Monday, April 23, 2012

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.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

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.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

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!

Friday, April 20, 2012

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

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

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.

Monday, April 16, 2012

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.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

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.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

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.

Friday, April 13, 2012

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.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

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.