Edible Backyard NZ (Page 7)

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How to Sort + Store Onions

How to Sort + Store Onions

Sorting your crops into good-keepers and bad-keepers is key to long storage. Bad-keepers run the risk of rot, which spreads and takes the good-keepers down. One bad apple really does spoil the bunch. After the onions are dug, spread them on wire racks or in baskets, to cure. Once the

A simple test for soil moisture

A simple test for soil moisture

I can't tell you the number of customers that have come to me downhearted at the state of their gardens, and the only thing they needed to sort, was how they were watering. Not enough, too much - how do you get it spot on? You check in

Easy Peasy Crop Rotation

Easy Peasy Crop Rotation

Crop rotation is falling out of fashion - and I'm glad for it, it used to be a stuffy, over complicated thing. But don't lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater! Both your soil, and your crops appreciate the moving about and mixing of

Mulched Paths - Oh Yes!

Mulched Paths - Oh Yes!

The first permaculture book I read was "The Permaculture Home Garden" by Linda Woodrow. Back in mumblemumble 1997. I read it from cover to cover one cold weekend in bed with my first baby, those were the days. I gobbled it up. Linda made so much sense. One

How To Grow Avocado

Paid-members only

Fruit Trees + Berries

How To Grow Avocado

A Useful, Yet Oh So Beautiful Herbal Border

A Useful, Yet Oh So Beautiful Herbal Border

A food garden is a cooperative happening. The gardener, the soil, the weather (lets not forget the weather!) and the companions. Those companions are the icing on the cake - they bring it altogether. Today is all about them, specifically herbs, and how irreplaceable they are in your food garden

Mulch + Living Mulch

Homemade Mulch

And by mulch I mean any old thing, don’t go mortgaging your house for fancy store bought stuff. In the absence of garden waste (which I find hard to believe – there are always things to prune or weed) there will be an old blanket lurking in the shed, a

How To Grow Citrus, Naturally

Paid-members only

Fruit Trees + Berries

How To Grow Citrus, Naturally

The Perfect Raspberry Frame

Paid-members only

Fruit Trees + Berries

The Perfect Raspberry Frame

How to Grow Yams

How to Grow Yams

Yams (oca) are the easiest crop I've ever grown. No issues with pest or disease, and once they are planted - you can pretty much forget about them. The only negative is that they are in the ground for a long time, so if you are short on

Video: Sowing Carrots the Edible Backyard Way

Video: Sowing Carrots the Edible Backyard Way

Carrots can be tricky! Let me show you how to get a great crop every time! Use this method for beetroot, parsnip and florence fennel too. You'll get to see: * How I prepare my bed for seed sowing * What moist soil actually looks like * Why I sow carrot

How to Save Tomato Seed

Seeds + Seedlings

How to Save Tomato Seed

Having your own little seed bank is solid. Home saved seed becomes adapted to your soil and climate, growing more resilient year by year. It also saves disappointment when your fav seed catalogue stops providing your fav variety. Strong seed, starts with strong plants. Be fussy about the seed you

A Planting Plan to Entice the Beneficial Insects

A Planting Plan to Entice the Beneficial Insects

Prepare to be amazed at the amount of larvae gobbling, pest destroying action going on around you in the micro. Beneficial insects keep your garden sorted. There's an army on your side: parasitic wasps, hoverflies, various bees and ladybirds, praying mantis, spiders, dragonflies, assassin bugs, lacewings, a variety

Help, My Tomato Has Wilted!

Pests + diseases

Help, My Tomato Has Wilted!

There's nothing sadder than a crop gone awry, all that love and care down the tubes. In this case we have a wilted (past the point of recovery) tomato. When something goes awry in the vegie patch look to the obvious things first (I know how you love

How (and When) to Harvest Garlic

How (and When) to Harvest Garlic

When the tips on your garlic leaves are beginning to yellow, they're telling you that harvest time is near. Dig one up and check - it's the surest way to see whether or not the cloves have fully formed. * Don't hold out for bigger

Save Your Seedlings From The Birds

Seeds + Seedlings

Save Your Seedlings From The Birds

It's important work protecting your newly panted seedlings and freshly sown seed from our friends the birds. Especially in spring, when nest building and baby feeding is on the agenda. The simplest way is to plant into a living mulch. Otherwise, immediately after planting, protect seeds or seedlings

Raising Really Good Seedlings

Seeds + Seedlings

Raising Really Good Seedlings

Really good seedlings are an important part of an abundant garden. If your seedlings are strong and healthy, the grown ups will be too. It takes a bit of dedication to pull off, but its so wonderful to watch seeds curl up out of the soil and to grow into

My Favourite Growing Frame

My Favourite Growing Frame

Indeterminate tomatoes and climbing beans need tall support - 1.8m is ideal to get the full potential out of the crop, and it needs to be robust enough to hold crops steady under the weight of a crop and the wind as well. Steel reinforcing mesh is the bees

5 ways to manage Tomato Potato Psyllid

Pests + diseases

5 ways to manage Tomato Potato Psyllid

It's the psyllid season. With a potential to wipe out up to 80% of your gorgeous tomato crop it's an important pest to understand. Managing psyllids takes a bit extra, but come on guys - it's tomatoes were talkin' about! Are they worth

How to grow garlic

How to grow garlic

Once upon a time, garlic was planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest - how I loved that tradition, but life is change. Nowadays, planting earlier is a smart move if you get rust over your garlic foliage mid to late spring. The rust reduces photosynthesis, which

Simple Summer Plum Cake

Simple Summer Plum Cake

Gardeners are so busy at this time of the year. Add a job and a few kids to the mix, and cake baking, which should be near the top of the priority list languishes way below. Here's the world's most simple cake, especially for you my

Mineral Rich Comfrey: A Garden Essential!

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Mineral Rich Comfrey: A Garden Essential!