All Blog Posts (1,013)

Living on fairly steep block, keeping whatever soil I build up can become somewhat difficult. My chickens and the brush turkeys with their infernal scratching to build their massive compost mound nests mean building up a fertile ecology is often a backwards directional project. Once they've scratched and destroyed any living groundcover, the heavy rains wash all soil away leaving me once again with the sadness of the concrete like shale and clay that is my yard.



Weeds to me are…

It makes me so happy to see our…

Am I an environmental warrior or just a dirty old dumpster diver?

Some folks would probably suggest that I am a tad over obsessed with climate change and living a life aimed at helping save the environment. There's some elements of that lifestyle which I normally don't talk about for fear of being labelled a dirty dumpster diver. But you know me - I'm gunna talk about them tonight!

I reuse and recycle a lot of wood and stuff. Why would I buy new stuff…

Wow, how warm was today?  This winter has barely seen me slow down.  I hate the cold - coming from subtropical north queensland I would always dream of when the days turned warmer.  There was about 2 weeks of "cold" and since then, the weather has mostly been gorgeous.  Unfortunately, that means those feral fruit fly haven't stopped in my yard.  They are only attacking the trombonccino at the moment so that's ok - I just snap of the bottom and the rest is fine to use. 

Being…

good morning everyone. I am new to this site and hope to find my way around [with your help], growing flowers and vegetables. growing up in Germany on a small farm, the growing of fruit and veggies was sooooo easy. so I started to [try] to grow them here as well [I am in Australia for 33 years] so, 12 or so years ago I got some vegie beds and filled them with growing soil failed terrible in growing anything. begged my husband all the years for an rainwater tank. got one now but not…

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/a-really-beautiful-way-to-learn-foraging-for-food-popular-in-sydney-20190612-p51wzz.html

This is another area I'm interested in. I've contributed a few spots on this site https://fallingfruit.org and will track down others that I've…

Before you know it, the season changes...or, at least, begins to.

There is a yearning for warmth by bird and plant alike.

Since it has been cold, it must be the day length that heralds the change.

Forget all this European fascination with Spring.…

Fruit Fly talk by Professor Richard Drew

Fruit flies have spread down to Victoria and now some have been discovered in Auckland.

We used to treat with systemic cover sprays but these are not used very much now and growers now have had to turn to less harmful (to human health) methods. These systemic sprays would be ingested by people eating the sprayed fruit as the insecticide travelled into and through the fruit

Adult Fruit Flies can travel 20 to 90 kilometres to…

I used to do plant-of-the-year lists,  but nowadays I seem to have settled in to a routine consumption.

Aside from the key issue of what you can actually grow, what you seek to eat is the true raison d'être of the backyard business.

Of course I have my breakfast, lunch and din din habits -- my domestic menu -- which tends to be a tad eclectic and exotic.

Multicultural 7 nights per week.

THE HERBS

I can live without a lot of things, but my…

When I got back from Europe, I could not take the pumpkin forest anymore. It had to go. I had spread some seeds among it hoping something else got to grow in my absence. Some sweet peas did but they were so feeble, that they were not worth saving. The kids had deserted the garden when the weather was so lovely. They could barely get to the trampoline, you see. So, it had to go. Yay, what a relief. There is now room to breathe and…

It sure is raining. Buckets of the stuff.

Who woulda thought?

Opportunism knocks.

The Winter Solstice may have just visited but hey this is the sub tropics!

With so such moisturised goodness under foot, what can we plant?

If we are expecting to be frost free, well then: go for it I say. Get rid of all those old seed packets by planting  out their contents.Clear out the cupboard for a Spring buy up.

PLANT LISTS

Here's a list.…

Hi Folks, 

I have been busy pottering around in my garden and am starting to finally see some harvests and a decrease in my weekly veggie shop.  Today at the markets, my bill came to $25 - this is down from between $40 to 50 weekly when nothing is coming out (brief period at end of summer when that horrible dry spell was upon us).  It was funny, I was listening to a podcast today ABC Adelaides gardening talkback and the topic was "Is it profitable to grow your own fruit and veggies." …

After some keen renovation work and extensive planting of Vetiver hedgerows I've planted more veges (& herbs)  than I've ever done before.

Both seeds and seedlings.

Conscious calendar-ruled seasonal plantings isn't my usual norm. But the June crazies are upon me like a chilling wind.

This discussion -- Direct Sowing of Seeds (Part the…

Hi everyone, 

I had a wonderful day today out at the farm.  We drove up last night after work (have learnt from experience that there is no point leaving before 6.30 pm) and made it to our block at 8:50pm  Just in time for Fran and I to plonk ourselves down with a glass of wine and our phones to read and unwind after a busy week.  We then had a lovely breaky down at the little servo that really is a jack-of all-trades stop and then spent 3 hrs working on the farm.  We were then back…

My gardening abilities have been curbed a bit lately and have led me to reading more about different ways to increase the goodness in our soil which is the engine of our plant growth and the machine that nature provided to help us be more reliant in the future.

So much has been learnt by reading and listening to the advice given and seeing the soil improvements by Ernst Gotsch and like- minded individuals.  They have seen the damage in different counties of…

I've been prevailed upon to cut back the garden and create more lawn. Not my perspective nor preferred lifestyle, but you have to forgo some laziness some times and spend more time (spit! bugger!) 'mowing'.

As it turns out , the new directive opened up quite a few renovating options that I now have embraced. That and the fact that my…

Hi all,

I've been thinking for sometime about starting a market stall.  There are often beautiful things for the garden that I have to order online or are only available from America or England with huge shipping costs for one item.  I was hoping to pick your brains for things that would attract you into a market stall if you don't mind?  Anything from products you would like to use in the garden, to seed varieties or plants displayed in a certain way.  I'm envisioning some plants in…

Since I run out of my regular supply of home made fermented chili paste more than my menu tolerates, I started planting chili bushes that were hotter than my usual  cultivation -- in the hope I'd use less.

With my ferment still in the crock I began picking from the chili bushes to go into my dishes neat.

And I'm feeling the change…