Sheet mulching is a common practice recommended in permaculture. It uses cardboard and paper to smother the earth from growing weeds and grass whilst you attempt to build healthy soil on top of the cardboard and paper. My blog this month examines alternatives to sheet mulching which I feel are much more efficient and truly […]
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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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Four fold nature is a very helpful conceptual framework for looking at the make up of your organic garden or urban farm and how to optimise its quality. Being conscious of the integrated system forming the four main components of a successful organic garden or farm (its four fold nature) creates an essential platform for […]
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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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Using planetary impacts is a method of widening the system you work with to create greater productivity in your food growing activities. The planetary system is all around us and it costs nothing to access, all you need is the knowledge of how to use it and an openness to raise your consciousness around your […]
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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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Organic garden design and build is always an interesting challenge. There are so many factors to consider with any organic garden design to ensure the mix of design elements match the goals and resources of the gardener. I wanted to share some experiences and photos of quite a large and interesting project we are currently […]
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Managing soil ph levels in your vegetable garden can make a big contribution to its success. There are a number of ways to easily and quickly fine tune your soil ph levels. How is ph measured? Soil acidity is measured by a ph test. Ph test kits can be bought inexpensively at most nurseries and […]
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