On the road with organic gardener Kath Irvine 25 Feb, 2023 Since we last heard from gardener and The Edible Backyard author Kath Irvine, she’s uprooted and hit the road in a 12 metre long house truck. She’s got some some tips on how to revive soil ravaged by summer weather extremes, plus she’ll share the story of Whanganui’s […]
Be Cabbage White Butterfly Free!
By | LastUpdated February 1, 2023
Summer of ’22, I grew brassicas out in the open without any insect mesh, from seedling to finish. I was feeling confident in my parasitic wasp population, and they didn’t disappoint. What a turn around! For most of my garden life I haven’t bothered growing brassica through summer because the cabbage white caterpillars decimated them. […]
Break The Pest Cycle
By | LastUpdated January 1, 2023
Pests are part of a gardening life – especially when your vegie patch is full of all their favourite food. Add to that a bit of stress like drought for instance, and immunity and pest resistance are lowered, fanning the flames and increasing the likelihood of high numbers of sap sucking, fruit gobbling critters. With […]
Save Your Chooks From Red Mites
By | LastUpdated December 27, 2023
Red mites are tiny 1mm bird parasites, that proliferate in the heat. They live in cracks in the walls of the chookhouse by day, and come out at night to feed on your chooks. Poor girls – no rest for them when mites are in the house. Because they are tiny and nocturnal, its easy […]
The Bio-fungicide Advantage
By | LastUpdated December 8, 2022
The first signs of summer disease are making themselves known – potential is high after our mild, wet spring. Cool your heels before rushing out to buy a big hitting fungicide and have a read about the bio-fungicide advantage. Bio-fungicides are a gentle, natural solution to disease – they do no harm. Traditional fungicides (copper, […]
How to Grow Sweetcorn
By | LastUpdated December 1, 2024
Corn is extra effort to grow, but to my mind, it’s easily worth it! Not only is corn a heavy feeder – meaning good soil prep is required, but its also best to stagger the sowings and plantings so as to drip feed the kitchen and eating corn at its prime – straight from the […]
