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Koren Helbig smiling in her Adelaide garden with two raised veggie patches behind her and an outdoor table.

  • Regularly add compost and aged animal manure.
  • Mulch with bark chips, straw or a green manure — or, for a free version, 'chop and drop' weeds (before they go to seed) by cutting at the stem's base and leaving the leaves to slowly rot.
  • Make your own liquid 'weed' tea fertiliser by soaking weedy plants in water for a month or two, then diluting the resulting liquid and watering your garden.
  • Top up garden beds with 'no-dig' layers, alternating carbon-rich materials (such as autumn leaves) with nitrogen-rich materials (such as manure) in lasagne-like layers.
  • Buy biofertilisers enriched with living microbes.

A recycled, overturned wire cage protects a seedling from pests as it grows, keeping out birds, rats and possums.

A ladybug eats aphids on the leaves of a tree, showing that not all bugs are pests.

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