Garden
Garden · 31. July 2023
That’s one of the beautiful benefits of a Valencia. Ripe fruit does not drop. Rough skins turn smooth and they can just wait on the tree for you. An ideal gardener’s fruit, no rush, it has the power to be patient.
Garden · 25. April 2023
I became keen to grow flowers when I learned that it would draw pollinators to the garden, and could contribute to us obtaining even more bountiful food. So away I went and got a lovely cottage and native garden growing. I grow flowers everywhere (...)
Garden · 24. August 2022
From the minute the cold autumn chills remind us that winter is on its way, gardeners are plotting and planning for the following year. The reality is a tad more complex. In winter we think of high summer, in spring our heads are in autumn, in summer I wonder what I will plant for colour and food in wintertime, and finally in autumn we are planting bulbs for spring. It’s a constant evolution for our gardens.
Garden · 30. May 2022
While its immensely tempting to rest every single bed under a thick layer of mulch, cardboard or black plastic and head north to the sunnier states for winter, I try to rest one bed and plant lovely greens to enjoy for winter suppers.
Garden · 28. March 2022
In many places throughout the world, autumn can feel like a clear ending. Visiting Europe during autumn in the past, it seems so clearly defined that when the season is over, there’s nothing to really look forward to for awhile. Local gardeners tell me ‘that’s it, I’ll be covering up the beds and hunkering down for the winter”. And why not! Leaves fall and crunch underfoot, evenings turn crispy cold, harvests wrap up and days get dramatically shorter. Not that much in a vegetable patch can surv
Garden · 24. August 2021
This year planting a diverse range of flowers has never been so important for pollination. The choice of flowers in our gardens is just as important as our choice of vegetables. We noticed increased pollination yearly as more butterflies, dragonflies, bees and long beaked birds take to the garden. The presence of moths and mantis insects have increased also. The more pollinators that visit the front garden, the more vegetables have thrived around our edible block.
Garden · 20. July 2021
Not just for dinner, we spend much of our time picking them and eating them straight from the pod. This is the very reason that we decided that we needed more than just a trellis in the vegetable patch to grow them on.
Garden · 28. June 2021
The shortest day has arrived. It was memorable and beautiful and I can’t remember a Winter Solstice quite like it. We woke up to a pink, purple , blue and apricot-tinged sky. The sun was enlarged by the misty fog, becoming a gigantic round ball of light that beamed across our winter flowers, which were glistening like jewels under the magical glowing light.
Garden · 19. May 2021
As well as freshening your breath and providing health benefits, there are the environmental benefits of less transport, no use of pesticides, and less packaging associated with growing your own cup of tea.
Garden · 04. May 2021
I really like the winter season up here actually. As you can detect from the passage above, our cold temperate climate here in South East Australia is fickle.So is the frost. We never quite know when or how much we will get. In the decade I have been here I have counted from 6 to 25 frosts per year.