10 garden and landscaping tips from Jamie Durie

Yard and landscaping star Jamie Durie first caught our eye a couple of years ago in the gardening section of the bookstore. His relaxed but practical attitude is enormously appealing in books like "The Outdoor Room" (companion to his HGTV show of the same name) — all the more so for those of us who are space-starved and want our yards to work for us, not just look pretty.

His new show, "Outback Nation," debuting this week on the cable network FYI and airing Mondays at 10 p.m. ET, takes that idea of reclaiming your yard to the extreme. "We work with families who are petrified of their own gardens," Durie told one news outlet.

"We essentially don't take anything on unless it's like 10 years of overgrowth," he elaborated on an Australian morning show called "Sunrise." "So you're literally battling 20-foot bamboo, overgrown grass — and of course when you let something go that long, the animals come in, naturally."

Animals? Like rats in the ivy?

"I found gardens where people had alligators in their own backyard," he said. "Bears, armadillos, possums, snakes — rattlesnakes."

If that sounds a little dangerous, it is.

"I have to tell you, I almost died seven times.

"This was the most dangerous show I've ever worked on. A tree nearly fell on me, I fell out of about three or four trees, fell off a couple of roofs, I dislocated my shoulder, broke two fingers, my back's out. ...

"It's literally like Bear Grylls meets 'Backyard Blitz.' It's just madness. We're taking on the most overgrown backyards in America, and you literally have to go at these things with machetes before you can even clear the place."

Luckily, you don't have to have such extreme problems to benefit from his down-to-earth advice. Yahoo Homes asked Jamie Durie for some of his best yard and gardening tips. Click here or on a photo to see them.