Garden Planning part one: Dirty Talk | picky to plenty

I’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Like a lot. I was in a car accident nearly three months ago and it has turned my world upside down. While the accident wasn’t too serious, thankfully, it was enough to cause me health problems I’ve been dealing with ever since. One way to cope with …

In defense of weeds | FoodGrow

In defense of weeds February 2, 2015 by Stephen 1 Comment I provide a haven for weeds. No crap! Sometimes, if no one is looking, I even save seed. There are places on my property where I have broken ground, turned the grasses under, and waited, just to see what would grow. And I recommend it. …

NZ’s rare heritage vegetables under threat.

NADENE HALL Hold the seeds of Hokianga red corn in your hand and they gleam like burnished gems. They are considered to be treasure of the most precious kind by the Koanga Institute, a non-profit charitable trust that has been saving rare and unusual heritage vegetable and flower seeds, bulbs and fruit trees for almost …

Food forests growing in popularity

DAVE NICOLL It's almost like having the produce section of a supermarket in your backyard... only it's not quite as organised. Food forests, also known as forest gardening, are an easy to maintain and sustainable way of cultivating a garden by creating a mini ecosystem in your backyard. One of the world's leading examples is …

How a small British garden became a mature food forest

Sami Grover (@samigrover) Video screen capture Permaculture Magazine Many years ago I picked up a book called The Permaculture Garden, by Graham Bell. I was more than a little hooked by the practical tips and inspiring visions of urban and suburban gardens turned into food forests. Since then, I've visited/read about/watched videos on more than …

The comprehensive guide to growing tomatoes in Canberra despite all odds

Jackie French has everything you need to know about producing perfect tomatoes in Canberra. Your guide: Growing tomatoes. Summer smells of hot grass, ripe tomatoes and the pungency of tomato leaves as you brush against them to pick the fruit. There's still time to have your own tomato crop this year. Tomatoes will start to yield ripe fruit …

Learn your seed lingo

By Kate Jerome The seed catalogs are piling up on my coffee table, and every time I have a few minutes free I sneak a peek. One of my dear friends calls it “seed porn.” Even though it’s certainly easier to order online these days, there is nothing like sitting in a comfy chair with …

Year of soil offers chance for growth

This week, Zero Waste Mann’s Sarah Calverley looks at one of the fundamental building blocks of good food – the soil it’s grown in ------------------- I remember, in the 1980s, my friend Alice telling me about Le Puy lentils. They have to be Le Puy and not ‘Le Puy-type’ lentils, she emphasised. The point is …

Learning resilience from Peru’s ancient civilisations

As the UN’s COP 20 climate negotiations in Lima slowly progressed last month, I went on a journey through the Sacred Valley of the Incas, a valley close to Cusco, the capital of the Incan empire of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I wanted to see how climate change is already affecting the Peruvian Andes. …

Transforming a Suburban Property: Removing a Driveway

By Jan Spencer This is the third blog describing the 15-year transformation of our quarter-acre suburban property. The previous blogs describe the site in more detail, along with reasons for making these changes, both practical and political. Another blog describes turning the garage into a living space, grass to garden and creating a food hedge …