Coming up

Costa visits a young couple’s rooftop garden, Sophie examines wild roses, Millie goes bird watching and Tino plants his favourite tomatoes.

Gardening Australia Weekly Quiz

A) A plant that has been sourced by illegal means
B) A daisy native to Austria 
C) A horizontal plant runner that can form new plants

Answer to last week's question:
Q. Minnirichi is:
A. a) A type of bark

Aussie Backyard Birdcount

Celebrate National Bird Week by taking part in the biggest citizen science project to hit Aussie shores. Join thousands of people from across the country from 21 – 27 October as they head out into their backyards, local parks or favourite open spaces to take part in this year’s AUSSIE BACKYARD BIRD COUNT!

To find out more, visit the Aussie Backyard Bird Count website and register to take part!

2020 Gardening Australia Magazine Diary and Calendar

Find a full year's inspiration for your garden with the 2020 ABC Gardening Australia Magazine Diary and Calendar.

Available from newsagents, bookshops and online.

What to plant this weekend

Tropical Climate Zone

• Basil
• Capsicum
• Eggplant
• Sweet Corn

• Chives
• Lettuce
• Pumpkin
• Squash

• Beetroot
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Watermelon

• Coriander
• Leeks
• Parsley
• Zucchini

• Tomatoes
• Chilli
• Cucumber
• Onion

Jobs for the weekend

COOL

• Plant some ‘oh-la-la’ in your patch and pop in four fine French herbs this weekend: Chervil, tarragon, parsley and chives are good to grow, and even better to eat!
• Take softwood cuttings from hydrangeas and have a crack at propagating them this weekend. Cut 15cm of fresh green stem, remove all but one pair of leaves, dip the cutting bottom end in honey and pot up! Simple!
• You can’t go wrong with Wonga Wonga Vine (Pandorea pandorana). Flowering now, these tough, fast-growing native vines are spectacular with their masses of pendulous white flowers.

• Fruit trees are blooming and the sap is flowing! Give your fruity favourites a feed this weekend with aged manures, blood and bone or an organic fertiliser.
• A ripper weekend to divide and repot your cymbidium orchids. Remove parent plant from pot, separate out 3 to 5 healthy bulbs for each new pot, and whack into a fresh bark and coir blend.
• Fast-growing, evergreen, native and butterfly attracting - the Golden Tip (Goodia latifolia) isn’t just good, it’s great! This shrub, with its bright yellow pea flowers is a spring and summer stunner!

• Get ruthless this weekend and thin out overcrowded seedlings. This helps reduce crowding and competition in your garden beds, leaving you with happier, healthier crops.
• If you love Mexican cuisine, why not sow your own salsa verde? Grow some chillies, oregano, slow-bolt coriander and, most importantly, tomatillos for an authentic, scrumptious side dish.
• Bronze orange bugs are out and about, making a mess of citrus trees in the subtropics. To see them gone, don some gloves and glasses and knock these stubborn stink bugs into a bucket of hot water.

• If you want to bring a bit of punch to your next platter, plant out Plectranthus amboinicus, known as Mother of Herbs. It’s spicy, intense and pungent, just like an extreme oregano!
• How can you provide habitat for birds in your ‘burbs? Providing plants for food, prickly natives for shelter, hollows and taller trees for nesting plus a safe birdbath makes for happy flappies.
• It’s a great weekend to clear gutters and drains ahead of the rains. Don’t forget, leaves can be composted or bagged up and left to become leaf mould – a super sustainable soil improver.

• Find a shady spot and bung in a Boesenbergia rotunda, also known as Chinese keys. This spicy, aromatic perennial is related to ginger, and is great in a curry.
• Have a crack at growing a caper plant, Capparis spinosa. Delicious, deciduous, tough and tasty, these incredible edibles adore a hot, dry climate, and are an attractive, low-spreading shrub.