It wasn’t anything to do with global warming and it is winter here, but today we had the big thaw. The frost build up on our chest freezer was getting too much, so out came all of our frozen goods and in came the ice scrapers. In the aftermath I found that we had quite [...]
After moving into our new house, we spent a couple of hours over the weekend looking around my new garden. What we found was a lot of poor soil and what seems like an acre of weed mat in the garden beds! My past experiences with weed mat have not been good, and this one [...]
What a big fortnight it has been! Moving house has really taken it out of R and I, but the enthusiasm to garden is coming back. Below are some photos of our new back yard, there is some framework for a huge tropical oasis garden. I think I counted 11 palm trees in the yard! [...]
After watching the tops go yellow for a week, today was the day to do the big harvest. Who would have thought that four months had passed since the build stage of the potato tower? Above you can see the yellowing stalks and leaves, a sure sign that things are coming to an end inside [...]
In December I started two tomato plants growing as seeds in Jiffy pots. After having them crop prolifically for many months, they were left to the elements and mealy bugs. They haven’t had any water, love or attention since March, and now being the end of July there are two distinct differences between them. One [...]
We are now half way into the dry season in the top end of Australia. Even though we have not seen a cloud for months, growth in the garden has slowed significantly due to the shorter days and lower sun intensity. The arrowroot received a severe pruning after the caterpillar infestation over the wet season. [...]
We’ve all read the headlines, watched the business channel, listened to the radio reports for nearly twelve months and all we have heard is lines like “unprecedented downturn in the economy”, “economy set for biggest losses since great depression” Blah Blah Blah… For those of us who have not been made redundant due to the [...]
Since the birth of this blog there have been some mentions of my family, so here they all are (except my wife, she’s shy… that’s what she says anyway…) Maggie, or Margret when she’s in trouble, is a three year old cat. Not sure what kind of genetic line she comes from, but she is [...]
What do you get when you cross a tank full of fish and a vegetable garden? You get a very productive food producing system called Aquaponics! Over the weekend I ducked down to my local nursery and ordered a Balcony Kit aquaponics setup. I wish I had the balcony to put it on, but the [...]
No garden is complete without a Nasturtium plant growing somewhere, thats why I planted some the other day… This fast growing annual originates from Peru and has fascinated gardeners with its long stemmed large green umbrella shaped leaves for many generations. For those who are getting their kids involved in gardening, the Nasturtium is a [...]
