How Good is Your Gardener?

In my work, I get to meet a lot of very lovely people who are quite probably highly skilled in their chosen profession, work and past-times. However, when it comes to the garden that desirable personal quality may not be the case.

A lovely lady, whose property I recently serviced, was having some problems with some of her shrubs. In particular, various fungal infections triggered by last Summer's intense rainfall.

There was another 'gardener' servicing her property before me. He disappeared and didn't return to the work there, so I was appointed. The reason for putting that word (gardener) in inverted commas is because his lack of knowledge was worrying. The advice he had given that lady would have amounted to vandalism or destruction of plants and lawns if she had followed it.

Here's his most dangerous instruction:

• Use glyphosate (Round Up) on a buffalo lawn to remove weeds. 

If you read the label on glyphosate preparations, it warns pretty clearly that it is an indiscriminate herbicide and, on most labels, warns that it's not safe for buffalo.

If that lady had followed the instruction of that guy, the lawns at her rental property would be dead and she would be up for thousands of dollars in replacement costs.

Fortunately, My Garden Guy advised her of the correct solution - and we carried out the work for her at a lower cost than if she had done it herself.

Moral of the story? Choose your garden and lawn contractor carefully.

Yeah... Cut it later...

I don't mean to be impolite, but some clients still can't get their head around what 'regular lawn service' means.

It's not about your service provider attending to your land as often as possible. A quality lawn and garden service provider will only do what is seasonably necessary on each service. Bluntly, choose a professional service provider.

Realistically:

• It's about your lawn. 
• It's about making your lawn healthy and strong. 
• It's about making your property appear beautiful. 
• It's about protecting your investment. 

Making your lawn healthy means that it's strong and consistently self-improving and self-maintaining. In that condition, it keeps weeds out. That way, you save money and don't need to play with various weed-killer and fertiliser combinations. Most of those combinations, like "Weed and Feed" varieties, usually may cause more problems than they correct. That's why Canada, at least, has banned "Weed'n'Feed" products.

Think about your home lawns and gardens for a moment. Think critically. Are there things that you don't like? Are there things that look out of place or just not right? Maybe those weeds growing in the middle of your turf? Hmmm... You know what you really need to do, don't you?

If you have new turf installed, you can be sure that it needs suitable water and feeding, and trimming and cutting in due course. Don't cut it too soon, with enthusiasm, and don't let it grow too long by being 'careful'. Both ends of the spectrum have risks.

Lawns? Cut 'em. Cut them at a schedule which matches your land's demand. No sooner, no later.

You know the difference between a good wine and bulk cask wine. You know the difference between a Mercedes and a cheapie. You know the difference between farm-fresh and supermarket product. You know how to make quality choices.

Make a quality choice and be certain that your approach is consistent.

Cut it later? Yes, we can do that. Can you live with it?

Soil. It's More Than Dirt.

A long time ago, Gary Larson put out one of his famous and memorable cartoons showing cavemen who proposed a Periodic Table. That first element proposed was dirt: 'De'.

The soil in your garden is more than ordinary dirt.

Let's take a look at what garden soil - and good garden soil - really is.

Yes - it is dirt. Dirt is, more or less, various inorganic particulate matter. What that means in ordinary English is that it's made of bits of various kinds of stones and sands and clays. It does contain some minerals and trace elements which will make your garden better. However, on its own, dirt isn't that interesting.

Organic matter is what makes soil really interesting. Decomposed organic matter usually is various decomposed plant and animal matter. Plant matter is, obviously, decomposed leaves and twigs and the like. Animal matter is normally manure - in other words: animal poo. We'll go into more detail about what poo is safe and what you need to do to the different kinds to make it useful. Some kinds, in the 'raw' state will cause more problems than they will solve.

Microbial and other 'live' activity completes the perfect three. In a healthy compost or garden there are many kinds of unicellular, microbial and other microscopic organisms at work. There are also many lifeforms which you can see. Usually, common earthworms are a really good indicator of a soil's health. There are many more. However, in this case, if you have worms, you have something good happening.

If your soil doesn't seem to have these three things happening, then some repairs are needed.

There's more to it than first meets the eye. Check in with us again another time  for some hints about making your soil different - and making it better. More importantly, we can show you how to make it suit the plants and trees and crops you're most interested in.

Until soon!
 

Why do I need to mow so often?

Sometimes, the question "Why does the lawn need to be cut so often?" comes up.

Here's why:

• If you let it grow for a long time, it doesn't look tidy. 
• How tidy you like it is up to you. That's a personal thing.
• In some neighbourhoods and stratas and estates, some other co-residents have a pre-conceived idea about how that place should look. Thus, it isn't completely up to you. Sometimes, penalties may apply, including the strata or estate forcing some expensive guy to do your lawn and garden, against your wishes. 
• In some localities, a long grassed area can represent a fire hazard and may be subject to legally enforceable penalties. Those penalties can be far more costly than the cost of regular, or even irregular, maintenance. 
• If a lawn is cut infrequently, it can become unruly and hard to return to a smooth and well-cultured state. 
• This is can be costly to correct to a basic standard. 
• It can also be very costly to correct basic standard. (Yes, same reason twice - for a reason... it really is that bad.)
• It can be extremely expensive to correct to a perfect standard.

During the warmer seasons - say Spring and Summer - a Couch grass lawn can grow up to 450 mm or more in a six week period. Imagine your land, covered in luscious Couch grass to a depth of eighteen inches! It's not just the height that is the issue, but what happens to the root and leaf structure during that time.

If you had that Couch grass lawn, and you went away for a break over Christmas and a month or so, then that refined lawn would have become nearly feral by the time you came home. The effect is that the finely controlled leaf structure which you so carefully cultivated would have grown massively; the root structure may have more than quadrupled; and the result is a grass that is reaching for the sky and endeavouring to reproduce more wildly than rabbits partaking of aphrodisiacs. Yes. It really is that bad - a hugely knotty mass that looks more well suited to an agricultural setting than your lovely home.

Regular mowing, lawn and garden service? It's not just an investment - it's insurance.

Like to know more? Call us on 02 8006 5543 or visit mygardenguy.com.au or e-mail us. We're ever so happy to help.

Mowing the lawn or cutting the grass?

Mowing lawns? Yes we do that!

There is more to lawn care than you might realise.

There is "cutting the grass" and "mowing the lawn". Do you know the difference?

Cutting the grass is just cutting the grass shorter when you think it's too long. If you like to do things that way, we can do that for you.

If you want us to mow the lawn, then that's a more detailed activity. We can turn your grass into lawn with a little garden magic. It's called regular mowing combined with quality lawn care.

Cut your grass? Yes, we can do that for you.

Turn your grassed areas into a smooth green velvet that is fun to walk and play on, and looks fantastic? We would love to do that for you.

Call us. It's the right time of year to make a start.

Pruning Roses.

It's that time of year. It's time to prune the roses. Best pruning occurs during July and sometimes into early August.

There is an old rule of thumb that pruning '61 days' before you want a good display of flowers is the time to do it. It's almost true.

Obviously, being a biologically entity, the roses will pretty much do what they want and when they want to do it. The average benchmark works in most a cases, but it may vary for you.

Some species, such as Iceberg, can still have some ad looking blooms at this time of year. Bite the bullet and take some sanitised secateurs, and other sanitised tools, and sally forth!

Pruning roses can be hard work if you're not experienced or if you feel that you have better things to do with your time.

We have the experience, and thus the efficiency and efficacy.

Allow us to prune your roses. Ask us about including this service with your next regular garden service.

Mossy Lawn? We can help.

At this time of year, lawns can become mossy. In some cases, some grassed areas can become more moss than grass.

It's nothing to be embarrassed about because it happens quite often in the North Shore.

The causes are usually simple, but the cures are slightly more complex.

The main causes of mossy lawns are:

• Chemical imbalance in the soil
• Insufficient light on the area
• Excessive moisture

The soil's chemical imbalance is usually a sign of long term neglect or lack of awareness of the situation. It can be remedied.

A lack of light in the area can be the result of excessive growth of trees and shrubs surrounding that area. We can thin those areas to permit plenty of light so that the new growth in spring will be strong enough to avoid this issue next winter.

Excessive moisture can be slightly more complex. How the extra water arrived on your land is the first question and is followed by "why is it still there?". We can assess your site and make recommendations on how you might like to proceed to chance that circumstance.

We have developed a private formula which may assist your immediate needs without the necessity of complex remediation. It's a quick fix and may help your needs.

If you would like to know more, please contact us via e-mail and we'll work to help you.

Retail Grass Seed Packs

Ever thought you needed to 'thicken up' your lawn or fix up some bald patches? Want a quick fix? Looked at those packs of grass seeds at the hardware store with a longing, but doubtful eye?

A doubtful eye was the best thing you had that day! Here's why:

Most lawn seed mixes include couch and/or kikuyu and/or other species.

We've already mentioned why Couch grass and Kikuyu aren't good candidates.  Boxes of seed can be had for less than ten dollars. There is a reason for that...

Some of the 'other species' in some lawn seed kits are even worse. They tend to grow incredibly fast, almost in the same manner as onion weed. They form thick tufts of incredibly dense grass that will fill you catcher in only a few metres.

Here's a top example:

One of my clients on Sydney's North Shore bought a beautifully renovated house. Every little detail was just right! Except the lawn. The developer had re-seeded the front lawn, which had probably been destroyed by the tradies and contractors working the development, with a "box'o'seeds".

When my clients inspected the property, I'm sure it looked utterly perfect. However, when they moved in, there had been at least eight weeks since the lawns and gardens were tended (i.e. during the settlement period, during which the former owner has very few legal obligations and seemingly felt they had no moral obligations). The lawns and hedges were already in a difficult state.

What would you say to removing more than three catchers full of grass from an area of less than twenty square metres? Yep - I think I used that word too!

Needless to say, there is remediation work to be performed on that site's lawns as the result of an unethical vendor who chose to make it 'look nice' rather than doing what is right.  

Overseed your lawns, in the American style, with a box of miscellaneous grass seeds? Only if you're a glutton for punishment.

You need to chose a species that is right for your garden and locale, that is not invasive and that will not present unreasonable challenges for you or your gardener.

Talk to us and we'll help you.

What is a 'quality lawn service'?

Glad you asked!

As experienced Garden Guys on Sydney's North Shore, we get to see a lot of grassed areas, lawns, jungles and gardens.

Let's just focus on what a quality lawn service is this time.

So many of the grassed areas we see are just that: grass. The previous lawn service that has worked the property has just 'tip cut' the lawn so that it looks tidy so that they can take their fee. The work is done to maximise their profit and to let the less knowledgeable customer think they have had their land serviced. It's a horribly deceptive practice.

Tip cutting is running a mower over a lawn to bring it to something roughly approximating a level surface, but with no regard to the lawn's past or future. It's the kind of work that non-professional lawn service people and home owners do. It speaks loudly about laziness and a lack of commitment to the final product. This is a shameful and reprehensible practice and we can't do it. Go get a franchise service to under-service and over-charge you if that's your preference.

Cutting a lawn properly, as a professional, involves rather a lot more. Of course, the benefits are far greater, despite the cost being around the same.

So many sites we visit that have previously been serviced by 'brand name' mowing services lack even basic edging! By this, I mean that the edges may have been cut more than one year ago. On some sites, I have found obstructions such as fallen branches which were mowed around for a very long time. Disgraceful!

Edging the nature strip, the garden beds and paths is part of our basic service. You're hiring a lawn service because you want a professional finish - not because you want to be cheated. My Garden Guy offers and delivers that professional finish as our basic service. You want to look good because your grounds look great. We want you to look good and fel confident that you can say "My Garden Guy did it!"*

Seasonal services include timely fertilisation, aeration, moss removal and more. If you care about the visual and practical appeal of your lawns, then we're ever so happy to assist you reach those goals. 

We're here to service your needs. You are our client. We're committed to you, your needs and lifestyle.

Allow us to make the difference. For you.


* If you're a client of My Garden Guy and you refer a client, you're eligible for a discount on your next lawn service. Ask us for details.

Couch Grass - Common, but unfavourable.

In previous editions, we've talked about a few common grass species which are prevalent on the North Shore. Those are:

• Buffalo
• Kikuyu and 
• Couch. 

We've already explained that Buffalo has generally positive characteristics for your lawn and garden and that Kikuyu is a generally unpleasant lawn species. This time, we'll explain Couch grass.

Simply put, Couch grass is a perennial grass, much like Kikuyu. It shares a few characteristics what that 'orrid species in that it is invasive and if it isn't properly managed can become quite a disaster on your property.

In the past, it was considered to be favourable because it had soft blades compared to Buffalo. Earlier Buffalo species were known as "old scratchy" in some places because it was a very coarse-leafed grass and wasn't much fun for the kids to play on. Modern buffalo species have been bred to remove some of those unfavourable characteristics, including the 'purpling' that old species display in winter.

However, much like Kikuyu and some others, Couch grass is a high maintentance species. If you don't undertake a rigorous maintenance schedule, there is a very high chance that you will have 45 cm tall grass in a very short time. With a little less attention and good growing conditions, it's possible for it to grow to 150 cm in one season! It is an excellent grower and makes some decent fodder for some pets (goats, sheep, etc). Chances are that quite a few of those 'weeds' in your garden are Couch grass. In my garden, I know they are!

For modern lifestyle purposes, Couch grass is just a pain in the hindquarters.

If you're installing new turf, don't think of the cost savings by choosing this weed at installation time. Consider the cost of maintenance and how much commitment you can make to maintaining and containing this species.

You're most welcome to comment below or make contact with My Garden Guy if you have any questions.

Next edition, we'll talk about those fun packs of grass seeds available from hardware stores. What is in those packs may shock you. 

Kikuyu - Accursed Grass Species.

In an earlier post, the three dominant lawn species on the North Shore were mentioned:

• Buffalo
• Kikuyu and
• Couch. 

Buffalo is the dominant local species but with so many older homes around here, the other two are also quite often found and usually as an invasive species.

In the past, Kikuyu was seen to be a panacaea for lawns. It's fast growing, it's pretty much self-healing and it fitted in with that ideal of a close-napped species which was ideal for very short lawns. Best of all, it was cheap and fashionable. Times and fashions change, as do environmental sensibilities.

These days, it's classified as a noxious weed in some parts of Australia.

Owing to its growing habit of being thickly matting and being an aggressive grower, it is a high maintenance lawn. While that was more acceptable in the past, most householders are now time-poor and end up with a matted mess which takes considerable work to correct if the maintenance schedule slips. As an aggressive grower, it will find its way into garden beds and other places it shouldn't be. It can choke out many plants of much higher value. It also is reputed to exude a toxin which kills other plants.

An untended Kikuyu lawn can grow up to 300 mm in less than eight weeks - sometimes up to 450 mm in optimal conditions. Owing to its dense growth habit, mowing at this stage is a serious undertaking. It can be quite costly and time consuming to return that wild and wooly growth to being a lawn, let alone a common grassed area. 


Overall, it's nasty and high-maintenance. If you have recently purchased a property which has a couch lawn, consider having it killed off and tilled back into the ground and new turf installed. You will be much happier for many more years than trying to fight this monster.



If you're considering a new lawn or patching an existing one, please consider one of the modern soft-leaf Buffalo varieties. There is not a big cost difference at purchase and installation time, but there is a massive cost difference for maintenance in the long term.


Questions? You're welcome to e-mail us and we'll help you or you can leave a comment below.

Next time, we'll talk about Couch grass.

Apologies for the delay in this new post. It has been busy here!

Identifying lawn species is critical not only to using weed control, but also fertilisation. Choosing the wrong herbicide or the wrong fertiliser, at the wrong time of year could be fatal to your lawn.

Here, on Sydney's North Shore, there are three dominant lawn species:

• Buffalo
• Kikuyu
• Couch

There are quite a few other species mixed into some lawns. We call those ones 'Heinz Lawns' because they have '57 varieties' of grasses comprising the lawn.

Let's learn about the most popular lawn variety: Buffalo.

Technically, Buffalo is a warm season grass which means, obviously, that it grows most during the warmer months. During winter, it slows down. In this temperate environment, it keeps growing, but at a slower rate.

The structure of Buffalo grass is slightly unusual compared to some others. It has stolons (above ground runners) but no rhizomes (underground 'runners'). This makes it very easy to propagate from excess runners, if you're trying to patch on the cheap.

The greatest appeal of Buffalo lawns is that they are very resilient and grow well in a diverse range of conditions - from bright sunny areas to semi-shaded places, and in both damp and dryish conditions. The super-thick density of this grass makes it great for occluding weeds.

Maintenance-wise, it's good to mow Buffalo every four weeks during winter, every three weeks during spring and autumn and every two weeks during summer. In some places, it may be necessary to mow it weekly during summer to maintain that superior and well cultured growing habit.

Despite a cultural desire for super-short grass, it's not a good idea for Buffalo. The length of the blade of grass should be between 30 mm and 65 mm, depending on the season and how much sun the lawn will receive. The right length will give the benefit of being a pleasant looking lawn, lovely to walk on and for the kids to play on, as well as being a healthy lawn, a great carbon-sink and give you the big benefit of reduced additional maintenance cost.

With autumn and spring fertilisation, you can be assured that your Buffalo lawn will be beautiful, healthy and be a real asset to your property and lifestyle.

The downside of this kind of grass is that it is technically a broadleaf grass, which means that certain kinds of weed killers will kill both the weed and the lawn. This is not a good thing. If you're hiring a professional to manage your lawns, then you will have nothing to worry about. Otherwise, make sure that all products you use are marked as 'safe for Buffalo', and then cross your fingers.

Bear in mind that many Buffalo lawns on the North Shore are very old and may have had poor maintenance at some time in their life. One of the signs of a poor maintenance history is sponginess. You can try to fix this yourself, but it might be better to choose a professional lawn maintenance service such as My Garden Guy to use a controlled maintenance program which will improve the lawn's condition.

If you would like to know more, you're welcome to make contact and we'll help you.

Lawn Species Identification - Why Bother?

A well cared for lawn is indeed a thing of beauty! Its pleasant colour, the smell after it has been freshly mown and how it improves your property value are all beneficial. A good lawn is also a great carbon trap too!

Knowing what species your lawn is can be very important. When it comes time to fertilise or to kill weeds which will almost invariably spring up, knowing your lawn type is so important. Here's why:

The most common kind of weed killer in use all around the world is glyphosate. It's also known as Round Up. If you use it around some kinds of lawns, then there won't be much trouble. If you use it around other kinds of lawns, you can expect dead or seriously injured lawns.

There are many other kinds of weed killer which are effective against many kinds of weeds, but they're also effective against that precious lawn you're trying to cultivate.

Weed and feed products often work by feeding the lawn with an unusual NPK ratio so that some of the usual weeds are killed merely by over-fertilising. These kinds of products are intended to be banned in some parts of the world for a variety of reasons, and that probably means that Australia will follow suit too some time.

Ready to learn how to identify which lawn species you have?

Drop back tomorrow for the next installment in this series.

Leeches - Nasty Little Suckers.

Leeches - I hate 'em!

With all the wet weather around Sydney right now, and over the past few days and earlier this year, leeches are really active and plenty!

Earlier this year, with the high rainfall and warmer temperatures, dormant leeches were revived and plentiful. After the El Nina cycle was reportedly over and Sydney's summer, or something close to it resumed, leech activity dropped off.

When you're in the garden, be aware that these little blood-suckers can show up. Most reports indicate that they don't do anything more than steal a little blood over a few hours. However, improper removal can cause the leech to regurgitate into the wound they create, and that may cause various health issues.

In our line of work, in gardens all over Sydney's North Shore, they do show up. We wear proper work boots with quality cotton socks and heavy full length trousers and we still experience leech 'attacks'. Some of our colleagues recommend gaiters, mud gaiters and even heavy cotton drill 'leech socks'.

The best way to deal with leeches is insect repellent. If you don't seem tasty to a leech, then they won't stay around. If you use commonly available types of insect repellent spray on your exposed skin and clothes and footwear, then you're reducing the chance of a leech visiting you for a feed. Mostly, leeches climb over your footwear and attach themselves to the the nearest flesh they can find. Thus, if you repel 'em lower down, then the chances for a love match with a leech are reduced.

There are stronger repellants available, but there are stories about ones high in DEET causing troubles with leather and synthetic materials. DEET products are great, but work better if they're properly used, which includes, as we understand it, washing off treated skin and materials daily.

Some other repellant products exist and are similarly efective, but less troublesome for leather and plastic. I can't tell you their names because they don't pay me to endorse their product. However, I'm sure that if you Google for leech repellant, you'll find some excellent solutions that meet your need and some lovely stories from hikers and garden contractors from all over the world.

Some modern types suggest to let the little sucker have its feed and then drop off to reduce the risk of infection by improper removal, and of course to let nature take its course, let the leech have a feed for a couple of hours or so and just naturally drop off. I'm not sure that they have the same sentiments about other more significant predators and their feeding habits. I'm sure a tiger or a lion would drop off after a couple of hours too...

Leeches? I still hate 'em.

Apologies for delayed posts...

I must apologise for a serialised post about N:P:K (NPK) ratios being posted all at the same time.

For some reason, Google's scheduler seems to have become senile, forgetful or otherwise lost its tiny mind and didn't publish any articles for the past few days.

Hope you're having a really great weekend too!

Cheers - My Garden Guy.

NPK Ratios in Fertiliser... and What to Do.

In our last edition, we mentioned the differences in N:P:K ratios and what their effects are. This time, we'll tell you what to do. 

Testing is the first thing that must be done. 

The facts about the garden bed or lawn must be established. Soil testing is a prerequisite. By testing the soil, you can discover the chemical composition of the soil. Depending on the test series used, the soil's pH level can also be discovered. Together, the N:P:K and the pH will give useful information which can be used to determine how the soil needs to be amended. 

Amending soil is a both and art and a science. Usually, people look at a soil sample and either consider it clay or sand or loam, and then treat the whole garden to amend it. That's a really simple process but it just doesn't work. Within any property, there can be a few different soil conditions which may need to be dealt with separately, especially for the different plants growing in each place. 

After all, if you're growing lillies out front, they need their own soil conditions. Likewise, those camellias and azaleas also need their peculiar soil and moisture conditions. When it comes to your favourite fruit trees out back, citrus and apples and stonefruit (peaches, apricots, etc) need different soil characteristics. 

Using simple methods, like the 'one size fits all' treatment we mentioned in the last article, will only cause probable survival of your plantings. It comes down to your desire for your plants to survive or thrive. Survive? It just means keeping your plants alive. Thrive? It means making the plants really produce fruit and flowers and to grow vigorously. If you're even a little bit keen on having a nice garden, then you want your plants to thrive.

Catch up with us in the next edition and find out about how to make your plants thrive, using simple science. 

NPK Ratios in Fertiliser.

A lot of information that you find on the internet talks about N:P:K ratios in fertiliser. It seems simple enough, even if you have only completed some high school chemistry, but it's actually slightly more complicated when it comes to gardens. 

Let's start with the basics:
* N is Nitrogen. 
* P is Phosphorus
* K is Potassium. 
You may remember thisfrom chemistry at school when you were forced to commit the periodic table to memory, including all lanthanides and actinides. 

Each of these three simple elements have an effect on plant life. Here's how:
* Nitrogen gives good greening
* Phosphorus encourages good rooting and fruiting
* Potassium assists vigour.

Getting the combination right at the right time of year for the plant species being fertilised is important. After all, if you promote vigorous growth around Autumn for a plant that should be dormant in the Winter months ahead, you may just kill it. 

Likewise, excess of one or the other of these elements may not be beneficial for some species. For example, too much phosphorus can have a bad effect on some Australian native trees, bushes and shrubs. 

So, what do you do?

Read our next edition and we'll tell you!

NPK Ration - The Final Steps to a Great Garden

In the last edition, we talked about how different NPK ratios are needed for different plants and how in each part of your property, its possible to have different soil types and soil conditions so that your shrubs, tree, bushes, fruits and vegies are looked after properly - so that they thrive. 

To make your garden thrive through soil amendment, the plant types in each area of your garden need to be identified. Through correct species identification, it's easy to determine what their optimal fertilisation requirements and soil pH are. If the wrong fertilisation is applied, and the soil pH isn't suitable, then there can be less favourable results. 

Similarly, you need to make a decision to use conventional approved fertilisation or choose organic methods. For the best result in remediating gardens that haven't had detailed attention, a combination of the two methods will give you the best result, in the least time and for the least cost. Using only one or the other will give results, but on a different timescale. 

There is one more method: permaculture. It's really amazing and has very sensible and beneficial outcomes, especially if you have fuly 'green' intentions, but the timescale can be longer and less efficient compared to modern sensibilities, and does usually require more maintenance. We'll talk about that in detail in a later posting. 

Your garden needs to be surveyed for which species are present and which ones you want to keep. When you choose to amend your soil, it's a great time to improve your garden design and choose new plantings. In some cases, where native plants are growing naturally and doing well in depleted or poor soils, it's better to leave Mother Nature to do her good work.

After all the information is in, then the work can be planned. The result? Your garden will become ever more beautiful, and truly thrive and be even more enjoyable.

We would love to do this work for you. Visit our website and ask about a quotation. 

Everyone has seen all the tv shows about renovating a house, haven't they? Go on - raise your hand if you have.

There are also some shows about garden renovation and they make it look so easy! In the short space of the 'one hour' program, they transform something that might look like your backyard into a thing of beauty, and with practical aspirations!

Obviously, it takes far longer than an hour. And of course, for those shows it takes a horde of highly paid, exceedingly photogenic, massively caffeinated folk a considerable amount of time.

Let me say from the outstart - we're not a horde, we're not particularly photogenic and we're only lightly caffeinated (two double espressos per day is our limit!) - but we're determined to do the best quality work for you, for an agreed quoted price and to leave you with a smile on your face and in your heart at the end of the project.

Garden renovation is a lot of things. It can be a massive one-shot project which involves ripping out everything and starting from scratch, right down to a consistent program of changing things little by little. It's up to you, your needs and desires and your budget.

What garden renovation is really about is making your garden and land into something that's realy personal, practical and beautiful.

Making it personal is, well, personal. There are plants that you like, design aspects that delight your eyes and personal ambitions.

Practicality is about making the space work for how you live and how you want to use it. You may have a deep love of cactii, but that could be a problem if you have children or if their position is too close to where people may walk carelessly.

Beauty? That is in the eye of the beholder. It's your garden and you know what you think is beautiful.


The works can be done as a one-shot project or as part of an ongoing maintenance schedule. All at once or bit by bit - It's up to you.

Why don't you contact My Garden Guy? We can work wonders on your property's garden renovation, personally.

Lawn Professionals? Who? What?

So what's this stuff about "Lawn Professionals" for private homes? Isn't it just mowing the lawn?

In most pursuits in life, there are those hobbyists and those who do things themselves out of necessity, as well as some who receive payment for a task but are still in the hobbyist/enthusiast category. On the other hand, there are those whose primary duty is to do that thing and be paid for it.

Lawn professionals fit into that last category. They have a duty to do the best work that can be done for you, at an agreed rate. Their part of the bargain is to be well equipped, well trained and very knowledgeable about their work. Additionally, they should be fully insured and a paid-up member of the relevant industry association.

In Australia, ILMCoA (Independent Lawn Mowing Contractors Association of Australia) is the peak body for independent lawn and garden service, creation and maintenance providers. With thousands of members across this wide brown land, they're making your patch of green one that is worthy of positive comment and admiration.

What truly separates a domestic lawn professional from the beer money, bargain basement mower guy is the professional's commitment to the lawn and garden industry, ongoing professional development and a keen interest in all of the technical aspects of their work. The result of those combined facets is a superior quality result for you, the loyal client.

The technical knowledge of a lawn professional is usually quite encyclopaedic. They are, for want of a better description, they are "lawn nerds". They know each species of lawn, its specific requirements and what to do with it to make sure it looks its best. The lawn professional's machinery is quite different from those other guys: it's well maintained, with sharp blades and is usually very clean. Their equipment may look the same to an untaught eye, but is usually of very high quality and perhaps highly modified to achieve a superior result in a cost-effective manner. Your benefit from this attention to detail is a quality result, and in particular a lawn that is cleanly cut rather than beaten into submission, battered, bruised, damaged and open to disease and eventual damage and death.

I challenge you. If you're using a "beer money Bob" to do your lawns for the lowest bid or if you're doing it yourself (and making yourself tired and frustrated in the process), choose an ILMCoA member to work on your lawn and garden. Do it for one season. You will see the difference.

My Garden Guy is a lifetime member of the ILMCoA. If your property is in our service area, we would be proud and pleased to give you no cost and no obligation quote for your lawn mowing and garden services.

Considering some plantings for your garden? Have you seen the price of plants lately? Scary, isn't it?

If you could pay around the same price for the plants, but have someone else do the hard work, would you be interested?

My Garden Guy has arrangements with commercial growers. We supply plants to our clients at wholesale rates. By the time the plants are installed, the price is about the same, or probably lower, than buying the plants from a retail nursery. Here's a hint: Buxus japonica (Japanese Box) from less than $3 (10 cm tube), Magnolia exmouth (40 cm pot) from $159, Mango RE2 (40 cm pot) from $165 and more... Considering the retail price for a 15 cm pot of Agapanthus spp is about $20, this is an exceptional offer!

Want to update your garden? Feel the need for more flowers, shrubs and fruiting trees? We understand and we want to help. Home-grown flowers and fruits are not only better for you, and the envrionment, but they also are more deeply rewarding.

Drop by mygardenguy.com.au and arrange a consultation and quote.

Please be aware: Plant sales and installation for these special offers are only available to clients who are financial and who have had two or more lawn services, and for the new plantings to happen at the same time as your next regular lawn service. Loyalty has its benefits. Enjoy our client loyalty program. We'll gladly help everyone else, but the service price will differ.Offer availability is limited and will be withdrawn without notice.

Autumn Lawn Fertilisation

Autumn is well and truly here in Sydney! The mercury is dropping at a rate of knots and all the summer plants, crops and lawns are slowing down and getting ready for the cooler and drier period ahead.

That means it's time for planting winter crops, doing some work on your citrus trees and lawn fertilisation. 

Fertilising in a lawn in autumn? Yes, really. A good feed for your lawns now will make sure that they really bounce back in Spring because you've given them something to eat before winter and will have enough remaining as they arouse from dormancy in Spring. Logical, really. 

Additionally, it's time to aerate. Lawn aeration, also called lawn coring, is a process where small cores of soil are removed from the lawn so that air, water and nutrient can reach the lawn's root system more easily. At this time, dressing the lawn with a good quality compost and adding a lawn fertiliser with low nitrogen, high phosphorous and low potassium will go a long way to making sure your lawn will look amazing in spring.  It's a great idea to do this every second or third year.

Some lawn and garden guys and home owners tend to go overboard with chemical fertiliser and greening agents in Spring.

Autumn and Spring fertilisation for lawns actually have different nitrogen - phosphorus - potassium ratios, because they are designed to assist different aspects of the grass. Autumn fertilisation is about strengthening the root system and spring fertilisation is about sustained quality growth of the grass blades, and more.

Spring fertilisation is a necessity because as the lawn wakes up from its winter slumber, its usually very hungry and needs feeding to make it ready for the Summer ahead. However, it's less efficient and more costly to do one 'big fertilisation' than two smaller ones.

Autumn fertilisation actually helps improve lawn strength - saving you money for lawn mowing and for fertilisation in spring. It truly makes your lawn thrive.

After all, when the lawn is really thriving, it naturally excludes weeds and becomes really luscious - a delight to walk on and something amazing to look at. Is your lawn a bit sketchy? Is a neighbour's quite a bit better? See what I mean? 

We can do it for you. Drop by our website and arrange a quotation.

It's Hedge Time!

Lots of people think of hedges as the classical English hedgerow and some of the flights of fancy of topiary. Those traditional examples are very beautiful. However, there are lots of plants and shrubs which can make great hedges. Chances are, you already have some on your property. 

If you have plants that are very leafy and bushy, there's a good chance that they can be shaped and made into a hedge or a topiary. The skills required for hedging and topiary are difficult to attain or time consuming or both. However, professionals tend to have the skills, equipment and physical strength to do that work both in a timely and cost effective manner. There are some tricks to hedge trimming which involve improving the core structure of the plant to enhance its growth. 

Typically, Buxus species (aka the common box hedge plant) are used for hedging around Sydney. It's almost ubiquitous in new developments because of the stylish aesthetic. Buxus japonica is delightfully small and makes for wonderful low hedging and other varieties grow to varying heights. 

If you want to choose Australian native hedges, then you can always consider the various lilli pilli (Syzygium  spp) varieties. Some of these flower at times of the year so you can really get a wonderful splash of colour as well as having a nice, refined hedge. It's a good idea to check with your local nursery or have your gardener advise you because some suitable varieties may be too short or too tall for your purposes. 

It's a great time of year for hedging work to be performed. The extra aggressive growth from summer and early autumn that can look so untidy can be removed so that your hedges look smart and clean for almost all of winter. 

Naturally, My Garden Guy performs hedge maintenance, including topiary maintenance. We can look after your hedging desires from planting to maturity. We also are skilled at remediating hedges that have gotten away and need some help. Drop by our website and ask about a quotation just for you.

Lantana: Noxious weed extraordinaire.

In some parts of the world, lantana is considered attractive and desirable. In most of Australia, it is considered to be a really nasty noxious pest and is often discussed in terms that I can't use here.

A dear friend who is an IT specialist who has tried to remove it himself says "Napalm it, salt the earth and burn it again... and it will still come back..." Lantana really is that persistent on the East Coast of Australia.

Wikipedia mentions that it only grows to around 2 metres tall. Frankly, that's just not true. At a quoting inspection of a property on the north shore, it was around 4 metres tall, having climbed its way up eucalypts and having suffocated the native ground-level flora in the process. That site is now under a garden maintenance agreement and is starting to take shape after fifteen years of neglect prior to the current owner purchasing it. At a friend's acreage on the Central Coast, a similar situation has happened and it is up to six or more metres tall and destroying native vegetation faster than he can assault it. I hope to bring photos to you of these ecological disasters in a later posting.

In most local government areas in NSW, lantana is considered a noxious plant and must be removed. In some locales, removal may be enforced legally and may cause the land owner to be fined or subjected to involuntary removal at the land owner's expense.

The reason it must be removed is that it reproduces so actively that any area which is not occupied by other plants can soon be occupied by lantana. Even then, it can still take hold by blocking light to other low-level flora and eventual use of their decomposing material for its own advantage.

On one site where we only mow lawns, there was a minor lantana infestation on a neighbouring site. Within two months, seeds from the neighbour had already landed on and germinated in a remote part of our client's site - and were already more than half a metre tall! That site now has a full garden maintenance agreement - and no lantana.

Lantana spreads aggressively. Various fauna, but most often birds, tend to eat the seeds and then evacuate those somewhere else. Lantana seeds coupled with free fertiliser (i.e. bird droppings) usually causes a very viable, and exceedingly undersirable, germination.

Permaculturists have a love-hate relationship with lantana. They feel that if it has occupied an area, its leaves and other biomatter contribute to a rich natural mulch which improve the soil prior to it being reclaimed for food production purposes. As a joke (I hope) some of them consider using a 'choko bomb' (choko wrapped in damp newspaper, thrown grenade-style into a lantana infestation) as an attack against lantana - the idea being that one noxious, yet food-producing, pest will overwhelm another. Additionally, in their opinion, it provides habitat for some fauna. While this is true, lantana infestations are pervasive and ever-increasing in size, destroying native plant habitat and increasing further proliferation of itself through natural growth and seed dispersal.

Lantana does create a habitat for a variety of species. Among those anecdotally noted are funnel web spiders and ticks. Both of those species aren't desirable as they are at least dangerous and fatal at worst. I'll vouch for ticks as I have been the unhappy host to a few, more than once, on lantana eradication jobs.

Lantana is horrible and a useless consumer organism in your private garden's biosphere. We hate lantana. It doesn't smell pleasant. It doesn't do anything positive for your land. It doesn't have a pleasing aesthetic. It is an introduced pest. Let's eradicate it!

You don't need us to remove your lantana. You can do it yourself and save money.  Here's how:

• Cut the infestation back to stumps about six inches tall. 
• Clear the infestation completely and dispose of the cuttings off site.* 
• Go back and cut the top inch off the stumps. Within ten seconds, paint the freshly cut stump with undiluted glyphosate (360 mg/l or stronger). If you wait longer than that, the plant's ability to self heal and sel will defeat your effort. 
• Allow the stumps to die and cease to create new growth. 
• In the meanwhile, determine what you would like to use your freshly cleared land for. 
• When you're ready to re-plant, pull the stumps out and dig the roots out as much as possible. Removing the stumps earlier will cause topsoil loss and cause you to unnecessarily spend on new topsoil and composting and mulching.
• You may need to treat again and remove new plants grown from seeds dropped in the previously infested area. Be vigilant.

Allow us to remove your lantana. Contact us via e-mail or Facebook, or request a quote.


* Off site disposal is the most desirable option. You can shred the cuttings with a mulching machine, but be sure that no seeds or flowers are included with the material, and make sure it is thoroughly composted prior to using it.


NB: If you would like to learn more about lantana's effect and hopes of eradication in Australia, you might like to visit these links:

TSRA - Best Practice for Lantana Eradication
Landline - New Hope in the Battle Against Lantana

It's just a first post, but I wanted to say 'hi' to everyone.

You can look forward to posts related to lawns and gardening on Sydney's north shore.

I'll do my best to share some pictures with you, if my customers will allow their properties to be seen in public. There are some amazing gardens up here and some clients are very particular about their privacy.

I'm looking forward to sharing the journey with you!

If you would like to know more about us, go visit www.mygardenguy.com.au - everything you need to know is there. If you have any questions, please call and we'll be ever so happy to help.