About Us

We hope you enjoy the gardening experience that About the Garden offers and wish you many happy hours in your home garden.

Magazine

About the Garden magazine, published each season, is an educational publication that encourages gardening and provides plant recommendations suitable for each Australian climatic zone. Our team of gardening experts will keep you up to date with all the latest Australian gardening news and new plant releases to make your green space a happy place. 

Regular columns include new plant releases, regional diary, tips for the current season, indoor gardening, native plants and how-to-grow vegetables and fruits. About the Garden magazines are distributed throughout Australia each season (summer, autumn, winter and spring) through participating About the Garden members click here. Grab yourself a copy of the About the Garden magazine or subscribe to have your magazine delivered to your door subscribe here

History

In 1977, Con and Jennifer Searle established Sunshine Coast Organic Fertilisers Distributors, a company which serviced the gardening and nursery industry on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. They marketed five products – bagged cow manure, fowl manure, pine bark chips, compost mix and potting mix. In 1985 Con sold the business to the family company J.C. & A.T. Searle Pty Ltd (which markets Searles products throughout Australia and internationally). In the ensuing 23 years the company has expanded to employ 75 people and sell and market over 4,500 product lines. In 1997 Con launched the About the Garden quarterly magazine and garden centres buying circle in an effort to encourage gardening and promote plants suitable for the wide range of climates and soils found in Queensland and northern and central New South Wales, and Victoria.