VEGIES + HERBS

How to grow everything from broccoli to beetroot to tomatoes - naturally.

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Garden Care

How to Prune + Train Tomatoes, Peppers + Aubergines

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Awesome, Organic Tomatoes!

It's entirely possible to grow abundant tomatoes without artificial tomato food, or tricky fertiliser brews. Here are my very simple, tomato growing strategies - each one is a key thread, and success comes when they are all in action, together. Set your tomatoes on the road to glory by

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Finish Asparagus + Prep it for Spring

Asparagus ferns will likely be tall and green and ferny, and getting in the way of everything - corral them behind a string-line so as they can finish in peace. Letting the stalks wither and go full cycle is a nourishing and important step in the process towards an abundant

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Basil

Basil is a queen, and needs to be treated just so - her tolerance for anything other than perfect is low and if you dish it out she'll let you know with fungus-y foliage, black streaks, pale leaves, tough leaves, poor growth or by rushing off to seed.

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Celery

Homegrown celery is so efficient (and delicious!), gifting a lot of crop, in a small space. By regularly harvesting the big, outside stalks you inspire fresh, new ones to come. In this way, a happy celery plant can perpetuate for years, and that's the trick - to keep them

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Feed Your Veggie Patch

Overfeeding is easily done. Surrounded as we are, by seductive marketing and miracle soil food, home gardeners fertilise wildly. Less really is more. All you need provide is just enough. But first you need to know this: The main player in fertility isn't the things you add to

SOIL HEALTH

Soil Preps for Heavy Feeder Crops

Heavy feeders are called heavy feeders because they are hungrier than light feeders. It's not that they need piles of fertiliser, what they need, is just enough... steady, not boom and bust. Overfeeding is, long term, perhaps worse than under feeding. Today is all about how much is

VEGIES + HERBS

The Easiest Crops To Grow

Today is especially for those of you who dream of eating a fresh picked bowl of goodness, like this one - every day, but dont have much time to garden. You can do it, if you focus on the most efficient crops - one's that are highest nutrition for the

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Broccoli

Broccoli is the easiest, quickest and most productive brassica to grow. Easier than cabbage, heaps faster than cauliflower, and waaaaay more productive than both on account of all the side shoots that come after the main head is cut. In order to grow lots of broccoli shoots, you first need

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Prune Cucumbers + Melons

For best health, plus the joy of a small footprint, grow vining small fruit cucurbits (melons, cucumbers, small squash) up strings or frames rather than along the ground. Pruning them as single leaders, as per tomatoes, makes for an easy life - easy to pick, to spot pests, and to support,

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Green Beans + Shell-out Beans

Beans have a bad rap. I mean who lists beans as their fav crop?! People who grow their own, thats who! Fresh picked is the only way to go, and there are so many awesome varieties to try. And then theres dried beans, or shellouts. Homegrown are worlds apart - so

VEGIES + HERBS

How To Plant Kumara Shoots

You've nurtured your mother kumara all spring long and now that the shoots are 20cm or so its time, for them to leave mum, and go make their own babies. Planting time is upon us! Prepare the bed The key to a boomer crop of kumara, is warmth.

VEGIES + HERBS

Resist Rushing into Summer Crops! Sow a Living Mulch Instead

Game on! It's the great summer-crop wait out! Has your garden hit the tomato, pumpkin, bean or corn planting sweet spot? If not, I'm sending you the strength to resist rushing in! The day is coming, my friend. As the air slowly warms, the soil

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Potatoes

Spuds are so easy that you can accidently leave a tuber in ground and grow a whole new crop. Rogue potato seedlings turn up all over the place - I leave these where they are by the way. Every extra kilo of delicious homegrown potatoes is most welcome in my house.

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Kumara Shoots

The journey to a boomer crop of kumara begins with shoots or tipu. Start them growing now, in early spring. Shoots are grown on a kumara, and this kumara is so special its called the mother. Choose your mother with care. Select a firm, organically grown kumara with no rots.

VEGIES + HERBS

How to Grow Peas

Peas prefer mild, cool weather - not too hot, not too cold. Here in Horowhenua, I can sow them Autumn through Spring. When temperatures rise, peas stop/ reduce flower production. Find your own perfect pea moment by trying all the timings. Regular sowings of peas throughout, brings a steady supply of

VEGIES + HERBS

What to Plant in Your Vegie Patch in Winter

A journalist once asked me "Whats the best time of year to plant a garden?, and I said "Anytime!" There is not one food growing season, there are four!" As long as your garden isn't under snow - you can continue to plant and sow

VEGIES + HERBS

Year-round Leafy Greens

Leafy greens are the best! They win 'Most Resilient Crop of All' for being the easiest to grow, hands down the most nutritious and so very generous - they give and give. Try a few new ones each season and steadily build a diverse collection that’ll take you

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 you

VEGIES + HERBS

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 space,

VEGIES + HERBS

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

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

VEGIES + HERBS

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 knees.

VEGIES + HERBS

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 in

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COMPANION PLANTS

Mineral Rich Comfrey: A Garden Essential!