Agapanthus in full bloom are a sign that summer is not far away. Their beautiful colours and shiny green leaves look spectacular in borders and will often be seen along fence-lines, garden beds and bordering drive-ways. They come in a range of colours including the most commonly seen; purple and a r...

Why Should We Prune Annuals? The reason why we tip prune; or as it is also known, dead-head plants is to prolong and maximise their flowering. The reason why tip pruning prolongs flowering is due to the reason why plants flower in the first place - plants flower and then set...

Planting Legumes to Replace Soil Nitrogen Hopefully the title of this article has got you thinking ...... legumes fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, so what is he talking about. All of that is true. All legumes have small nodules on their roots that contain many specialised bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen...

How to Grow Rhubarb Rhubarb is one of those old fashion veggie garden plants that often gets overlooked and forgotten. If you are looking for a productive plant that 'gives' year after year, with only a little bit of care, then this one is for you. About Rhubarb Rhubarb's scientific name...

Do you have a possum problem? Do they eat your garden produce? Below are several ways to protect your produce from possums: Use Physical Protection Protect pawpaw, mango or many other larger tree fruit with a plastic shield made from a 2L plastic bottle. Cut off the bottom of a bottle and make a cut along the...

No matter how much we love our chickens, there are some undeniable facts that we all need to face from time to time: on occasions chickens within the flock die. all chickens reach an age when their laying reduces significantly. Therefore, if you want to maintain a nice supply of eggs,...

Are you looking for ways to reduce the amount of unusable waste that is generated by your household and in particular your kitchen? Some time ago, I became very concerned about the amount of day to day waste that was being generated by my activities in and around the kitchen. As...

Spring onions are an absolute must for every back yard vegetable garden. They are easy to grow, require minimal attention and have very few pests or diseases that affect them in the typical back yard vegetable patch. In many locations, spring onions are also known as scallions and are also often...

I was recently very lucky and visited Jerry Coleby-Williams ' amazing garden at his home; Bellis. Not only is Jerry's garden inspiring, but so is his generosity - I (along with many others) received several Multiplier (perennial) Leeks that Jerry shared with visitors. Since planting these leeks, I have been quite...

Aloe Vera - Power Packed Green Gem The Aloe Vera plant grows in practically every garden or pot. But do we utilize its full potential?  Most people use Aloe for skin burns (it is the most effective treatment for burnt skin in the world), scratches or insect irritations. However the plant is...

We invented a self-watering planter box for growing all kinds of vegetable. The box stores around 10 litres of water so no need watering for several days even weeks. More importantly, by up-cycling materials: styro-foam boxes from local fruit and vegie shops and a piece of plastic pipe from kerbside we...

Ever found some of your work areas becoming littered with scraps of timber and other various 'bits and pieces' that you just don't want to throw away - you know that it will have a use sometime in the future! If you are like me, then you will be in just...

    Snow Peas, also known as mangetout, are a fantastic crop to grow. Kids love them - in fact if you have kids and don’t grow enough, there is a risk that few will be left for the dinner table. They are beautiful picked and then eaten immediately! Climate I...

Ever had trouble harvesting a great crop of corn? Healthy plants, but poor quality cobs? It probably is being caused by poor pollination. This is often observed in apparently healthy corn cobs that have few well formed kernels. Corn is a plant that belongs to the same plant group as grasses...

Whenever it is possible, we believe that it is best and therefore prefer to grow our own food. We understand that this isn't always possible but make it our goal to only buy such things as fruit and vegetables when there is no alternative. Our reasons (in no particular order) include:...

There are some things that I wont touch - gas and electricity I wont go near, but I remember the look on a friends face when he asked who I was going to get to build our new fence. I can only imagine the look on my own face when asked...

Crop Rotation in the Veggie Patch Used to have successful harvests but now having difficulty getting even a fraction of the garden productivity that you used to? Are you finding that pests and disease are a bigger problem than they used to be? One possible reason is that you are not...

When a crop is finished, often the temptation is to pull it all out. Some people let the bed lie fallow for a while, and some people plant out the bed with another crop. You can do both of these while letting one or two plants “go to seed” instead of...

Three years ago when our lifestyle “tweaking” began, we decided to get some chickens. The idea was based around the good organic gardening principles of having some chooks around to scratch and manure the vegie garden, remove the various insect pests and of course - provide us with beautiful fresh eggs....

Protecting Chickens From Rain In South-east Queensland, we have recently had an unprecendented amount of rain. This rain has been not only large in quantity, but the time over which it has fallen has been significant. It may sound like an exageration, but it sometimes seems like it has been raining...