey, my failures and successes, I can see that it would have immense value as a garden reference.

I wonder how others journal their gardening triumphs and day-to-day plantings, musings and apparent failings. Is the blog now the new online garden journal? Will gardeners use this form of media more to journal their garden evolution? And if they did, how much information would readers want to see?

I've often thought, "wouldn't it be great to sit down and read Edna Walling's garden journal? (Edna Walling is an awesome Australian gardener who is a bit of a local gardening icon). If she hadn't journaled her gardening journey we would have needed to guess and surmise what she did but never actually known. We're fortunate enough to have records of what she planted and how she landscaped her signature gardens.

If you could study a prominent gardener's journal, who would it be?

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We had a potting shed at our old house but we're still in the throes of constructing one here. It wasn't really planned as a potting shed, in fact it was an outdoor kitchen for a failed business venture - but that's another story.

This place, that we'll call the potting shed, had a large stainless steel bench at one end with a sink and running water. The sink sat at the far end of this bench and allowed me to throw all my pots into a bleaching solution and then once cleaned they could drain on the bench. Then I would stack the pots into their respective sizes ready for my next potting spree.

The beauty of this shed was that it kept it all indoors and out of the weather. So no matter whether it decided to bucket down large hailstones, I could venture into my potting shed and start propagating some plants or pot up some seedlings. I was only limited by my imagination - and the number of pots I had.

Continue reading "The Garden Potting Shed" »

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Yesterday I spent some time in the afternoon cleaning up my front garden. I had originally started on my new arbor project but the rain kept stopping and starting forcing me to keep the electrical cords away.

So, I had some time to kill and my garden was in dire need of some TLC. I whipped out the secateurs and began deadheading my coreopsis, gaillardia's, standard icebergs and some of the salvia's that had finished flowering. It was extremely satisfying to cut away all this dead material and see that plants still existed beneath it.

Deadheading the coreopsis is always a treat because it can become so spindly with dead stems that when you finally cut these away it reveals all the new lush growth. The struggle with removing the spent flowers on a plant like coreopsis is that inevitably you will cut away some of the new buds. You could try and save them all but it would be such a time-consuming job that I find it's better just to deadhead the lot and suffer the consequences. It's going to flower again soon anyway!

I still haven't finished all my deadheading but I should be able to knock most of it on the head by the end of the weekend - weather permitting.

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The best piece of advice I can give you when it comes to cleaning your gutters and downspouts is to find someone else to do it. An older child, a helpful neighbour, your wife - anyone. Anyone ELSE that is.

It's not that it's a hard job it's just one that's easier to put off until it really matters, like when the rain is finally coming through your ceilings and creating havoc with your electricals.

The idea of having gutters is so that they catch the water runoff from your roof and then force them into your downspouts taking the excess to soaks that filter it back into the soil. However, gravity impedes this process when it also allows leaves and other natural residues to settle in your gutters and clog your downspouts.

How do you clean them? Read on...

Continue reading "Cleaning your gutter and downspouts" »

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