Categories
Interiors Addict

Ask a gardening question of Charlie Albone from Selling Houses Australia

Interiors Addict is teaming up with TV gardener Charlie Albone from Lifestyle Channel’s ever popular Selling Houses Australia.

Charlie Albone

If you have a gardening dilemma or would like a little green-fingered advice, please ask your questions in the comments below. We’ll pick some questions to answer at the end of next week.

Photo, courtesy of Foxtel, by Tarsha Hosking 

By Jen Bishop

Jen Bishop is our owner and publisher and an experienced journalist and editor. Interiors Addict has been her full-time job for more than 10 years. She is mum to two young boys and lives in Sydney.

9 replies on “Ask a gardening question of Charlie Albone from Selling Houses Australia”

Hi Jen & Charlie
My partner and I have built a house on an amazing waterfront block and have done little bits to it landscaping wise but feel it has some much more potential then were seeing – it’s also a slightly larger block and steeply sloping at the back to the water so it’s hard to know how to get best use out of it and have it look the best possible way it could? We want it to be a fun space yet contemporary and low maintanence!! We don’t ask much do we?

We’d love to hear your thoughts??!!

Thanks
Mandy & Brendon

Hey guys,
I’m building a new house this year, and won’t have an overly big backyard (10mx8m) but I still want lots of greenery and pretty colourful flowers, that will ideally be low maintenance and not require a lot of watering. The land is flat. Would love any ideas of what you think would be best to plant. There won’t be a lot of shade and I live in South Australia so the summers can get quite warm!! I have already bought 2 beautiful frangipani’s that I will plan to put in some big pots.

Thanks so much
Bek

Hi Jen and Charlie

We live in a unit with a rooftop terrace, and every year I try to find plants and veges that can last in the heat of summer and survive in pots. We’ve had limited success of course! I’d love to hear from Charlie on some suggestions that would work on the rooftop and look fab at the same time!

Thanks

Hi Jen & Charlie,
I have had a lemon tree for 3 years -planted in a new garden, but it hasn’t produced any fruit. I planted a lime tree close to it 1 year ago & it produced a few small limes. All of my other plants have thrived. What can I do to produce some fruit?

Thanks,
Rebecca

Hi Jen & Charlie,

We have just finished renovating our house and it is now time to tackle the yard! We have a large rectangular backyard with no gardens or landscaping, apart from two lovely shady trees on the back fence. My dilemma is how to landscape a rectangular yard without making it boring? How do we add interest and structure without doing the same old boring garden beds along the fence. Help! Down the track we would love to build a timber shed and pool so these need to be worked into the design. Our house is an old Queenslander so ideally we are after classic plants varieties with a hint of tropical. Any suggestions or tips you have on adding interest would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.
Elisha

Hello Jen and Charlie
We’re moving into an inner city house with a minuscule courtyard. Room to swing a very short-legged cat only. It faces North West and has a high (7 ft) wall all around it. My mind indulges itself in all sorts of fantasies of lush verdance but it’s hard to know how to achieve that, especially when we have two vast dogs who will regularly barge through the space, thus making it impossible to have many pots. My idea, therefore, is to have a vertical living wall but I’ve heard they are costly, temperamental and difficult. Do you have any comments or suggestions? Anything gratefully received!

Hi Charlie,
I want to do a timber cladding feature wall on the exterior of our home. it will be going above the front window and covering up existing timber from the seventies. It will run up towards the pitch of the eaves. And will have the brick walls of the house on either side of it. What would be the best timber to use? I was thinking tongue n groove V joint western red cedar? Or could I use treated pine? And if so (A) can I stain treated pine or is it best to use an oil with a stain it? (What’s a good product to use?) (B) if I don’t use a tongue n groove system and use like a decking timber can I just butt join them or does it need a small gap between the slats? Or is that dependant on what timber I use. Sorry for all the questions. Love your work, we never miss the show.
Thanks
Steve

Hi Jen & Charlie. Can you advise me on some native plans with wow factor that I can plant along my front fenceline. We are in subtropical Brisbane with heavy clay soil and very wet summers. The problem is that there is a water pipe right through the garden and the plants will be within 50cms of it. I would like some fast growing attractive natives that will grow to around 1.5metres with non invasive roots.
ps.. I love your work on Selling Houses Australia.
Look forward to your advice.
thanks.. Gail

Comments are closed.