Margaret Simons

Returning from travels, the gardener finds the wild profusion of growth that summer entails, and her place in the work of taming and protecting.

The garden takes root in the memory as much as in the soil, and can bring solace to the traveller far from home.

The garden is not beholden to the Apostle Paul’s creed, in that the gardener does not always reap what is sown – sometimes the harvest is greater.

The warming weather brings jasmine into bloom – the power of its scent is to evoke old memories and to forge new ones.

The winter gardener rejects textbook directives to withdraw and attend to her tools, and instead nurtures the tiny perfection of the garden to come.

The shortest day of the year approaches as an invitation for the gardener to consolidate – to do less, better.

The liminal spaces are where interesting things happen, where change is effected – in the garden, as in life.

Memories sharpened by grief offer glimpses of a home and a garden that were the fruits of love and labour.

Time away from the garden allows weeds, like dust, to gather – a reminder of the limits of control and how everything ultimately yields to the life cycle.

The curl of possum tails around branches evokes for the author the unsettling sentience of climbing plants and things that grasp.

The failure of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan to recover sufficient water to avert further environmental damage has pushed the government towards more buybacks, infuriating farmers and state politicians.

Life in the garden is about the balance of seasonal temperatures, light and shade, kindness and cruelty – and sometimes it’s about the spaces in-between.

Determined not to add to her pile of plastic pots, the author embarks on the meditative practice that is raising seedlings.

In the midst of a deathly, monotone winter, life is getting ready to burst out – including the narcissists of the plant world.

The moth vine casts its shadow over the garden, from which the author manages to salvage a benediction.

What began as a fresh and neatly paved area transformed over the years into a lived space of success, failure and memory.

The gardening media has no place for the compromised gardener, who finds beauty in ugliness, bounty in neglect and hope in the unruly silverbeet.

From a Melbourne backyard to community cultivation in Manila’s slums, the garden offers autonomy, human connection and a firmer footing in a turbulent world.

The same restless energy and wildness that stirred the pilgrims is alive in the gardens of inner-city Melbourne.

A reflection on the lilies of Galilee, the orchid of the building site and the karmic power of poo bags.

A toxic plant, allowed to thrive due to wilful ignorance, becomes an invading force that threatens to take root beyond the borders of one small urban garden.

With summer in full flight and Christmas just around the corner, the gardener’s guilt is also reaching its zenith.

It’s time to start raising tomatoes – and take a punt on warmer weather to plant them out in November.

A former journalist and son of a line of management consultants, Mark Scott arrives at the University of Sydney as an unlikely vice-chancellor. Can his curious talents turn around a struggling sector?

When it comes to nurturing house plants, the rules can be tricky and uncertain. But that’s what makes the successes so appealing.

Water policy in the Murray–Darling basin has failed farmers and the environment. Will a new conciliatory conference and a promised reset force necessary change before it’s too late?

After a disappointing summer growing season, some pumpkins that randomly self-seeded from the compost in the front yard become the only harvest success.

As the heat of summer starts to bite, the focus of every keen gardener turns to irrigation.

The expenses scandal at ASIC masks a more serious concern: that the government will now overhaul the agency and wind back regulation of the banking and finance sector.

While the coronavirus pandemic has altered the world as we know it, nature carries on regardless, and with spring comes fresh hope.

More than 90 per cent of Australia’s medicines are imported, putting the country at risk of dangerous shortages. But while the government has announced plans to boost the sector’s manufacturing capabilities, industry experts warn that the problem runs far deeper.

With imports restricted as international borders closed, the coronavirus pandemic exposed Australia’s inability to manufacture what it needs, prompting an urgent debate about how the country can improve its economic security.

As the ACCC hands down its interim report on the Murray–Darling water markets, one architect of the current system says a Reserve Bank-like body is needed to manage the rights.

Despite the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission having produced few tangible results thus far, Scott Morrison has appointed six new directors with a view to jobs creation.

Neville Power is the former mining executive leading the government’s Covid-19 co-ordination commission. Questions have been raised about conflicts of interest, but very little is known about the boy from Bushy Park.

Submissions to the ACCC’s inquiry into water trading in the Murray–Darling Basin reveal significant concerns about the possibility of market manipulation.

Even in the depths of winter, or the most troubled of times, there will be a few usual suspects in the garden that can worm their way into your heart.

Five years ago, some predicted that lithium – crucial for batteries in smartphones and electric vehicles – would soon rival iron ore as Australia’s biggest export. So what went wrong?

International students created a gold rush for higher education in Australia, but in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, universities will need to shrink in order to survive.

Australian supermarkets are vulnerable to shocks, as lockdown panic buying showed, but the government has known about these weaknesses since at least 2012.

In a season of drastic upheaval, the author reflects on the connections and comfort of her garden and looks towards the coming spring.

While reviving her garden after its recent woes, the author is reminded of a handy way to deal with summer weeds – using a trick she learnt from her mother.

With her crucial vote, Senator Jacqui Lambie wields untold influence over Scott Morrison’s government. How does she plan to use this power?

In the hopeful spirit of the new season, the author attempts to add potatoes, succulents and more to her small garden.

As she contemplates her ever-expanding Monstera deliciosa, the author provides tips on what to plant and prune as the cold weather descends.

Rappler co-founder Maria Ressa discusses the political situation in the Philippines ahead of the country’s May 13 midterm elections, the first test of Rodrigo Duterte’s continuing hold on popularity.

Rodrigo Duterte’s sacking of Philippine Supreme Court chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno has added a powerful voice to a growing coalition of opposition forces.

“This week I went searching for speeches by Australian politicians that take account of the pace of change, and talk about preparing for it. They were few and far between.”

“One-fifth of the money taxpayers fork out for public broadcasting goes to a company owned by a Canadian superannuation fund.”