We’ve all heard the advice to put gravel in the bottom of a plant pot, and some of us may even have done it. But gravel doesn’t improve drainage in any meaningful way, and you’re probably better off without it.

Temperatures have dropped like a rock, now that we're in winter, so it's time to start thinking about when to bring in your potted plants. OK, that part is easy: bring your plants in when nighttime temps drop to 8°C. But before you do it, make sure you do it right.

The City Of Sydney is giving away 1000 trees at Sydney Park this Saturday - including food-bearing varieties like oranges, lemons, grapefruit, pistachio and limes. There's no catch: simply rock up and choose a tree to adopt. Here are the details!

Even as the weather cools, you still have to mow the lawn. If you're confused about what type of mower you need or you're just looking to justify the cost of upgrading, read on.

The tomato was the pride of the Old World, exported across the globe, along with pasta it changed Italian cuisine, took a place of pride in salads and help create the Heinz empire. There is a reason tomatoes took off the way they did across cultures and culinary traditions. Tomatoes are remarkably easy to grow, reasonably forgiving if you forget to water, and reach maturity in only around two to three months.

I've seen some crazy things in my time: A man peeing into a public postbox in the city in the middle of the day while pedestrians pretend not to notice; a train forced to reverse course and creep backwards into the previous station while the conductor and motorman loudly panic in front of the passengers; three Rolls Royces casually street parked with no fear of being keyed. But the craziest thing I have ever seen is fancy florists offering simple white moth orchids for $110 each.

Indoor plants clean the air, make our spaces look great, and could also boost productivity. But choosing the right kind of indoor plant will depend on the kind of light we have and whether or not we tend to kill plants. That's where this flowchart comes in.

Among the many benefits they bring to your home, plants help clean the air. Are you returning the favour?

Video: Winter is the ideal time to plan your garden. If you're planting outdoors, it's also a good time to clear out weeds to keep them from seeding in your soil when the weather turns warm. It's also a great time to sow next year's seedlings.

Some people are less active in winter and so are some plants. They go dormant in extreme weather, such as freezing temperatures, then come out when conditions are better for them to grow. While dormant, a plant's leaves fall off and it might look dead. There's a good chance it isn't, though.

Terrariums are having their biggest moment since Queen Victoria was in power. A popular way to exhibit plants in the late 1800s, terrariums, called "Wardian Cases" in the Victorian era, were elaborate affairs that could take up an entire side table. These days, the smaller, simpler iterations line the windows of trendy shops and office desks. Here's how to build your own for a fraction of the cost of those fancy kits.

After brewing some tea, save the tea bags for your next plant potting or re-potting to give your plants a nutritional boost.

You are walking home from work when you pass the loveliest hydrangeas. At $8 for two stems at the local shop they are a steal and impossible to pass up. You bring them home, plunk them in a vase with some water, and forget about them for a couple of hours. The next thing you know, the perfect little blue petals are curling in, the whole thing is drooping, and the perky flowers you bought just hours ago are rapidly dying.

I grew up mowing a giant, mangy lawn. My family lived on an acre of hilltop land, which we kept shaggily mowed, too spiky to walk on in our bare feet. On one side was a cornfield. On the other side was our neighbour, Mr Howland, the Ned Flanders of lawn care. He seeded his lawn with fine golf-course-grade grass, mowed and sprayed it weekly, and even rolled it flat like an off-season Zamboni driver.

"Hygge" is a Danish word that essentially means the quality of cosiness, contentment and well-being. If you want to attain hygge in your household, one simple and cost-effective way is to invest in some plants. Unfortunately, they need to actually survive for it to work. This infographic looks at the types of houseplants first-time buyers and non-green thumbs should consider.

Ladybugs eat aphids. So if aphids are eating your potato plants, you might be tempted to mail-order a ton of ladybugs (yes, this is a thing you can do) to solve your garden woes. There's a flaw in that plan, though: When you release ladybugs, they fly away.

There's an easy way to test whether your garden soil has a healthy population of bacteria and worms: Bury a pair of 100 per cent cotton underwear, and wait two months.

Sage is one of those herbs that makes every dish just a bit more autumnal and you should make a point to have it on hand throughout the season. To get the most flavour from the herb, you have to know how to buy and store it properly.

Strawberries are delicious no matter how you eat them, but there's actually a way to make their sweetness even more flavorful. You've probably been eating strawberries backwards the whole time.