Compost + Wormfarms

Can I Compost Diseased Plant Matter?

Yes! Yes, you can. Nature specialises in detoxifying and outcompeting pathogens. A compost heap is full of life, more than equipped for this job. Visualise a bunch of pac-men zooming about gobbling up the bad guys and you're not far off it. Further biology enters the fray to

Mulch + Living Mulch

3 Ways To A Living Mulch

Living mulch (covering the soil with plants), is the most nourishing mulch of all. A soil covered with plants is alive! Living on and in and around plant roots is a diversity of soil life forms - fungi, nematodes, protozoa, bacteria, arthropods and of course worms, these team up with

Pests + diseases

Coping with Green Vegetable Bugs

The Importance of the Right Name When learning about a pest, begin your journey by finding out it's scientific name. The bug I'm ruminating on today is the Green Vegetable Bug Nezara Viridula, also called green vegetable beetle, stink bug or shield bug. These other names

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Pests + diseases

What to Do About Leaf Curl

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Pruning

How To Prune A Grape

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Chickens

My Chook Set-up

Pruning

Back to Basics: Fruit Tree Pruning Videos

Here are a couple of videos that I hope will give beginners a bit of pruning confidence. Thanks to my buddy Ray at Soulhaven Productions for making them and thanks to Barry for letting us film his trees! These fruit tree pruning videos won't answer all your questions,

Compost + Wormfarms

Cheat's Compost

I don't always keep up with compost making. There's many a moment when I have crops ready to plant but no compost to hand. In which case, I whip around the garden and creatively rustle up some soil food, or cheats compost as I affectionately call

Fruit Trees + Berries

How to Pick and Store Plums

There's a small window, a perfect moment when fruit is ripe for picking. The only way you catch it is by keeping an eye on your crops. With a plum harvest, I reckon it's just before it hits the ground. Pick your plums when the skin

Fruit Trees + Berries

How To Bird Net Your Fruit Trees

There is only one sure way to keep the birds off your fruit - and that's to bird net. I write this today because this is the question on your lips, and you're all so disgruntled when I answer bird net! Why do you all hate

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Pruning

The First Espalier Prune of the Season

Pests + diseases

How To Prevent + Deal with Garlic Rust

Rust is an airborne, parasitic fungi that makes your plants look, well - rusty! The raised, orangey spots cover the foliage quickly when conditions are ideal and in a severe case, the leaves yellow, shrivel and die. With the foliage unable to convert energy in its usual efficient style, bulbs

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Fruit Trees + Berries

How To Thin Fruit (And Why You Need To)

Pests + diseases

Preventing + Managing Fungal Disease

By far and away the most common cause of garden disease is airborne fungi. The mild moist conditions of spring set the scene for primary infections of rust, black spot, leaf curl, shot hole, brown rot and other fungal delights. Great news is fungal disease can on the whole be

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Pruning

Training Fruit Trees

Homemade

Kawakawa + Ginger Tea

Kawakawa has a special place in my heart - it was the first 'real' (ie not from a bag) herb tea I ever made many moons ago. Such a powerful healer - 72 medicinal uses according to Murdoch Reilly's "Maori Healing and Herbal" -

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Pruning

How To Prune Raspberries

Start a garden

Grow Vegies in Containers

Containers grow amazing vegies! Perfect for small spaces, young children and our elders too. They are quick and cheap to set up, and can pump out a goodly volume of kai. When you are new to land, growing in containers brings a lovely breathing space. Rather than stressfully trying to

Homemade

Homemade liquid feed

Liquid feed made from herbs or seaweed is an awesome tonic for the garden. It's an instant hit - soaked up through the foliage, and put to work right away strengthening cells and boosting biology. Use it during inclement weather, on vegies that are growing slowly, fruit trees

Homemade

How to Make Elderflower Cordial

For perfectly flavoured cordial, harvest when nearly all the little flowers have opened to creamy white perfection. Pick them on dry morning, after dew has gone but before things heat up. Elderflowers move fast from bud to bloom to berry - so get in quick if you want to make

Vegies + Herbs

How To Grow Beetroot

Beetroot is such a sweet crop. Virtues abound for the grower and the cook. They're undemanding on the soil, grow quickly, not bothered by pest or disease, use hardly any space and get on well with everyone - all in all easy peasy ... or is it? Some of

Mulch + Living Mulch

The Genius of Living Mulch

Living mulch (covering the ground with plants) has all the same benefits as mulch (leaves, hay, woodchip et all), but with bonuses. Plants bring the x factor because they have roots, and on, in and around those roots live soil microbes. Soil microbes are the heart and soul of awesome

Homemade

Refried Beans

Refried beans are such a quick nourishing dinner - when made with fresh, homegrown shellout beans it's next level creamy and yummy. When everything bar the salt, cumin and oil are homegrown - it's a big thumbs up for low food mile deliciousness. Dollop on a

Fruit Trees + Berries

Grow Your Own Peach Tree

Peaches can be grown from stones - so fun to grow your own tree, but other advantages abound. Seedling peach trees are more robust and disease resistant, especially if you choose a stone from a locally grown peach tree that is hardy and vigorous. Worthwhile also if you want to

Homemade

Homemade Chilli Flakes

Such an easy, useful preserve. Chop the tops off and slice the chilli's in half. * If using a dehydrator, turn it on low. * If using an oven, turn it onto your lowest/ non fan setting. You may need to prop the door open to ease the heat a