I highly recommend being a worm farmer. Worm farms take a little effort to set up and then it’s just scraps in and fertiliser out! There are many different worm farms available to buy and plenty of information about making your own from recycled materials. Once you’re set up, knowing some basics about worms and […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: compost, livestock, worms | No Comments
It’s time to do winter maintenance of the asparagus bed: here’s how I did mine. My two-year-old asparagus crowns were planted in July last year in a raised bed made from sleepers. To keep the chooks and brush turkeys off the bed, we put up a frame (made from poles of an old three-man tent) […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: asparagus, maintenance, vegetables | 5 Comments
Until recently I thought all rhubarb was crimson red. I once grew some rhubarb with green stems but I was too nervous to eat it. I thought it was unripe and maybe even toxic, so I bought some from the shop instead. I know better now. It turns out rhubarb can grow crimson red, or […]
Posted in Kitchen, Organic Gardening | Tags: fruit, health, livestock, recipe, vegetables | 2 Comments
Did you know that seed retailed in Australia can be chemically coated with at least six different chemical products including insecticides, fungicides and specialised polymer coatings? Treated seed in Australia comes with warnings on all treated seed in small home garden size packs: ‘Caution: treated with (common or brand name of a fungicidal / insecticidal […]
Posted in Organic Gardening, Sustainability | Tags: environment, health, insects, organic, seeds, wildlife | No Comments
“The only reason for being a bee that I know of is to make honey…. And the only reason for making honey, is so as I can eat it.” – Winnie the Pooh. Recently my neighbour dropped off some home-harvested honey. It was delicious and ran like liquid silk. While quietly eating crepes with honey, banana and […]
Posted in Sustainability | Tags: animal care, bees, books, wildlife | No Comments
I’ve tasted them in restaurants, seen them at the grocer and read about their great nutritional value but until now I’d never tried to specifically grow and harvest the mighty micro-green. At Green Harvest we all love trying out new things and I was recently asked by Jeff, our manager, to give the growing of […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: microgreens | 2 Comments
What have chickens ever done for us? Let’s see – for a start, they produce eggs and fertiliser, control pests, eliminate weeds and take care of kitchen scraps. But for me, they are just great little creatures to have around and they make me feel more connected to the whole cycle of the garden. It’s […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: animal care, chickens, poultry | 5 Comments
If I mention the word ‘fungus’, you may picture dark, slimy toadstools amid rot and decay. But to me, the world of fungi is one of jaw-dropping beauty – of many-coloured, weirdly shaped growths of amazing variety. One of the benefits of living in a subtropical area that seems to have had more than its […]
Posted in Kitchen | Tags: foraging, fungi, mushrooms, recipe | No Comments
Every now and then I give a talk on organic gardening at a club or show. Afterwards I’m often approached with the question “do flowers have a place in the vegetable garden?” This is usually posed in an innocent fashion by one half of a couple, but with an obvious agenda of ‘let’s settle this […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: bees, flowers, fruit, insects, pest control, vegetables | 2 Comments
Lovely lemons I love the flavour of lemons – lemon tart, lemon butter, gin and tonic with a twist of lemon… The humble lemon is also heralded as a cure of many maladies, from coughs and colds to halitosis and rheumatism. My fondness for the not-so-humble lemon probably comes from happy memories of being in […]
Posted in Kitchen | Tags: barley, drinks, fruit, health, lemons, recipe | 3 Comments