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Start a garden

A collection of 19 posts

Make a Basemap + Wishlist

Make a Basemap + Wishlist

Understanding your land and your climate first is key to you making sound placement choices. "...protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour" Bill Mollison (co founder of permaculture) wisely advises. Start by making a basemap - a birds eye view sketch or photo of your

Learn Your Winter Landscape

Learn Your Winter Landscape

The shady, the sunny, the frosty, the soggy - how well do you know your winter landscape? Ideally, really well. Are the plants that need winter sun and warmth located in it? Take the opportunity! Winter comes but once a year. Timing is everything. Shady by itself means not much,

An annual DIY Soil Test

An annual DIY Soil Test

Your soil is unique. It's history and geography make it so. And because it's unique, and because understanding your soil is at the heart of your garden's health - you do well to get to know it. The best way to know it, is

Aerating the soil with a Forksta. Red band gumboots doing the do in the garden

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The Healthy Soil Project #2: Sort Drainage + Compaction

Simple Solutions For Too Much Surface Water

Simple Solutions For Too Much Surface Water

For best all-round health we set our land up so that water soaks both into our soil, and/or moves across our landscape to a place of our choosing. We don't want water to sit and puddle or pond anywhere near our food crops, so if after rain

Your ultimate tree + plant list

Your ultimate tree + plant list

Here's a super cool project, one that wont get you dirty, but that will advance your gardens cause in leaps and bounds. Create, over time, a list of the trees + plants e.g. shelter, fruit, support trees and perennials, that are well suited to your place + your needs.

Step by Step to Kickass Shelter

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Step by Step to Kickass Shelter

Preparing New Vegie Beds

Preparing New Vegie Beds

There are two parts to this: first up I'll show you how to work out the most efficient shape for your bed (fyi not necessarily a rectangle and defo not a square!), and then we get down to the business of getting it ready for cropping. In my

Easy peasy compost #2: A good setup

Compost + Wormfarms

Easy peasy compost #2: A good setup

The trick to easily made composts is to have all the ingredients on hand, the bins close by the vegie patch and a hose near by. Easy peasy! 2 types of compost bin * A simple, 3 sided bin A couple of pallets slid over stakes do the job perfectly, or

My 3 Fav Ways to Start a Vegie Patch

My 3 Fav Ways to Start a Vegie Patch

Here are my three favourite ways to begin a vegie patch. All are variations of no-dig, and all grow brilliant vegies with no bought fertiliser. The only buy ins are greencrop seeds and perhaps compost, if need be. The first method, and my all time favourite is - "No

NZ Nurseries Fruit trees Favourites Sarah Frater of Edible Garden

Fruit Trees + Berries

My Three Fave Nurseries

Buy your fruit trees and companion plants from one of our small, owner operated, NZ nurseries. Tap into their experience, their range of unusual and heritage varieties, and score yourself tasty, trusty, reliable trees and plants. These passionate nursery women and men are doing important work keeping older varieties going

Do You Need Raised Beds?

Do You Need Raised Beds?

Timber edged, raised beds aren't a garden essential! For sure, they have their place, but in most cases - yes most cases! - your soil, your body, your plants + your wallet are better served without them. Simple, no-dig beds, without timber edges are easiest by far to work

How to Choose Fruit Trees

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Fruit Trees + Berries

How to Choose Fruit Trees

My Favourite Perennial Companions

My Favourite Perennial Companions

Perennials are the backbone of our garden because they stay put, unlike annuals who pop in and out - even in a no dig garden, every day is moving day - pull a carrot, lever out a leek... In the quiet, undisturbed space beneath perennials, soil life set up home

tamaki-plum-shows-well-spaced-scaffold-branches-edible-backyard-nz

Fruit Trees + Berries

My Healthy Fruit Tree Game Plan

A diverse environment around your deciduous fruit trees is the answer to all your fruit tree problems. Yes! Truly! All of them! Get a bit wild, my friends and loose the tidy. Engage as broad a range of plants, trees, shrubs, a pond if you can - even a small

How to Space Your Fruit Trees

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Fruit Trees + Berries

How to Space Your Fruit Trees

Grow Vegies in Containers

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

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

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