Featured Articles | Gardening Made Easy

Reliable, easy-to-grow Veronica...

Veronica ranges from prostrate rock garden specimens right up to 90cm tall cutting-garden plants. Veronica, often called Speedwell, is a favourite perennial border plant flowering from summer through to autumn. It is a great plant for attracting bees, butterflies and birds and with its tall flower spikes and deep green foliage is an excellent accent plant. Veronica blooms for an unusually long time for a perennial. There...

Growing Ornamental Grasses...

Grasses are not a summer fancy. They add interest to all seasons. Ornamental grasses can be used as fillers or specimens, border plants or background plantings, as ground covers or screens, or they may be grown as container plants. Their adaptability and subtle beauty make them perfect companions to flowering plants and other woody ornamentals. Grasses can be used in the landscape just like perennials, but their...

Sage — a kitchen gardener’s dream plant...

Sage is a powerful antioxidant and antibacterial, so its culinary use probably started out more as a preservative than a flavouring. Sage is a member of the mint family and there are over 750 different varieties of sage scattered across our planet. The sage varieties used as culinary herbs stem from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor and Sage has been grown in Central Europe since the Middle Ages. Sage is a woody, hardy...

Useful and easy to grow Oregano...

Oregano is one of the easiest, most versatile and most useful herbs in the garden. Oregano is such a great herb for the garden. Its attractive, grows like crazy, smells great, and tastes great! If oregano is left to bloom its flowers attract many pollinators. Could you really ask for more? A member of the mint family, oregano is commonly used in Italian dishes and is a component of chilli powder. Oregano originates...

Easy to grow Shasta Daisies...

The mid-summer blooms of Shasta Daisies make them a backbone plant for the perennial garden.The simple white flowers with yellow button centres are a symbol of purity and are perfect for cutting. Easy to grow, they are a favourite for beginner flower gardeners and are effective when planted in small groups. Just over 100 years ago, horticulturalist Luther Burbank introduced his Shasta Daisy to the world. Burbank had spent...

Elegant Carnations and Pinks...

You can grow carnations and pinks almost anywhere, provided you give them a well drained position and plenty of sun. Few flowers can rival the carnation’s beauty and sweet scent, and the home gardener has many varieties of this popular perennial to choose from Carnations are among the most elegant of flowers, their ruffled blooms contributing to a popularity rivalled by few other plants. Their variety of colour...

Growing Cymbidiums, the easy orchid...

Many varieties of cymbidium are available. Each individual butterfly like bloom is ideal for a buttonhole or corsage. Many of the visitors to this website have probably been given a cymbidium orchid in a pot and had no idea how to care for the plant. Orchids have an aura of mystique, but they are really simple to look after, if you follow some basic rules. In this post we will try and give you an insight into the...

Easy Rhododendrons and Azaleas...

While roses are considered by many gardeners to be the Queen of the garden, Rhododendrons are said to be the King. The vivid displays produced by rhododendrons and azaleas can last for several months. There are plants to suit any garden — but to thrive they must have acid soil and good drainage. Rhododendrons and azaleas are among the most decorative shrubs available for the home garden. Varying in size from mat‑like...

Delightfully Easy Dahlia...

This beautiful flower is actually native to the highlands of Mexico and was grown by the Aztecs in the region near the present site of Mexico City. Dahlia flowers are popular landscape plants known for their wide range of colours, heights and forms. These versatile flowers are ideal for novice gardeners. In relation to other genera, the dahlia is a fairly new addition to the garden scene. Baron Alexander von Humboldt,...

Seductive Jasmine...

Plant Jasmine and experience the delight of a very fragrant spring and summer garden. The sweet fragrance of the jasmine flower makes it a welcome plant in many gardens. The plant parts have several uses from making tea to perfume, cosmetics, medicines and food flavourings. The name Jasmine is derived from the Persian yasmin which means ‘a gift from God’ — so named because of the intense fragrance of...

« Previous Entries

About This Site

Gardening really is fun (even though it requires a certain amount of work). To have a wonderful, colourful show garden you don't have to be a garden specialist or know all the Latin names for plants. Here we aim to provide easy to understand guidelines, tips and ideas for gardeners living in the southern hemisphere and other temperate regions. The site is filled with useful monthly gardening diaries, events news, plant profiles, special sections on trees, shrubs, herbs, succulents, vegetables, indigenous flowers and plants and more. We will constantly be adding more content, so come back often and explore the many categories and pages — remember its all about fun!

Questions and contributions

We welcome the participation of our readers. If you have a question for the Q&A page please e-mail it to: dardug@rocketmail.com. Please include the heading: 'Gardening Made Easy Question' If you would like t contribute editorial features please fee free to send your submission to: dardug@rocketmail.com. Please include the heading: 'Gardening Made Easy Editorial Contribution'. Remember that the contributions should be original work and should be between 400 and 600 words in length. Full credit will be given to the author. We reserve the right to edit text or to choose not to publish any editorial submitted.