The State of the Environment report (SOE) released in July 2022 certainly reminded us of the challenges we face overcoming a stressed environment. Impacts on biodiversity caused by habitat loss, degradation and introduced invasive species continue to contribute to extinctions and deteriorating ecosystems.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy John Fitzsimmons
Melbourne’s Caulfield Racecourse recently hosted the 5th Landscape Show, a unique trade-focussed event in Australia that has certainly hit a sweet spot with landscape suppliers, designers and tradies.
Despite the high demand calling people to work sites, and a challenging Melbourne winter, the landscape sector, exhibitors and visitors, really seem to have embraced this event and the Caulfield indoor-outdoor site works well.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Karen Smith
As I made my way around the recent Queensland Garden Expo held in Nambour recently, I observed that this was an event for true gardeners with a thirst for horticultural knowledge from the best in the industry. This annual event has reached its 37th year.… Continue reading
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Presentation of the Green Space Award to the family members of the Wakka Wakka people (Image: Alan Burnell)
By Michael Casey
The Australian Institute of Horticulture (AIH) and its members are practitioners of horticulture across a wide range of disciplines, the majority of which are related in most ways to the improvement of healthy living.
‘Green Space’ as a development, renovation or its preservation, can take many forms especially as urbanisation becomes more acute.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Patrick Regnault
The placement of plants in a garden is what makes the design a success or a failure. It may not be seen straight away but as the plants grow, we may find that the small shrub we have used in a garden design is in fact a sprawling, 3m monster, or what was believed to be a small tree is in fact a large shrub.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Stuart Elder
In my first days as Curator at Rockhampton Botanic Garden last September, I was struck with a very welcoming and familiar sight dressed in bright pink shirts, the Friends of the Botanic Gardens!
Having worked for many years in various roles for The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, I was very familiar with the various programs that were run under the Foundation and Friends Inc.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy John Fitzsimmons
Centuries of growing experience and science have gone into today’s knowledge of plant nutrition, recorded in innumerable texts, digital records and oral histories. While science is science, the foregoing has also resulted in many interpretations and opinions. This is not the time or channel for a comprehensive review but we can consider a few basic ideas and definitions.… Continue reading
Read MoreBACKGROUND: As part of the levy-funded project ‘Ensuring business continuity during biosecurity incursions – social and economic research learnings for the production nursery industry’ (NY18010) a survey of production nurseries was undertaken which sought to examine the social and economic impacts of biosecurity incursions.… Continue reading
Read MoreMelbourne-based Bardee, founded in 2019 by ex-architect Phoebe Gardner, and entomologist Alex Arnold, along with their team of entomologists, technicians, operators and leaders have created a world-first vertical farming system that prevents food waste turning into methane and recycles the nutrients back into the food system using insects.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Dan Austin
It is an unfortunate reality that to help us remember things easily, sometimes topics are over-simplified. The five food groups and the proportions we were told to eat growing up for example. Teachings that were simple but have since been adjusted, and found to be far more complex or even downright wrong.… Continue reading
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