Make them love you with food.
Here are the newest additions to our chookyard, 3 Light Sussex hens. Gaining their trust right from the word go is high on the agenda, and this is me winning them over with sunflower seeds. A few days...
View ArticleCome Visit This November
Greetings Friends and Food Gardeners, A whirlwind is how November will be. From start to finish. After that I’m dipping out of events at home for a while, taking a break. The Spring Open Day’s are a...
View ArticleSave Your Seedlings From The Birds
I know its spring when divots appear in my vegie patch, and mulch is flung all over. Starlings and Blackbirds are in heaven here with plenty of nest making goodness and a bounty of worms for dinner....
View ArticleNovember in the Vegie Patch
Every garden has it’s own microclimate, and the better you understand yours, the better your garden be. My bid to slow down the summer-crop-planting-rush, is to get you pondering these two things –...
View ArticleOur Amazing 50×50 Macrocarpa Stakes
Aren’t they handsome! Untreated 50×50 heart macrocarpa with a nice, sharp point. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have your beans and tomatoes upright after a norwester? This is the kind of support you’ve been...
View ArticleBlack Beans, Brown Rice & Lime Bowl
Our Tahitian lime is now 5 years old and we’ve had our first grown up crop from it this year. That’s why the last three recipes I’ve shared are all lime infused – a soup, a cake and now a bowl. A...
View ArticlePlugging Into The Web
Greetings food gardeners, This December I want to take your gardening styles to new heights. I want you to start each garden mission with a few minutes of noticing. Hardly sounds earth-shattering, but...
View ArticleRosewater Almond Cake
Bring your rose petals to the table with this beautiful cake. Perfectly timed for the many celebrations that take place at this time of year – it looks gorgeous, but is super simple to make. This cake...
View ArticleGrow Your Own Peach Tree
We get a heap of spring rain down here. Spring rain is fabulous for full tanks and not having to water until December, but it sucks for growing peaches. Fungus alert! Leaf curl abounds! Peaches grown...
View ArticleGrowing Great Citrus on the Fringes
A fringe (also called a marginal growing area), refers to an area outside of ideal. Living at the base of the Tararua’s sets us firmly on the fringe for citrus. Head 12km west to Levin and it’s a whole...
View ArticleDecember in the Vegie Patch
Are your gardens mulched? That magic layer of organic matter (mostly dry brown bits) that keeps the moisture in, that provides a roof over the worms heads, that feeds the soil life. What a difference...
View ArticleHow (and When) to Harvest Garlic
The tips on my garlic leaves are beginning to yellow, this tells me harvest time is near. There is one way to know for sure and that’s to dig a bulb. Looks like we’re good to go! Once the tops start...
View ArticleJanuary in the Vegie Patch
I am over-joyed to find delicious dirt beneath the mulch after all these hot days! Dark, damp, wormy and smelling fine. It’s good nick has alot to do with the often topped up layer of organic matter...
View ArticleElderflower, Lemon and Blueberry Syllabub
Fresh, sweet and light. Super quick to make. The perfect summer pudding. For 6 serves Marinated Blueberries 4cups blueberries zest and juice of 2 Lisbon or Yenben lemons 300ml Elderflower cordial Mix...
View ArticleIn Love With Leaky Hose (And How To Water)
I feel cheeky suggesting you need watering lessons. You’ve raised a family, built a house; you drive a car and may even run a small country…. but, clever as you are, do you know how to water? Because...
View ArticleMarinated Blueberries, How to Water and our Summer Event.
Beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers and plums – the summer garden is in! Barefeet, river swims, orchard naps – life is good! I hope you make your favourites happen this January. Yours in the earth,...
View ArticleA bed fit for Broccoli
Today I got my first Broccoli bed ready. From seed to harvest it’s about 4 months, so for late Autumn eating seed sowing time is nigh. For fabulous heads, get your bed ready when you sow the seed. This...
View ArticleFebruary in the Vegie Patch – Cabbage Whites & Hot Days
Aside from keeping everything alive with regular watering and feeding, our most pressing job is sowing and planting the winter food garden. No mean feat when it’s hot and dry. Planting Tips for Hot...
View ArticleFermented Carrots
This title may not grab your taste buds, but it should! I’ve been scouting around for something to do with all the carrots I’ve got, and bumped into this gem from the inspiring team at Cornersmith– a...
View ArticleA Night To Remember
Music belongs outdoors, don’t you agree? As young things we listened to music all summer in the Botanical gardens, and that’s when I knew. Songs are better sung under the big sky. Without walls,...
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