All Blog Posts (1,124)

Horrendusly lucky in that my partner and I might buy a house in the next year or two. Have experience with small veggie patches in various rentals. However we are currently in a unit, and I'm missing it.

Therefore I'm attempting to garden vivaciouly via spreadsheet. Help me. Please? :)

ABOUT THE NON-GARDEN:

Probably a small suburban yard. We work full time, so anything that can't be eaten gets zero attention, but obviously edible things will get some care. Might get chooks…

We clean-picked our mandarin tree this morning, and have three boxes of mandarins - all ripe - they wouldn't hang on the tree much longer. 

If anyone would like some, please let me know. I can't hang on to them for long, as they are quite ripe. 

Taro is probably one of the most versatile plants on earth! However it is one that you have to know how how to grow it, how to harvest it, how to store the different bits of it and how to prepare it and how to cook it and then lastly how to eat it.  It is a complex plant but worth it if you master it as it is a complete plant that nothing is wasted.

To start with planting moist or wet soil, almost boggy preferably, make a hole as deep as the size you want your taro to be then stick…

I have a milk crate LEGO garden where I grow my herbs.

It works a treat.

Since I wanted to explore the grow bag experience for growing tubers -- especially Sweet Potatoes -- I've tweaked the milk crate + weedmat system to engineer a deeper soil trough to accommodate underground tuber development.

Here's the DIY.…

Well last blog was 2 years ago, where shall I start?

One season at a time.

In late February, I dug out the taro for what looked like a promising result… or not. Well, I mean that plant was almost bigger than me. I since then dug out more and gave it a final taste try to decide that it is definitely not a…

I'm looking at buying a juicer - for apples, pineapples, etc. Does anyone have one they can recommend (or specifically NOT recommend)? Mid price range is good.

The contents of the new you-beaut ring-pull cans of Carnation Evaporated Milk seemed to me to be a bit runnier than in the old types, so I had a look on the side of the can. to see if they'd changed the concentration. Well, no indication as to whether they had or they hadn't, but what I did see was 'MADE IN MEXICO". Had a bit of a fossick around on the web to see if I could find evaporated milk made in Australia, but all I could find was stuff made in Lithuania. Surely we can do better than…

Last time we blog-interacted I was talking up the pleasures of cardboard as a garden mulch.  As of today it looks something like this:

It offers a certain rustic charm as the fibres begin their rotting journey.

Sentenced…

I may be a registered member of the Mulch Supporters Club but I never understood the Permaculture fetish for wet paper.

More trouble than it's worth.

Laying out the beds at the Vetiver plantation sure enamoured me to cardboard as a mulch understory and now it looks like I'm addicted.

Cardboard, after all, is mashed up wood chips...and it's available any and everywhere. More so, in fact, than newspaper.

So I started using cardboard keenly and experimentally in the…

I thought I had at least 2 cups of bean flour.  So, I bravely started the next experiment.  For some reason, I went onto Turkish bread.  I love the stuff and I was too lazy to do mashed potato first.  After getting the yeast ready, I discovered I in fact was down to 1 last cup of bean flour.  So, 1 bean flour to 4 wheat/bakers' flour.  The good news is that it worked - I thought very well.  …

So, using the flour to make pancakes worked perfectly well.  It is slightly nutty but a very nice flavour indeed.  I added just a touch of mashed potato, pinch of baking powder and some salt and sugar.  I think I could increase the salt slightly, thicken the batter and use it as a flat bread.  Test one seemed to be a complete success - even by harsh Rozie standards.  …

You are looking at  three versions of home grown and made flour from the tiny city farm. Hulled,  part-hulled and unfilled.  I'll cook three muffins for taste comparison. I used Madagascar beans to make it. I'm also going to try with pigeon peas. This is a big part of my self sufficient jigsaw filled in.  …

Hullo team!

It's happening! I've organised my friendly local treeloppers to come this week and raze the vast majority of the garden and trees from our front garden area to begin it's transformation into the start of my Zone 1. I plan to spread the mulch from the trees removed over the space and layer it with cardboard and newspaper from our move, and let it soak in for a month or so.

As a result, I was thinking of having a working bee in June for anyone who is interested to…

April is always the best time outback. The transition is palpable and you get more opportunities to spend time relating to the dirt because  the days are no longer so darn hot.

I'm in the process of reducing my veg garden size -- that is the plots for annuals -- by engineering some efficiency changes via group and intense plantings. I'm also culling my plantings by staggering them more.

I have expanded the chook pen yet again, which now encompasses the Vetiver nursery. That's…

these were found in 6 month old compost while trying to add it to garden beds --- choko for size comparison... 

Plant Choko | Grow a Choko Vine - it is so easy! - Bing video

HillTop Farm: Aquaponics and Solar Dehydrator - YouTube

350+ Rare Sub-Tropical Fruit Trees: Backyard Orchard Tour…

Hi Guys, 

Well what a month: torrential rain with 34 degree days -> aka "summer" vs 19 degree days and really cool -> Aka Autumn/Winter.   I know this is pretty much par for the course in April but seriously!! Where did these last few days of heat come from?

I have had a very busy time up at the farm.  We went up over easter and lucky we did as it was raining and we realised the van was leaking!  So I came back home for two days and was up there again Tuesday…

anyone grow cucamelons and dig the tubers out for next seasons growth- just reading about doing it - but we never seem to have trouble getting them to grow if left in the ground ... any ideas ?

You know how it is...

You do one thing and that suggests another in way of flow on. What with the change in the weather and my collection of seedlings I've been out back making things happen.

Maybe I'll add some photos tomorrow when it is daylight...but my garden is a sea of fluro bamboo stakes like these shown right.

I've…