Johanna Griggs’ Tips For A Better Home & Garden

Better Homes and Gardens has been a staple for families across Australia since 1997, and that is not about to change in 2019. The Channel 7 favourite will continue to give us those handy tips for our homes, inside and out, inspiring Australian families since its inception.

SheSociety sat down for a quick chat with the lovely Johanna Griggs, host of Better Homes and Gardens to hear what she thinks 2019 has instore for us, including how to keep your garden thriving in the summer heat.

“I’ve just put in wicking beds, probably 13 weeks ago and wicking beds are a system of water from the bottom up, so they only take up as much water from the bottom as they can.” said Jo,

“Lots of mulch at this time of the year, and watering either early in the morning or late at night, but don’t water in the heat of the day because that is the best way you can burn all of your plants up.”

When asked the best types of plants to be putting in your garden, Johanna says the natives are always great and to look at what plants are included within roundabouts as they are “incredibly hardy things that can do with not a lot of water.”

We can expect to see a shift toward making our homes more nurturing in 2019. Moving away from the modernist, simple clean style which has been popular over the past couple of years.

“We are seeing lots of textiles and contrasting in materials in are used in a place to get a bit of depth, I think that is going to continue throughout the year.

“We are seeing from a trend a couple of years ago where we had all the bright metallics, they’ve gone in the last season to softer more rose gold and brass metallics.

“What’s being reflected to us is that people want to see layering, they want to see comfort they want to feel nurtured when they walk into a place.”

With such a busy schedule says to key to managing it all it to make your family time count.

“We juggle- for me- work, our construction business, we run a farm and we produce 90% of our produce on the farm. It’s just about time management.

“When we are with family we don’t sit on our phones and sit on screen time, we actually make sure we are fully invested in who’s visiting.”

As you New Year’s resolutions, Johanna says it’s the same resolution every year.

“I promise to be a better friend and family member. Because our schedules change so dramatically on such short notice the amount of times you have to ring people and change plans- I just want to get more consistent.”

When asked whether she has seen a change in the industry following the #MeToo movement, Johanna says she believes there has been a change generally in society.

“I think every conversation that comes out is a step in the right direction because it’s the same as anything.

“I’m on the board of Beyond Blue and I know with mental health one of the greatest decreases of stigma is people talking about it, discussing and normalising it so that people aren’t afraid to talk about it.

“It needs to be discussed by both men and women- and that is the other great thing I think that’s come out of it. I think initially it was women talking about it, but there’s a lot of men standing up and going “actually I to don’t agree with what has gone on in these instances.” “And I just think that anything that can happen in that direction is a positive. I really don’t see a lot of negatives going down that path.