House Rules host Jamie Durie reveals DIY planting and gardening tips
For those wanting to get their hands dirty and start their own native garden, House Rules host Jamie Durie has revealed where gardeners must start.
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Celebrity gardener Jamie Durie has been hard at work in his garden during the COVID-19 crisis and has shared his top tips for planting flourishing natives.
Like a lot of Australians, Durie made the most of having more downtime while businesses were closed, by getting stuck into jobs that had fallen down his to-do list.
“I’ve had a pretty eventful isolation,” said Durie, host of Channel 7’s House Rules.
“I’ve had this house now for about four years and I’ve been wanting to build a garden for a long time, but just with the travel and how busy I’ve been, I haven’t really been in one place long enough to focus on getting the job done.”
Durie said he had been embracing Australian natives, filling his new plot with grevilleas, banksias and callistemons.
The plants are more than just a pretty sight, according to Durie, who said introducing more natives was vital for the country to recover from the recent devastating bush fires.
“If we want to regenerate our forests, my theory is we babysit the bees and we get the numbers of the bees up because they’re the pollinators that will help our flowering gums regenerate after the fires,” he said.
For those wanting to get their hands dirty and start their own native garden, Durie said it was important to start “from the ground up” and make sure the soil is right.
He recommended using mushroom compost, spagmoss, manures and worm castings to boost the soil.
“Now’s a great time to plant anything in the garden because the plants essentially go a little bit dormant — they slow down during the cooler months and they do a lot of work under the ground,” Durie said.
“When spring comes around in September, that’s when they start shooting and the flowers come into the fold. The leaves start getting more energy and more nitrogen. They start putting more energy into their leaf growth.”
Durie said among the vast benefits of planting natives was that they don’t require fertiliser or “tonnes of water”.
“Rather than forcing exotic species to grow in our harsh conditions, growing Australian natives is the easiest path forward,” he said.
“It’s better for the environment, it’s better for your hip pocket and it’s better for the birds and the bees.”
Originally published as House Rules host Jamie Durie reveals DIY planting and gardening tips