All Blog Posts (838)

I haven't been able to attend recent garden visits either due to work or clashing with something else, but I still love growing edibles.  The recent rain was wonderful - currently we are picking jaboticabas, yellow strawberry guava (tiny edible pips); acerola cherry, rosellas (we love them stewed), passionfruits,  the odd dragon fruit, vatious sapotes plus some scant vegies - pumpkin; cherry tomatoes, gourds, cucumber, snake beans and kale.  It was our best pineapple year - 20.  We are…

Hi everyone,

I have been super busy in the garden, preparing everything for winter crops but it is that time when I feel not much is happening despite how much work I'm doing.   Don't get me wrong, I'm still harvesting lettuce, spring onions, capsicums, cucumbers, eggplant and now pak choi but nothing NEW is happening!  This was due to some pretty early setbacks with things like my peas, beans, carrots and beetroot failing and having to resow.  I should be eating peas by now…

Weather has finally cooled down and a bit of a break at work means I give the garden my almost full attention

Bed 1 got a facelift in time for summer, with frame and shade. Now planted with rescued cherry toms from facebook share page in the Gap, spring onions, parsley. Bed 2 has more advanced volunteer cherry toms. I planted celery, which is still alive but I don't argue with volunteer tomatoes.…

Hi everyone, for a bit of a read if your interested in worm towers Grass roots have a two page article in this months publication written by you know who.You can borrow this magazine also from most libraries.I would be happy for  all your comments  and happy to share anything you may not understand.I…

Expanding the deli here on the tiny farm.

None of you will be shocked by the fact that I like to make my own deli items. From cheese, sauces, pestos and sausages; it's all part of the deli fun. Well, I have decided to add a new item to the McDowall Manor deli. Home dry cured and smoked, nitrite-free bacon. I'll also try to whip out a smoked pork belly dinner, just to see what it's like. 

In other news, the farm flock has returned…

Hi Guys,

Well, like Roger said, it has been far too hot to do anything much in the garden so with the weather finally cooling down some, and me being on holidays, it is now time for some serious jobs to get done.

1. Repotting the strawberry runners.  Man, this is one long and tedious job.  Left it a little late as not enough air flow in the pots that I was setting runners into and they were suffering from aphids.  13 pots with 2 in each are now back on the fence line.  At the…

I made it along to BOGI on Thursday evening for once, It is an hour plus drive from downtown Park Ridge and I often don't make the effort, but I'm glad I did this time. Some of you might have seen the ABC news on Saturday where they also had a segment about the same subject - Palagonite. They showed Polo fields in Qatar, which have been treated with Palagonite and have great results getting grass to grow there.

Palagonite is a mineral mix formed by very specific volcanic activity. Mt…

'Tis the best time of the gardening year. This time. The March/April convergence.

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote

    The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

    And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

    Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

    Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

    Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

    The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

    Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,

    And smale…

Wow, so much rain! How wonderful. But then, I thought it would never stop! Happy for the milder weather. The rain kept me indoors for more baking adventures and in the moments of mild sunshine, some planting out of summer cuttings and sprouting some new babies. I've also discovered Instagram which was potentially very dangerous... I'm @HeadGardenerTFQ

This month's harvest:

- 7kg jap pumpkins (2)

- 3 bunches of misc greens (bred)

- 2 bunches spring…

It has been a very busy time here since you were all at the GV Last year. We have transformed our Front Gardens into Food and Fruit Gardens. My love of Citrus stands out and since being introduced to so many Sub Tropical Fruits both from Members and our Visit to Daley's  last year, you will find our Front Garden now very edible.…

So all that wild weather last week that everyone copped - we got nothing.  Not a single drop.  Friday through to today finally broke that.  We've had some nice gentle rain that will hopefully make everything take off.   I've got a lot of jobs to do though and this rain on the weekend business is not conducive to me getting it done.

I've started to do my annual horse manure on all the beds.  My little citrus grove at the back desperately needed some rejuvenation as well as the…

I worked out that many of my quails are 2 years old or more.  That's ancient for quail.  Rather than let the old birds die, I really should cull them while they can be eaten.  

In terms of my cages, two of the three whites are younger (1 boy and 1 girl) so I just need to cull the oldest female.  Second cage is the piebalds - both of those are old and should be culled.  Third cage - the male and a recent chick (from Darren) are okay.  Sadly, my old girlfriend needs to go.  She was one…

Attached are some pages from an old gardening book Tash found for me.

I'll add the printed date tomorrow, if you'd like to, click on each picture and have a read (especially about bacteria in soil and nitrogen cycle, starts on page 29) and take a guess when it was written.…

I am very fond of Dayboro, the folk are down to earth, the scenery gorgeous. It's still close to amenities but feels "country".  So the opportunity to spend, all up, 8 weeks here is most pleasureable. 

I am staying for two weeks at Lynn and Wayne's place first up - actually having my holiday to cover the period, looking after their four puddies, Jack the (adorable, smart Bull Arab) dog and getting out of looking after the chooks as neighbour Andrea has that job. I just get the free…

No surprise that I also had a rough Summer.

Ran out of mulch. The plants crisped up.Weeds took over. Too hot to toil...

Best consequence was that my clay pots kept the strong rooted mature annual plants alive. Seedlings, on the other hand,died.

Maybe I did get the shade I yearned for but losing my mulch supply line was a tragic disaster.

I have planted many frangipanis among the beds.The mower folk are back dropping off the lawn…

Late at posting, late at planting.. This summer has really taken it out of me (& the garden). Haven't started by autumn sowings yet so am wondering whether would be better off postponing the GV a month or two til I have a bit more to show for it... hmm?

Feb 2017 harvest:

- Eggplant, Black Market 1kg

- Pumpkin, Jap 14.7kg (4)

- Spring Onions 4 

- Zucchini, Black Jack 50g (1)

- Baby Carrots 185g

- Sweet Potato…

Hi guys,  (don't worry, I'll add photo's later.  I just got in the mood to blog and didn't plan ahead and it is now dark so can't take the matching photo's)

So, if you've been following my blog posts, you will know what a busy 3 years I've had.  I've been gardening at my house for the past 11 years and have been a member of this site since 2010 but it's only been the last few years that I have upped the ante in terms of my garden obsession.

I've gradually turned…

High everyone ,apart from our yams and other reliable plants in our survival garden,arrowroot ,tumeric,sweet potatoes,ginger etc wich basically anyone can grow the summers garden has been a real fizzer.Many crops have failed or growing poorly  compared to other years and its been a battle to keep our most important herbs going as well ,you know things are bad when even a pumpkin vine struggles and the jerusalem artichoke has only grown to half its normal height.There have been limited…

Hi everyone,

I haven't been around much.  Part of that is due to being so busy at work but another big part is that it is just exhausting in the garden at the moment so not really doing anything much.  Case in point, I have been meaning to do a honey harvest, chilli jam making and preserving mini capsicums for weeks now.  This morning, being a little bit cooler I was so determined to finish something that I got up and did the bees and the chilli jam.

Two combs…