Posts
sweet potatoes, emerging like a zombie
Buried some time in August and since long forgotten, the sweet potato has risen and is back with a vengeance.
little big compost bins and a fancy worm cafe
This is another small step towards making the place look more amenable, as up until now, it's been looking like my …
might it be a compost melon?
A seedling sprouted amidst the amaranth plants. A generous layer of compost was sprinkled under the newspaper/mulch, s…
stink stank stunk, but now there'll be pumpkins
I was hesitant to write about having emptied the third compost bin that was becoming anaerobic because I'm not sure…
the silver lining is dried leaves
The front yard has been less than picturesque these months. The jolly juniper trees were pruned down in early winter an…
mad red brain
Like a mad red brain the involute rhubarb leaf thinks its way up through loam. "April Chores" by Jane Kenyon, fro…helpless and vulnerable on windy days
The howling winds thrashed through the neighbourhood yesterday and invaded the garden grounds. Its invisible might, as …
rainwater is finally pumped up and ready to go-go
I can safely say that I'm a decent small-scale plumber now.
milk and mildew
Powdery mildew is officially the worst "bad guy" of the garden. It first appeared on the tomatoes in the Back…first kombucha, first fermentation
The SCOBY is looking pretty healthy, so it's about time I make some actual beverages.
surprise! have a grape
On 13 July , I used a babushka technique to pot up some grape cuttings. After two months (but probably more importantly,…
miss muffet's soil bacteria (LAB culture part 3)
Treacle (aka molasses) is added to the whey to stabilise it (1:1 ratio), so it can be stored in room temperature. I pou…
LAB culture (part 2)
Previously, in Part 1 of the LAB culture series, 7-day-old rice water and milk was combined in a mixture in a ratio of …
chilli on a stick
A neighbour gave us this cutting when he was pulling up his garden. He had to clear out the whole plot because the land…big bark, bigger bite, sore muscles
Setting up a productive edible garden is hard work. There's the mandatory watering tour, then all the maintenance, …
plant identification for a comfrey lookalike
This is a plant that had popped up in the front weedy square. The leaves looked and felt a bit like comfrey, so I kept …
marigold blooms
Big bushy marigolds. I'm not sure what variety they are, but they don't look quite like the ones I've seen …
bad butterfly, please go away
There's been a couple of cabbage white butterflies fluttering around these days. Some little holes have started app…
purslane is yummy, unlike pigface
Purslane, yogurt, citron confit, cumin works well together in a tzatziki. Purslane itself when raw is really crispy and…
fermented family
Left: Red cabbage, dill, kaffir, black pepper, starry apples (thanks, Ppf). Centre: Pigface, lime. Right: Papaya, kaffir…
please come, mr ladybug
Scattered some alyssum near the kale and front gailan, and some cosmos in the peanut driveway. This garden needs more y…
LAB culture
EM, soil bacteria, LAB serum, LABS... Many names exist for a mix of lactic acid bacteria which is beneficial for the s…
green coffee bean
I had soaked and planted out a few of these green coffee beans that had been hiding in the hessian bags I had swapped f…
got some more seedlings
Raising seeds takes a lot of patience, and I just couldn't resist a run to Bunnings for some plants I couldn't …
layering mint runners
The garden mint had a lot of mould on its leaves - perhaps because it's just below the blighted tomatoes. Solution:…
chaoshi kangkong
Bought some kangkong (aka morning glory, kongxincai) from the supermarket today. Then at home, I cut the stems just be…
grevillea cuttings
The kind folks at the Crowther Community Seedlings Hub (Josie and little Andy) let me take a few cuttings from their gr…
the importance of pinching out
Pinching out the main stem of a plant activates and encourages the growth of its auxiliary buds, resulting in a bushie…
seed saving - nasturtiums
Pretty pretty. Three seeds to a flower; green = still growing; brown with brain wrinkles = just about ready; brown and …
seed germination (and experimental greenhouse systems)
Germination isn't necessarily difficult, but it takes a fair amount of precision in creating just the right conditi…
native bees like daikon flowers
Native [stingless] bees, many of which to a novice looks like an ant-fly holding pollen, have been hovering around the …
radish harvest
Seeds were sowed on 11 July, harvested 50 days later (could have been harvested earlier - of the 17 radishes, a couple …
re-cultivating a scoby
Starting date: 25 August. Black tea with cane sugar, cooled, mixed with the leftovers of two store-bought Buchi kombuch…
propagation via hibiscus cutting
My hibiscus cutting rooted successfully - a nice swirl had even started at the base of the pot. How do I know this? Wel…midyim copper tops
New addition to the edible collection: Midyim berries, a native bush food that has white-grey berries. No idea what the…
chinese apple seeds
Some seeds of the most delicious types of (fushi/fuji) apples* have miraculously germinated. We ate the apples and Moth…
worm tower - trial no. 1 pt. 2
Worm Tower 1 is installed, shown below. Worm Tower 2 (located in the WTP) as well as Worm Tower 3 (located in the PSP) i…
little seed packets
I've devised a way to fold little papers into origami seed packets. It's a modified hybrid of the folding metho…
oi-ya, I made an olla
An olla is an unglazed clay pot that's buried in the soil and filled regularly with water, as a way of irrigation. …
eat my leaf
Here are a few cabbage white butterfly caterpillars that I found and left out on the grass as a gift to some lucky Will…
the real miracle berry *edit* these are actually pomegranates
Stumbled across a miracle berry tree at Southbank. There's a cute edible garden there that I completely forgot abou…
worm tower - trial no. 1
Little wormie poking through the upper bucket - good to know they're commuting between buckets (in the OG worm farm…
citron confit
I harvested a couple of lemons from this particular neighbourhood tree I've had my eyes on. These lemons are unlike…
Soil texture by feel
Useful how-to guide with flow chart for doing a quick soil test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWZwbVJCNec
daikon flowers
This is what a flowering daikon radish looks like. The distinct four-petal formation clearly show that it's from th…
tom-AY-to tom-AR-to
The lowest tomato on the strongest-growing vine is finally starting to ripen. It makes sense that they ripen one by one…
sauerpawpaw (fermented green papaya)
fermented green papaya - sounds too normal papaya-kraut - doesn't make sense (since it just means "papaya cabba…
first calendula bloom
During the daytime, the almost-neon calendula petals are fully open. It's a bit shy in the morning, though, and hid…swale pathways
Swales are ditches along the contours of a slope that catch and store water in soil, rather than let it run off down th…
water tank patch is semi-ready!
I've put up the timber+polycarbonate raised bed edging for the water tank patch (WTP). I had measured up and prepar…snake beans
Snake bean seeds have germinated and have been planted in the Pool Strip Patch. As of today and a couple of days ago.
nutrient deficiency in citrus trees
None of the citrus trees in the garden have ever done well here, except for the cumquat tree during the first couple of…the mad [water] dash
Two plastic watering cans - one with a larger holding capacity, the other with a bigger watering can rose - a hose pipe…
fresh beds
Testing out the newspaper + mulch technique for suppressing weeds, and someone decided that instead of just weeding and…
little mushroom, little bee
A little mushroom appeared close and cosy next to the mustard greens plant. No idea what type it is, or why it's th…