Earth Garden

Dear readers, Welcome to the summer issue of Earth Garden. Hopes are high around the traps that we can enjoy a season with fewer restrictions than in recent Covid times. As I write this in early-November, no State is in lockdown for the first time I

Dear Alan and Judith, I sent you an email from a short while back. I have now succeeded in renewing my subscription, so no need for you to do anything. I am one of your geriatric IT illiterates, but am about to try to learn about Facebook so that I c

Worm farmers Martin Bratzel and Bodhi McSweeney of Meander in northern Tasmania now know that a pandemic can significantly boost business. Sales from their worm farm “more than doubled” last year, which the pair attribute to people spending more time

BRENNA tackles some of the biggest issues of our time, makes positive change not only accessible but importantly, inspirational. At the time of writing, a significant amount of Australia is locked down. Chatting with Brenna from across the country is

DECIDE to swing by my local bottle shop after work for a cold beer. A bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on display catches my eye. In big print, on the label, it says Earth Garden. I get all excited and send our publisher a smart and sassy quip,

250g greens, handful spring onions, quarter cup Riesling, olive oil, lemon, seasoning. • Wash and dry greens. Finely chop spring onions. • Put a large frypan over medium to hot flame. Add chopped onions and the wine. Sizzle a minute or so soften the

SO YEAH, I’m the idiot who built a greenhouse in regional Victoria and ended up locked down in Melbourne again. I mean seriously. I could have guessed. I’m an idiot. I have dreams for brains. But I regret nothing. A few Earth Gardens ago, I wrote abo

TRUE SAFFRON comes from the distinct scarlet or blood red, threadlike stigmas of the mauve crocus flower, a perennial autumn-flowering bulb of the Irodaceae (Iris) family. Its botanical name comes from the Greek krokos (Latin crocus), while the gener

2,600: Ebers Papyrus. Saffron’s reputation as a potent spice winds through ancient, medieval and herbalist texts, starting with this papyrus, which praised its cosmetic uses.This is just a small selection. c 971–931: Song of Solomon. Saffron is menti

Poultry are quite sensitive to heat and do not have the capacity to regulate their body temperature very effectively. This is because they cannot cool themselves down by sweating as they have no sweat glands, they can only rely on panting. The feathe

SINCE starting this series on ‘Women Who Farm’ earlier this year, it’s been such a pleasure to make contact with so many inspiring female farmers. With all that’s going on in the world right now, it’s a career for the revolutionary! There are so many

MY PARTNER Paul is a mad hermit who lives in an off-grid cabin in the bush and descends occasionally into civilisation to go skip-diving or post a letter. Early in 2021 he was diagnosed with the big C, which meant major surgery and six months of chem

OUR Belted Galloway bull, Cardigan, is a funny old bloke. He recently broke out of his bachelor paddock because there was a cow in season a few hundred metres away. When Cardigan makes up his mind to go somewhere he just goes, fences and gates be-dam

I HAVE mentioned before that there’s no such thing as an indoor plant. Generally, our homes are kept dim, dry, airless, and often artificially climate controlled. It is a rare build that can easily sustain abundant plant life. Those that do are usual

TWO and a half years of pain and toil, and the cottage for Nicki’s mother is finished. At least enough for her to more into. So what did Nicki and Dan consider important in a sustainable house? “It is passive solar. We’re on standalone solar, and the

WHO DOESN’T love watching the spring-loaded play of young goat kids bouncing around the paddocks and getting their jumping legs strong and agile? Young goats are full of fun and happy curiosity, each with their own cheeky personalities. The word capr

IF A LEAF flutters or blows away before it hits the ground when you drop it, do not light a fire,Yuin elder Auntie Trish told me. It’s the clearest, simplest to follow explanation of how and when to light a fire that I have heard. But when both the l

WAITING for home harvests really puts the concept of ‘food miles’ into perspective as produce can be in transit or stored for weeks before we even get a chance to view it in a shop. Growing our own food places the power of choice back into our hands.

FOR MANY Earth Gardeners around Australia, the garden has been a blissful and fortunate refuge as lockdown becomes an ever-increasing part of our lives. For families, having the space to run free – a garden space, no matter how patchy and dandelion d

I WANTED to get the best harvest I could from my mushroom-growing efforts. My researches led me to the idea of a fruiting chamber. This is a structure that keeps the atmosphere surrounding the mushrooms high in humidity, while still allowing sufficie

Q Hi, we have a chicken who we believe has fowl pox and I was wondering if anyone has any advice for treating her and also if anyone knows of anywhere, we can get our other chooks vaccinated. A Fowl pox is a virus which you can vaccinate against. It

SUMMER fruits are always a delight and who can pass up a nice cold slice of watermelon on a hot day? It’s so refreshing and who knew that each bite of watermelon contains 92 per cent water and 6 per cent sugar? But that’s not all – it’s also a good s

AUSTRALIA has a BIG problem with food waste. The Department of Agriculture says that each year Australians waste around 7.3 million tonnes of food. That is about 300 kg of food waste PER PERSON, every year! How much is that? It’s enough to fill up 13

THE COVID lockdown was the final straw for Amanda King. She knew she had to get out of the city and start really living the life she’d wanted for twenty years. After a postage stamp garden in inner Melbourne gave way to a larger suburban block in Mel

I HAVE so many memories of the different people who’ve WWOOFed at my one-acre Lot at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village. I’ve been a continuous host for over three decades and value my involvement and the WWOOF organisation highly. I remember Lionel

EM AND I were living in a caravan-come-shed on our farm in 2019 when the wall of fire came from the West. The fire hit Bobin in the afternoon of Friday 8 November, the day after my wife’s 27th birthday. We were made homeless in an hour. Thankfully ou

Jackie French AM is one of Earth Garden’s most loved writers. She has written her column for EG continuously since 1986. She has written over 240 books and won more than 60 national and international awards. Jackie is one of Australia’s most popular

Big business has thrown its weight behind a 50 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 to avoid a “costly and damaging” game of climate catchup. The Business Council of Australia believes a cut of between 46 per cent and 50 per cent on 2005 levels withi

This is a must read for any passionate Earth Gardener. If you have ever suspected that the soil holds many secrets, or that your soil condition is the key to your gardening success, then this book is for you. This book goes way beyond greening our ne

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. WWOOFers travel Australia volunteering on organic farms in exchange for food and accommodation. WWOOF hosts Australia-wide to choose from, a great variety of properties and people, practising biodynamics, pe

MANDALAY AVENUE, MAGNETIC ISLAND. This 3 bedroom masonry block home is set on a quiet 1,012sqm block which is centrally located in Nelly Bay. Open plan living area with cool tiles throughout. Master bedroom with En-Suite. New kitchen and new roof. Th