By taking regular photos of my garden for this blog I am learning faster than ever about what happens here. I have become more observant and hence can now see changes that I have never documented or noted before. For example the rose in the pot on the corner of one of...
Green walls/living walls, have quite a high profile in the Urban Infrastructure scene, and a good thing that is, for they are very beautiful. When people talk about green walls in cities, they are usually referring to high rise or medium density dwellings that have...
In early spring, the garden swells. The humming of bees a background murmur as I pass the almond tree. I am learning to see, thanks to my camera and this blog. I am more careful to note, to photograph and to compare. Last weeks shoots to this weeks growth. Through...
Professor Tim Entwisle, scientist with the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, suggests that we add an extra two seasons to our calender- Sprinter (August - September) and Sprummer (October - November), then followed by Summer (December, January, February, March), Autumn...
As I was cleaning out the chickens nesting boxes I noticed my Light Sussex, position herself on the garden shed shelf. Over the past weeks I have found eggs there. I have also found eggs broken on the ground, as though the egg had rolled off the shelf. I kept...
Young Lima bean shoots are growing. The seeds will be harvested but the stalks and leaves will be dug back into the soil to feed the quince tree near where they are planted.
When chickens are healthy, they look it. Their coats are shiny, they are not hen pecked, their combs (Isaa Browns) are bright and upright. Sometimes backyard gardeners don't realise that in fact their chickens are actually on the unhappy side of life. Sometimes food...
Reservoir suffers from heat waves. All suburbs do, but some more than others and Reservoir has been identified by our Local Government as high on the heat wave risk raider. There are a number of reasons why, but the reason I am interested in has to do with the lack of...
In my Vietnamese neighbours garden you can feast. It looks sparse on first observations but a tour of the garden soon reveals a genuine bounty of foods. My neighbour and I can only speak to each other via our body language and gesticulation. I do not speak a word of...
In permaculture gardens everywhere people often plant, Artemisia absinthium - Wormwood, near their chicken housing to deter lice and to rid chickens of intestinal worms (if ingested). Wormwood is either boiled in some water and then added to the chickens drinking...
I am reading Soils and Soil Fertility by Frederick R. Troeh & Louis M. Thompson and the story is riveting: in all honesty I am loving it! As plants have no legs and therefore can't hunt or gather they first 'adsorb' their meals and then 'absorb' to access...
Ficinia nodosa, I have you planted along my paths and I think you are beautiful. In our new garden I hope to have large expansive displays of you. Striking, elegant rhizomatous perennial. Weeping and upright at various times. More and more of you in my garden I hope...
The leaves have all dropped. The path is decorated with their crunch and winter light now falls gently in. After 10 years of growth, the grape vine on the west side of our home is abundant and verdant in summer. It barely lets a drop of sunshine in, which is perfect...
On returning home from work I sometimes felt a deep despair...the garden beds, even when heavily mulched, struggled in the heat. I would come home to dry soil and wilting plants. Even with an automatic watering system moisture loss was very high on hot summer days...
I have learned that I must be prepared for summer early. I grow most of my crops in the summer months, I purchase bags of seed raising mixture, and packets of seeds, I sow and sow in punnets, and transfer the punnets into my greenhouse. I water once a day until the...
The quince tree has taught me to be more observant. When I bought the tree about three years ago I did not notice how twisted its branches were until after I had planted it. To give the tree a more open canopy and to spread the branches a little away from each other I...
To keep the soil in the chicken run from turning into a muddy mess in winter, to help keep chicken feet a little dryer...to ensure that you don't step in fresh chicken droppings as you walk through the run (as the chicken toss and turn the straw about the droppings...
Abundantly in the garden you grow. Beautiful shaped fruit on an evergreen shrub. I wish I loved you so I could eat you...but no matter how beautiful you look I have yet to desire you... but as the chickens enjoy you, to them I feed you.