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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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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Urban farming on a more commercial scale is evolving in Australia and although its early days, Millen Farm in Samford represents a great example of a peri-urban model that is packed with innovation in how it developed and operates. At the recent 2017 national composting week opening run by CORE and held at Millen Farm, […]
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Low cost vegetable garden created from your lawn, if you have grass, is the easiest and most cost effective way to get started with your vegetable garden or expand an existing vegetable garden. Here are my design tips which expand on the short movie I did a few weeks ago about a new vegetable and […]
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Growing marigolds and nasturtiums in your vegetable garden helps control insects, adds beauty and is a tasty and healthy addition to your dinner plate. I have used them in my food gardens for many years. Both plants are prolific seeders once their long flowering period finishes and I have noticed to my delight that as […]
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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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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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Nematode control is a common challenge of organic gardeners. There are a large variety of nematodes that are helpful for the garden, but its the root knot nematode that causes grief and demands nematode control if you want a healthy and productive garden. Nematodes are microscopic, long, thin worms that cause stunted and unproductive plants. […]
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