Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

30/01/2025

🥑Your avocado is showing signs of Avocado Black streak disease.
🥑It causes dark steaks on the stem and a brown fuzzy felt like substance on the black streak.
This is a canker or fungal disease.

🥑It is best treated with a fungicide like Yates Liquid Copper or Fungus Gun.
🥑Ensure that the plant is watered regularly and has healthy enriched soil that drains easily.
🥑Don’t have a saucer under the pot as this will likely cause root rot which avocados are also subject to.

👩‍🌾Need One-on-One advice for your outdoor space?
My Private Consultation is your personal Q&A. Get in touch to book one in.

29/01/2025

Have you invested in the 2025 garden colour of the year yet? Read on to find out what it is, and how you can use it in your garden.

Teal in the garden offers the idea of calm crystal blue water without even having to lift a hose.

28/01/2025

🌴Are you looking for a tall shady plant for your vegetable garden-why not plant a banana?
💚These ones are perfect for Perth conditions and will grow between 2 and 5 metres tall.
💚The glossy green foliage with maroon/black stems will provide a stunning backdrop to your veggie patch. The black markings on the leaves are an added dramatic touch.

💚They are perfect for Perth with our mild winters and hot dry summers.
💚This is a self pollinating variety with small fruit that are creamy and deliciously sweet.
💚They will also look amazing as a huge Thriller in a large 1metre x 60cm container for that tropical look on a balcony or pool area.

👩‍🌾Dreamt of growing your food - herbs, fruit or vegetables?
Let me help you kick-start the journey - get in touch!

25/01/2025

💚Recharge in your garden this long weekend:
👉Continuously deadhead your flowering perennials to encourage more blooms right through the Summer months - I always have a pair of secateurs at the ready or a sharp fingernail for snipping off the heads of dead Salvia and Pelargonium flowers works just as well.
👉Get out the Seasol or Charlie Carp and your favourite watering can and give everything a delicious tonic over the leaves and the soil.
👉Stake up your Verbena Bonariensis and other tall flowering perennials that are leaning out over pathways or have fallen over in the wind.
👉Rake up Frangipani flowers and add to the compost or your FOGO bin.
👉Rake up leaves from the Queensland Box tree or Eucalyptus trees, as the soil underneath will be very dry. Your reticulation won’t pe*****te these leaves, add them to your compost or put them through your chipper before using as mulch.
👩‍🌾Do you have a specific plant problem?
Comment below and I’ll be in touch.

25/01/2025

💚Recharge your garden this long weekend:
👉Continuously deadhead your flowering perennials to encourage more blooms right through the Summer months - I always have a pair of secateurs at the ready or a sharp fingernail for snipping off the heads of dead Salvia and Pelargonium flowers works just as well.
👉Get out the Seasol or Charlie Carp and your favourite watering can and give everything a delicious tonic over the leaves and the soil.
💚Stake up your Verbena Bonariensis and other tall flowering perennials that are leaning out over pathways or have fallen over in the wind.
👉Rake up Frangipani flowers and add to the compost or your FOGO bin.
👉Rake up leaves from the Queensland Box tree or Eucalyptus trees, as the soil underneath will be very dry. Your reticulation won’t pe*****te these leaves, add them to your compost or put them through your chipper before using as mulch.
👩‍🌾Do you have a specific plant problem?
Comment below and I’ll be in touch.

23/01/2025

👀Scale is a sap sucking insect that if left untreated will probably kill your potted palms.
👀The covering that you see is the home of the scale to protect it while it sucks the sap out of your plants.
👀It is likely that you will also notice a sticky honey like substance and lots of activity by ants when Scale are present.
👀The ants come to milk the scale and take all that delicious honey dew back to their ant mound beneath the earth’s surface.
👀It is also food for black sooty mould to take hold of the host plant.

👍I spray with OCP Eco-oil until the plant is dripping and then a follow up spray in 10days to break the life cycle of the Scale. If you treat it before the infestation is really bad then you will have a better chance of success.

👩‍🌾Need a garden focus that everyone says WOW! Not sure how or what? I’m happy to help.

21/01/2025

🌸With aromatic foliage this is low growing and spreading.
• Long flowering and pollinator friendly.
• Can be used in containers or gardens.
🌸Height 10cm
Each plant will spread to 1.5m
🌸Loves the full sun
Botanical name Thymus serpyllium Candy Buttons
🌸Plant uses
• W**d suppressant for low maintenance areas
• Edging pathways or filling in around flagstones
• Cover walls or embankments
• Containers and hanging baskets
• Small gardens
• General garden use-great on the verge

💦Water requirements are quite low once established, quite dry tolerant requiring only occasional long soak during extended periods of heat.
☀️Select a sunny location in most soil types that are well draining. No pruning required. Fertilise after flowering.

👩‍🌾Ever wondered what soil is best for your garden and the plants you are growing?
I’m here to chat!

18/01/2025

I was so fortunate to see this video in action while in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a guest of Proven Winners. It really was incredible!

17/01/2025

☀️What to do in the garden this weekend☀️
💦Check that all of your pop sprinkler heads are working and pour a little boiling water around each one to prevent the lawn from consuming them
🪴Add a handful of Mature Compost to all of your containers and water them-healthy soil, healthy plants
🪰Hang Fruit Fly Traps and Baits
🌳Sit under the shade of a tree with a cool drink and immerse yourself in nature for a few minutes. Your week will be so much brighter.

👩‍🌾Gardening is fun! I’m here to guide you through the tricky times - your personal garden cheerleader.

16/01/2025

Gosh, it’s a scorcher out there today. It’s 42 C or 107 F !!! Grab a cool drink and hose in the other hand when you get home from work. Fill the birdbath and give your containers and hanging baskets a deep water. Water your roses and all of your cottage perennials. Check on the herbs, and your veggie patch. Everything might need a big DRINK!

15/01/2025

❓Q: What are these lumps on the stems of my lemon tree? And what do I do to get rid of them?
💥A: This is Citrus Gall Wasp. It is an Australian native wasp that lays its eggs in the gall (lump on your stems). Be on the lookout for it around all of your citrus but it mostly affects lemon trees in Perth.
💥You will need to cut off all of the affected branches and dispose of them in a plastic bag in your red-lidded bin. Not an option for the FOGO bin. 💥If the galls are old and you can see holes in them it means that the wasps have fled and gone on to lay eggs in a new citrus tree. There is no need to remove these old galls. Don’t believe the folks who tell you to scrape the bark with a vegetable peeler. Better to cut off the whole stem and dispose of it.
💥While it was first detected in Eden Hill a few years ago it is now widespread across Perth.
💥The gall wasp loves new growth so it is best to keep your citrus trees healthy by fertilising them regularly, every 7 weeks with a good quality citrus fertiliser-in Summer and Autumn rather than in Winter and Spring as this encourages lots new growth.
💥Report the Citrus Gall Wasp infestation to DPIRD

👩‍🌾Having difficulty growing your dream garden or filling your outdoor space with the most suited greenery?
My Consultation is what you need! Get in touch to chat.

14/01/2025

Something to do on your next watering day

Check to see how water efficient your irrigation system is by doing an easy DIY test using catch cups. Check for uneven results and application rate.

14/01/2025

In the heat of Summer in Australia when it's too hot to garden, why not spend some time on further education??? These webinars represent incredible value for money and the quality of these International speakers is outstanding. Check out these GardenComm webinars. Hort Media Australia Hort Journal Australia LIAWA - Landscape Industries Association of WA Water Corporation Kalamunda Garden Festival Nursery & Garden Industry of WA

14/01/2025

🥾Kick off your gardening week with a bang with this tough little exotic plant.
👀This is the first re-blooming form of Agapanthus to hit the market in Australia and it is just gorgeous.
🪴Perfect as your ‘Thriller’ in a large container
🪜Will only grow to about 0.5m tall
💜Sweet two tone white and amethyst coloured flowers with wide lush green leaves
🪣Plant at this time of the year by dunking the entire plant in its container into a bucket of water and Seasol until all the bubbles have subsided-removed from the pot and plant out into your container or the garden bed. This process reduces transplant shock and gives the plant a really good start in life. ☀️.Extremely drought tolerant once established.
🪴This useful plant will make a great border plant that flowers in Summer, Autumn and Spring-WOW!

👩‍🌾Do you need advice on the most suitableplants for your garden aspect?
Comment below 👇🏼and I’ll get in touch.

13/01/2025

Did you receive an orchid for Christmas? Here's how to keep it blooming for years and years.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gt1YSBrUh/

When your orchid finishes blooming, don't toss it. You can get it to bloom again and again and again. Here's how…💬

11/01/2025

👩‍🌾The perfect time for a Frangipani cutting transplant is right now! It’s one of the few plants that loves our Summer heat.

👩‍🌾I have had great success transplanting Frangipani cuttings at this time of the year.
1. Dig a deep skinny hole and place the cutting into the hole.
2. Add a little Mature Compost if you wish, but no water in the hole.
3. Place the cutting, regardless of the size (this works for really big ones as well as small ones) into the hole and pound the soil packing it tightly in around the main stem on the cutting. Really stomp down the soil with your size 10 boots!!!
4. Then leave it without water. It may lose some leaves but it’s ok, 👍 it will be fine.
It will start to establish roots at this time of the year while it is actively growing and the sap is flowing.

In the winter, the plant will be dormant and the cuttings will not take and often rot because they get too wet.

09/01/2025

🌳Don’t forget the outside of your home when selling.
🏡The outdoor space at the front and back of your home needs to enhance the lifestyle and neighbourhood you are selling as well.

👩‍🌾🪴Garden Staging by Andrea Whitely is a service that can be as big or small as required, from the use of specially selected indoor plants throughout your home and containers at the entrance to a big tidy up and prune of your garden.

🏡📈If you are selling in 2025, get in touch and we can discuss how to make your outdoor space look amazing before the photos are taken and Inspections begin.