I review these products during tasks I personally carry out within my garden on a regular basis. Using the right product or tool for the job makes the difference of doing it the easy way or the hard way, so I really value a product which can make my life easier.

I am hoping that garden related companies will send me ‘products’ to test and evaluate. However I must stress that I will not be anything but fair and make no promises to these companies other than to tell the truth. Many of the products here are what I have already purchased for my own gardening use and are happy with.
You may ask, what are your qualifications? Well Judy and I opened our garden through the ‘Australia's Open Gardens’ for
10 years. We now open to support a specific charity.
We had our 18th Open Garden in 2019.
We won Gardening Australia’s 2009 ‘Golden Trowel’, have appeared on the ‘Garden Guru’s and ‘Gardening Australia’ twice and on various other television shows. We have given over 200 presentations to garden clubs on Sub tropical gardening and open our garden for bus tours. What is more important is that we have learnt from our gardening mistakes.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Sugar Cane Mulch Brisbane

I am often asked what sort of much I recommend.
I only use sugar cane in bales, I find that this coarse mulch does not compact and allows rain and fertilizer to flow through and reach the soil, whereas other fine mulches will compact and any rain will drain off.
The other benefits of sugar cane are:
 It is virtually weed free;
Good for controlling weeds;
Easy water penetration and moisture retention;
Reduces the need for watering;
Promotes earthworms;
Prevents soil erosion; and returns nutrients back into the soil.



We apply sugar cane twice a year using around 160 bales every year (we have a big garden).
We apply it to a depth of 3 “or 75 mm and ensure the soil is moist prior to spreading.
Remember that by mulching your garden you are INSULATING your soil, so the most important time to mulch is prior to winter.

Now where do you get it and how much?
We get ours delivered (10 bales or more is free delivery) at $5.50 a bale by Andrew Currant from Norwell. His contact details are farm (07)55462303 and mobile 0414458175.
My garden blog is found at http://ianjudy.blogspot.com/

Friday, September 3, 2010

Garden Product Review: Pruning Fruit Trees with a Fiskars Pruner

It’s that time of the year when the Custard Apple trees need pruning back, you can always tell when the leaves start to turn yellow and drop. Like all fruit trees they are best kept to a size which is relatively easy to maintain.
My problem is that I have six of them and they take a lot of pruning.
This year Fiskars came to my rescue and provided me with a log reach pole pruner to review which I really appreciated.


It certainly made trimming the lower branches easy but was not long enough to get all the way to the top of the trees, for this they make a telescopic pruner which I had already purchased several years ago, so with these two pruners I was able to complete the job without too much effort.
The trimmer head swivels 26 degrees, cuts branches up to 32mm thick and has a reach of 1.58 metres.
Like all garden tools these cutters require some maintenance, usually a quick spray with WD 40 or a similar lubricant.
The products are made in Finland and are excellent quality, you can expect years of hard work out of them and they have a lifetime warranty.
My garden blog: http://ianjudy.blogspot.com/