My Productive Backyard
Turn your backyard into a productive food-growing paradise
Controlling brown rot in peaches and nectarines organically.
Due to the excessive amount of rain and humidity last summer I lost all my stone fruit to Brown Rot. This is a fungus that literally causes the fruit to rot and turn brown, hence the name. It can affect the plant at various stages of growth, causing blossom to turn...
Why you should not grow potatoes in tyres and my favourite space saving growing methods.
Many years ago it was very trendy to grow potatoes in recycles tyres. They were cheap (usually free) and very accessible. The reason this growing method was so popular was because it was so easy - just throw a tyre on the ground pop in a couple of sprouted potatoes...
Potatoes – Which ones to grow and how to cook them.
This season I have harvest several great crops of potatoes. I love to grow potatoes as they are so productive and their nutritional value is fabulous. Here is a simple diagram that lets you know what your average potato contains. I usually plant a number of varieties,...
Growing Globe Artichokes
Globe Artichoke (Cynara Scolymus) is a luscious herbaceous perennial that produces lovely big flower buds that when prepared well are just a delight to eat. I also like to grow them as they are a fabulously elegant architectural plant with their large soft many lobed...
Why fertilise the vegetable garden after heavy rain.
The recent storms on the east coast have caused gardeners a few challenges. In my own garden I am having to contend with wilting vegetables due to excess water, wind damage, especially to large vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower that due to their size, were...
Growing fruit trees in small spaces.
Following on from my blog on growing espalier apples, I thought I would share my other method of growing fruit trees in limited space. This is for those that do not feel they want to go to the trouble or don’t have the time and skills to try an espalier system. This...
The Joys of organic Rhubarb
Rhubarb, one of those wonderful plants you can pop in a corner and forget about. Then every time you want rhubarb and apple pie it is there to pick and cook. Unfortunately for me after an extended dry season, followed by an excessive wet period, my rhubarb died. I was...
Having a happy, healthy flock of backyard chooks – Preventative Backyard Chook care.
I generally have very few problems with my flock and I think this is because I always try to prevent any problems arising. So I thought I would share with you some of the things I do. General good practice for backyard chook keeping • Always purchase healthy, good...
Bumper Apple crop
It is apple season again and this year I have had a bumper crop. I have five apple trees espaliered along a fence and I have picked 130 kgs of fruit off them! Quite extraordinary. The five trees take up 20 meters of length, about ½ meter in width and 1.3 meters tall....
Growing Thai pink egg tomatoes
In recent years I have given up growing large fruited tomatoes in the Southern Highlands, as it is often too humid and the growing season is not long enough or hot enough to get a decent crop. I finish up with buckets of green tomatoes that I have to convert into...
A Changing of the Seasons
There is a real autumn feel in the air at the moment and the colouring up of the Manchurian pear and Robinia, makes me realise that autumn is nearly here. The same is happening in the veggie garden, summer crops are finishing and the cooler air temperature are...
Making Comfrey ointment
Comfrey ointment/salve It is inevitable if you are a gardener, spending time planting, weeding, thinning, pruning, hedging, mowing and generally working hard, that you will eventually come of second best and sprain or strain something. At the moment it is my wrists...