Loving our new acreage in Capalaba. Converting it to certified organic and digging up loads of grass for vegie gardens & orchard. I'll be running all sorts of workshops from there starting August. See the events coming up on www.ecobotanica.com.au

Well, after all this time we have found a lovely acreage propoerty. That means that our home and garden in Wishart is on the market. Lots of people from the workshops and garden visits asked to be told if i ever sold the house, cos they'd love a ready made organic garden. Well, this is your chance.

Here is the link. The price is somewhat negotiable. You'll love 168 + different edible and useful plants in the garden with a whole vegie patch ready to harvest in the coming months. We…

Continue

I heard on the ABC radio today that solar power has now fallen below the price of coal fired power generation to produce. Hooray, at last! In a country with bounteous sun, so it should be that way.  

It got me to thinking about ways people have been capitalizing on the sun’s energy for millennia. One is  for drying food to preserve abundance.

While in Bhutan a few years back, I marveled at the mountains of drying chilli peppers lining the rooftops. They also dried their yak…

Continue

 

TUmeric naturally dies down in winter. It's deciduous perennial like ginger.

 I have been bandicooting my tumeric since the leaves started to yellow, but it's after all the nutrition has been trasnferred fromthe leaves into the rhizomes that the flavour really intensifies  and the rhizomes fatten up. They are the storage vessels for the next seasons growth, so the plant concentrates carbs in these storage vessels.

It's August now and the leaves have been completely…

Continue

Resurrecting your flood affected garden

 I'll be giving a special interactive library talk at Kenmore on the 29 April about recovering your flooded gardens. I am also offering half price garden visits for flood affected gardens at $88 per hour if you'd like a personalised garden consult.In the meantime, here is some more info for you... 

 

Was your garden covered by a thick layer of smelly mud, washed into it by the recent floods? This info is intended to give you the…

Continue

Hi All, a second posting the same as the on e on the forum so I hope it rreaches plenty of people. Pass the word too..

Mud glorious mud. We have had a lovely day in it today. How are you? Muddy too?

Isn’t it really heartening to see how people are putting in to help others during this flood? Today a couple of us were helping to resurrect the Jane St Community Garden in West End. Across the road businesses that had been submerged were a hive of activity with staff and volunteers…

Continue

Searching for sweetness and light

After a warm wet night, I tiptoe through our waking garden while it’s still damp with dew, peeking here and poking there, looking for raiders of the lost dark…

Continue

I don't know about you but i just LOVE bookshops. We didn't seem to have bookshops growing up in the country as a kid. I did venture into the newsagents after school on many occasions though. They seemed to have most things you could ever want in there, including books. I also love the variety on Amazon. I've just had delivered Robert Kourik's wonderful reference book 'Designing…

Continue

I thought that digging a swale near the macadamia would create a healthier tree. More water, more flowers, more growth - It did!

I thought that building the soil microbes with compost and humus would create a healthier tree - It did. And both of these measures saw a massive growth in the tree.

I thought that my hive of native bees would help to pollinate the flowers so we had more fruit. - It did but not enough.

The result, a huge tree in a small garden that shed shade across the… Continue

Applying permaculture principles to the suburban sized block is possible and even fun.

Do you need some help or inspiration to get your suburban patch of permaculture and organic productive garden started or stimulate it to flourish?

Come along to the suburban permaculture workshops starting Saturday 31 July. Small group, different locations and plenty of good, sensible yet creative ways to have a permaculture oasis at your place.

Happy to have a chat and tell you more…

Continue

I rather liked our old fence. It was really rustic looking and had timbers that reminded me of my grans place in Eltham Victoria- ancient as ever, a bit of intrigue and rough around the edges, yet still celebrating the life of a tree.…

Continue

Comfort food gives us the snuggled-up feeling of fresh, rich flavours and smells that evoke a sense of belonging and happy memories. I may nopt go for the heavy English style food that Jamie Oliver suggests otr that Nigella touts, but I have discovered that our family really has developed our own comfort foods.



Since their school days, when my girls return home from travelling, their comfort food has been ‘a fresh green salad with olives and tomatoes please mum’. I’d head into the… Continue

Todays 'super' shopping options for fresh food are really reducing our choices severely.

At a school I visited recently, children had found 4 different types of tomatoes at their supermarket. A poor show really, considering that the Eden seeds catalogue had 57 varieties on offer at that time.



We are given the choice in the shops, of fruit and veg. such as tomatoes that store and travel well. Not necessarily the ones that taste great or grow easily and organically in our climate.… Continue

Permaculture gardeners and designers are often called ‘permies’. Many of us onthe Brisbane local food website already practice permaculture to some degree at least.

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren devised the framework and practices based upon observations that we could no longer continue to deplete earth’s resources while still expecting returns such as fresh air, fertile soils for growing food and clean water.



In permaculture we learn how to work with nature, rather than… Continue

I just hate seeing waste. Wasting food, productive land, talent and time are my pet bugs when it comes to waste. I heard recently that in Brisbane one in five full shopping bags of food we bring home goes to the tip. We’re really throwing away our hard-earned cash.

It’s got me thinking about the uses for old or excess ‘stuff’ like carpet that would normally be tossed out.

Wool carpet is a gem, with many garden uses. Lay it over a garden bed instead of mulch in the period between… Continue

I know when i was working for council and the EPA, that after a week or two of lunch box meals, the imagination starts to wane and preparing the healthy lunch-in-a-box becomes difficult or at least boring.



It’s easy to pop in the packaged muesli bars and sweetened fruit sticks, but what about something that resembles brain food? Why not grow some of your own?



Our tiny garden can provide ingredients for a salad from the mesclun salad tub, a spinach tartlet and eggplant dip… Continue

A meal prepared from scratch is rather special or even unusual for many families when both parents are working, kids are to be taken to sport and its so easy to nip into the supermarket and buy something quick to pop into the microwave.

We find that it's more satisfying…

Continue