Many of us work within 4 walls –the office, come home in an enclosed compartment- the bus or car, and spend the rest of our time inside 4 walls- the inside of our home.
Have you ever wondered what is outside the door?
In many cases it is not very inviting, a slab of concrete, some lawn , maybe a tree or two and perhaps some gardens around the fence line.
What if when you opened the door you entered a stunning new “room”,   with an outdoor kitchen, possibly a pizza oven, a roof overhead but the sides open.  To one side you can hear the sound of water  “dancing”  as it cascades gently over some rocks or down a vertical wall.  The other side opens out to a small area of lush green lawn and a fragrant colourful garden or landscape.
                Peek around the corner of this room and there are the herbs and vegetables growing in a raised bed so you can have fresh greens from your own garden.
                This is but one scenario of what you could see in your garden or landscape if you ventured outside.
Why not invite our landscapers around so we can sit down together and discuss how you can make the most of your outdoor area.
You might be pleasantly surprised at the result. 

Distinctive Gardens - Brisbane Landscaping (Landscapers & Architects for Landscape Design and Maintenance)
Coorparoo, Brisbane, QLD
Telephone: 0412 725 388
Fax: +61 7 3397 2841
E-mail:Tony@distinctive-gardens.com.au

It is the second week of July but you wouldn’t know it was mid winter in Brisbane.
Normally, we would be experiencing cool mornings (8 to 10 Celcius) and clear sunny days.
This year we have had a lot of cloudy days with showers and rain periods.
Consequently some plants are showing signs of distress.
If you have planted vegetable and flower seedlings they may be showing signs of a root fungal disease.
This can show up as leaves starting to wilt even though the soil is quite moist.
Buy a product called “damp off” and use as per the instructions on the packet. It may not save the plants you have but it will get rid of the fungal disease that is causing the problem.

For those of you who love roses I have found that pruning them around the latter part of July in our climate here in Brisbane  has given me good results.  Each year is a little bit different  but generally in July is a good time.
Rather than give the bushes a hard cut back as the books and southern gardeners do, experiment with cutting some roses back by about a third.  Monitor their  growth for a season and if you are happy with the results then give all your roses the same treatment next year.  During the growing season I sometimes will prune quite vigorous roses back by the same amount and find about 6 to 8 weeks later we get a fabulous burst of flowers.  We can generate 3 or 4 good flushes of flower that way in our climate.  By regular feeding and spraying we have vases of roses in the house for most of the year.