Keeping backyard chickens around your food gardens is an important part of widening the living system that supports your soil fertility process. Its very possible in urban environments to have chickens and for the most part, they are a pleasure to be part of the “garden family”. But I have to say that in keeping […]
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Self sufficiency is a common question I get when people see my vegetable garden. They ask, do I need to buy any vegetables and herbs with that much growing? You may be surprised to know that I always answer yes. There are some things I like to eat regularly that I can’t grow in our […]
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Spring experience in a sub tropical organic garden is quite a unique one compared to more temperate climates. There is so much beauty in this transition of seasons, as well as opportunity to use plants in finishing state whilst bringing in new warmer season crops. I will explain the experience through my own food gardens […]
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Managing NPK is an obsession of industrialised agriculture which started over 100 years ago. This focus works with complex combinations of different NPK synthetic fertilisers to make plants to grow big and fast. These fertilisers are provided to the soil as dead substances, so its not surprising that by force feeding plants with NPK chemicals, […]
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Managing fruit trees is a task most backyard gardeners and hobby farmers take on. It can be very rewarding and it is also filled with many challenges of learning, like all food growing. I have found working with biodynamic methods to support organic management of our fruit trees to be very effective and wanted to […]
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Understanding soil is the key task in a successful organic and biodynamic garden. How do you get a grip on the importance of all the soil nutrients or grasp the complexity of the living process in the soil and then develop a rhythm of activity in the garden that enhances soil fertility? Its a big […]
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Managing excess moisture in the vegetable garden will be on the minds of most vegetable gardeners in South East QLD. In Brisbane we’ve had about 200mm in 48 hours. Food gardeners in Australia are more often presented with the challenge of keeping their organic gardens moist than managing excess moisture. In managing excess moisture in […]
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Controlling weeds organically is a concept that could transform a massively destructive herbicide industry. The “war on weeds” could be a thing of the past. Is this an impossible dream when up to 80% of our food in Australia is grown with toxic herbicides, pesticides and fungicides? Perhaps it will take a lot of time, […]
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Climate change adaptation is being forced upon food gardeners and farmers that grow in the open air. One could become negative about this as its yet another challenge to get healthy crops. But like all things in life that require us to work outside of the box, there is an opportunity lurking within the challenge. […]
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Organic garden build is a process that is dependent on many factors and for DIY organic gardeners, its very easy to get sidetracked into creating something that does not really serve your needs and motivations. There are a number of key principles I have worked with over the years with our organic garden build Brisbane […]
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