Oh you South Islanders are sly. You’ve been holding a foodie secret close to your chest and haven’t said a ... Read More
Sprouting Spouting: A Gutter Garden
Gutter Gardens are a small-space hero of edible gardening When space is limited but your green thumb is itching, a ... Read More
Lady Godiva Pumpkins – ‘Naked’ Seeds
Last season I was introduced to the Lady Godiva pumpkin. What’s all the fuss about? They are ‘naked’ seeds! One ... Read More
Making a Cloche Growing Tunnel
From elaborate designs to individual plant protectors made from plastic bottles, cloches (pronounced kl-oshes) provide handy protection from insects, pests ... Read More
Gathering and saving seeds from a homegrown harvest is easy, cost effective and rewarding. Once you have saved enough for ... Read More
Growing choko from seed is easy! All you need is a choko… Whether you have a huge garden, a shade ... Read More
Super Celery – All for the Eating
This blog is to honour the humble celery – all of it, from top to tail. Celery takes a while ... Read More
Do you think you are the only one out there with a humble veggie plot in your backyard? Think again ... Read More
Potato Season: chitting & seeding varieties
Are your potatoes well chitted and ready to be planted? With so many varieties of potatoes to plant, it’s fun ... Read More
How to split and divide Flax and Grasses
Why are we planting Flax and Grasses? We’ve chosen to divide and replant a variety of flax and ornamental grasses ... Read More
With the ramifications of Covid-19 in New Zealand, from stockpiling to food rationing, we should now, more than ever, embrace ... Read More
Nifty Tips for Pots-to-Garden Planting
Now, planting sounds like a very simple job to do, and it is. HOWEVER after planting more than 250 hedges ... Read More
Hungry Bin Worm Farm – Years Later #part2
My Hungry Bin worm farm is trucking along just nicely after many years. I adore my Hungry Bin worm farm, ... Read More
It’s broad bean season and they are providing faster than I can pick them. While I have already covered how ... Read More
What it takes to be a Kiwi(fruit)
I think we laugh more since we’ve moved rural. We may have gone slightly mad, and while that is up ... Read More
Around the size of a soccer field in Berlin’s eastern Moritzplatz district, Prinzessinnengarten is more than just an urban vegetable ... Read More
Garden allotments in Munich: weekend houses with grit
I’m back from a wonderful fact finding tour of Germany where I continued my quest to rediscover how urban living ... Read More
The Burys Allotments, Godalming
If you haven’t heard of ‘allotments’ before, let me introduce them to you. UK Allotments 101 Allotments in the UK ... Read More
Food Runners & Urban Farming in San Francisco
I am intrigued how cities apply themselves to meet their urbanomic needs. I recently met up with Phil from Food ... Read More
Summer love: passionfruit and how to grow them
This time each year I yearn for my passionfruit vine and feijoa tree to spring into blossom. I drool in ... Read More
Compost Envy: How to make your own
Bless their wriggly souls. While worm farms do make great garden tea (aka worm wee) and fertiliser, for which I ... Read More
Once upon a time, every backyard in every quarter acre block in New Zealand, would be home to fruit trees ... Read More
Traditionally garlic is planted on the shortest day of the year and harvested on the longest. For Kiwis, that means ... Read More
Pumpkin: Growing Vertical Gardens
I didn’t plant a single pumpkin seed this year yet my garden beds are springing up surprises EVERYWHERE. I certainly ... Read More
Have you ever tried growing your own asparagus? It grows from a seed into a crown and takes several years ... Read More
Natural ways to deter Slugs & Snails
With all this rain you may need to re-sprinkle some snail bait around those cabbages; or not! For those wanting ... Read More
It is appalling to learn how much food New Zealand wastes. Thank goodness for kind hearts; the food rescuers. With ... Read More
How to get rid of aphids — organically
It seemed a natural choice really, to get rid of these horrors of the garden without saturating my edible garden ... Read More
Pick Me! My Community Vertical Vege Garden
Pick me! Pick me! I have been waiting weeks to introduce my vertical community fence garden to the world. Well, ... Read More
Food for Thought: Auckland Berm Gardens under Fire
“Roadside gardens are to be outlawed in Auckland, with residents forced to apply for a $150 licence if they want ... Read More
Lemon Tree Defiance: Benny on the Berm
The Community Gardening virus takes hold. After a chance meeting with Incredible Edible Geraldine founder, Sam Lees, I was so ... Read More
Community Gardening: Incredible Edible Geraldine
I love the concept of sustainable backyards. I’m sold on the idea that every house, regardless of the size of ... Read More
Eggshell Tea & Eggshell Crumb – free garden fertilisers
Don’t throw away your eggshells. Recycle them into fertiliser for your vege patch. In preparing your vegetable garden for spring, ... Read More
Sprouts: How to grow in a mason jar
I have a great little garden outside, but there’s something wonderfully satisfying about growing something edible right on your kitchen ... Read More
Hungry Bin Worm Farm – The Arrival #part 1
It doesn’t take much to get me beaming. The Hungry Bin Worm Farm didn’t need wrapping to be the perfect ... Read More
Growing mint is almost the easiest trick in the gardening book. This super useful herb grows like a weed and, ... Read More
Everything is just Peachy – how to prune your peach tree
While clearing space to build a plastic house in our backyard last year, I am not afraid to admit, but ... Read More
Kai Auckland has been established just a few months but already it has the makings of something very positive. It’s ... Read More
Native Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides): The Unsung Hero of My Winter Garden If there’s one vegetable that’s outshining the rest in ... Read More
Brussels Sprout: Grow from Seed
The (Surprisingly Entertaining) Life Cycle of a Brussels Sprout OK, I’ll be honest. I only bought a packet of seeds ... Read More
Spring onions are simply easy to grow and a staple for so many meals you may put on the table. ... Read More
Rhubarb: a vege with fruity chic
Growing rhubarb is ever-so-easy. While most definitely a vegetable, this classic compost-lover is hailed as an honorary fruit in our ... Read More
If you’ve got the space in your garden, don’t go past growing sweet corn. As first-time corn growers, we found ... Read More
Looking at those tiny, flaky onion seeds, you’d be forgiven for wondering how they’ll ever become juicy, golden slices in ... Read More
Basil is one of those must-have herbs in the garden, on the kitchen windowsill, or in a sunny pot on ... Read More
Diary of a Broad Bean Three months ago, I didn’t think I’d be writing a blog about how to grow ... Read More
Having come to grips with containers and trays, the next thing to consider is soil and water. Seems pretty simple ... Read More
Growing from seed – containers or trays?
Whether you are growing seeds in trays on your windowsill, on your back deck or in a backyard greenhouse, I’ve ... Read More
Diary of a Radish These colourful little vegetables were never a favourite of mine as a child. Peppery, watery, and ... Read More
Growing potatoes is heaps of fun and so easy! We’re kicking ourselves for not planting them earlier (years earlier) and ... Read More
Legionnaires Disease – be aware
Being stung by a bee, a spider bite or a prickle in your thumb may seem the worst gardening could ... Read More
Potatoes: preparing seed potatoes
If your potatoes resemble a wild forest more than a staple pantry fodder, then you have discovered seed potatoes. The ... Read More