Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue #14.1 i Good Organic Gardening

A horticulturist, writer, presenter and passionate organic gardener, Chloe uses her social media profile Bean There Dug That to educate and inform likeminded gardeners, using fun, creative videos and posts. Find her on Facebook and Instagram @beantheredugthat CAULIFLOWER MULTI-HEAD, BRASSICA OLERACEA VAR. BOTRYTIS The plant: What’s better than one cauliflower per plant? LOTS of cauliflowers on one plant! The Cauliflower Multi-Head will develop one main head as well as 2–4 side heads. The sooner the main head is harvested, the sooner the additional heads can be harvested. Growing: The perfect cauliflower for small vegetable gardens, balconies or potted patches and best grown in the cooler seasons of autumn and winter, it will reach 40cm in height. Allow 50cm between plants. Floriana, floriana.com.au SUPER BLOOM The book: A modern-day classic, Super…

As you’ve walked across coastal dunes or down that sandy path to the beach, you may have admired the tenacity of a spreading succulent with vibrant magenta flowers that somehow survives in sand and salt winds. The flowers are short lived and seen mainly in spring and summer but they leave behind a swollen, juicy red fruit. Both the fruit and the fleshy leaves of the plant are edible — its generic name Carpobrotus comes from the Greek words for “fruit” and “edible”. The plant is a bushfood long harvested by Indigenous Australians and still popular today with wild food enthusiasts. The leaves and fruits can be eaten raw, cooked or, in the case of the narrow, fleshy leaves, pickled. The fruit has a sweet yet salty fruit flavour and…

With my husband Peter Axisa and our children Lacey (13), Elke (5) and newborn River, I live on 10 acres in Killabakh in the Manning Valley on NSW’s Mid North Coast. We moved to this challenging, steepsloped, overgrown property in 2014. It was completely off the grid with no infrastructure or services but our shared vision was to transform it into a regenerative permaculture paradise and forge a self-reliant future for our family. WE ADOPTED A “FOOD AS MEDICINE” APPROACH TO OUR LIVES AND ARE GRATEFUL TO THE WORMS FOR PRODUCING FERTILE SOIL IN WHICH TO GROW NUTRIENT-DENSE FOOD. We had dreamed of living on a farm and were looking for a sign to point us in the right direction. Then we got it! I came across an online ad…

MAY 2023 Late autumn is a great time in most regions to get brassicas and root vegies in the ground — and don’t forget the peas, including sugar snap and snowpeas JUNE 2023 Time to think about fruit trees and, although it’s a quieter time for planting vegies in cooler regions, there’s plenty of options for warmer zones New moon First quarter Full moon Last quarter When the moon is waxing from new moon to full moon, it is increasing light and drawing sap flow upwards. During the waning from full moon back to new moon, light decreases and sap is drawn downwards. This movement of sap flow has an influence on how well new plants will grow. There are four phases, each lasting seven to eight days. Sowing, planting…

t’s not easy being green — particularly when you hear about a study that showed the commercial growing and transport of lettuce creates more greenhouse gases than the production of bacon. This astonishing figure is based on the calorific value of each food. As lettuce is low in calories, scientists estimate that consumers needed to eat more lettuce than bacon to get the same calories, which — perhaps a little unfairly — pushes up its environmental footprint. The study suggested greenhouse gas emissions from the production, transport and storage of lettuce were three times higher per calorie than for bacon. Now, not even the most committed vegetarian relies on lettuce for calories (or kilojoules) but the finding underlines the hidden energy costs involved in bringing food to the table. Other…

WATCH YOUR ROSES GO BANANAS Rose growers in the know swear by banana skins: just dig some in around the roots of your roses and watch them thrive. Banana peel is packed with goodies missing from many soils — phosphates, calcium, sulphur and magnesium — and your blooms will thank you. You can also make banana water by soaking the peels and straining. Throw the used peels on the compost. DON’T KEEP MUSHROOMS IN THE DARK Exposing mushrooms to sunlight can significantly boost their levels of beneficial vitamin D. This is because mushrooms are rich in ergosterol, which ultraviolet radiation converts to ergocalciferol, also called vitamin D2. Though more of a problem in long northern winters, vitamin D deficiency — blamed for many conditions including diabetes, autism, psoriasis, tuberculosis, osteoporosis,…

COOL & TEMPERATE VEGIES • Continue planting out brassicas — broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower — to ensure constant cropping through the cooler months before the cabbage white butterflies get busy. Consider some sage as a companion for brassicas as it’s said to repel caterpillars and moths. Plus those grey-green leaves look so good! • Go on putting in alliums including onions, spring onions, garlic, leeks, eschalots and chives — but keep them well away from peas as they can retard the growth of legumes. • Winter is prime time for planting leafy greens like lettuce, collard greens (which are actually brassicas), mustard greens, silverbeet and spinach. Corn salad may be one to try if you’ve never grown it before. • Dig up and divide perennial vegies if you haven’t…

Both humans and animals have long used plants as medicines. About 80 per cent of our pharmaceutical drugs are derived from plants and the World Health Organization estimates that more than 70 per cent of the world’s people still use herbal remedies as their primary medicines. With knowledge of the uses of common plants you can deal with a large number of minor illnesses. There are many useful plants you can grow in your own garden or even on a balcony — but you need to know how to identify, grow and use them to maintain your family’s health. You may be growing many of them already and using them to spice up your cooking, not realising their hidden potential. Traditional healers grew many plants for medicines and knew where…

We gardeners are so lucky to share our home spaces with some of Earth’s most beautiful creatures. I mean, is there a better way to enjoy a morning cup of coffee or afternoon glass of wine than to sit outdoors watching rainbow lorikeets jostling for a dip in the birdbath or colourful butterflies flitting around the garden? And that’s just the visuals. Let’s not forget the entrancing songs of magpies and butcher birds contrasting with the raucous squawking of cockatoos and the high-pitched din of lorikeets. We want more of it. So, in this issue, Angus Stewart looks at some of the best plants — mostly natives — for attracting butterflies while Carrol Baker runs through all the elements that can make your garden a haven for our beautiful birdlife.…

KIDS IN GARDENS GROW A BETTER FUTURE The coming generation is the future of the planet — so it makes sense that a new school gardening project places children at its centre. Research from the University of South Australia shows the simple act of gardening can deliver unique learning experiences for primary school children, helping them engage with their curriculum, connect with nature and envisage a sustainable future. For the project, schoolkids between the ages of five and 10 grew their own food in the Old School Community Garden in Stirling. The three-houra-week activity, researchers found, had multiple learning benefits, from transdisciplinary learning to fostering sustainability and global citizenship. “Gardening can open a whole new world of interest and opportunity for children,” said Dr David G Lloyd. “Working in a…

Twenty-two years ago, while Tracy Lansdell was studying naturopathy in the city, she and husband Mark began to feel a strong pull back to the country. Tracy had fond childhood memories of her grandparents’ farm near Yealering in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. She remembers their vegie patch and orchard, the farmhouse pantry filled with homemade preserves and eating juicy oranges straight off the tree with her grandad. Perhaps that’s why, years later, she and Mark started devouring all the info they could find on organic gardening, permaculture, self-sufficiency and eco footprints. When Tracy conceived her first child, the timing felt right. In 2005, the couple moved to a property in rural North Greenbushes in southeast WA. Five acres of weedy paddocks and more than 60 native trees planted around 35…

KNOWN BY ITS RURAL ENGLISH FOLK NAME UNTIL FAIRLY RECENTLY, ASPARAGUS HAS BEEN CULTIVATED AND ENJOYED AS A VEGETABLE SINCE ANCIENT TIMES Asparagus is a quintessential spring vegetable, best planted in winter when the crown, or root system, is dormant. In its bare-rooted form, an asparagus crown looks nothing like the tasty spears that emerge in spring. You could be forgiven for mistaking it for a semi-dried octopus. But I promise that, once planted and established, that bizarre-looking root system will turn into a spearproducing machine! Asparagus is a long-term proposition and you’ll need to provide it with a dedicated growing space as it doesn’t like competing with other crops. You’ll also have to wait two years or more before you can harvest — but it’s worth the wait because…

Feijoa, also known as pineapple guava, is native to the highlands of South America. Its fruit ripens in autumn after most summerfruiting trees have finished, making it the perfect autumn snack. The sage-green, football-shaped fruit contains a soft, pale flesh that tastes a bit like a cross between a pineapple and guava that’s been sprinkled with sherbet. To avoid the bitter skin while eating feijoas, slice them in half and use a teaspoon to scoop out the soft, creamy flesh and gelatinous seed pulp. This very aromatic fruit can be made into jam, jelly or chutney and used in cakes and desserts. The white and pink petals of the feijoa flowers are also edible. Don’t remove all the petals from a single flower — just pluck one gently and place…

Birds in the backyard not only help pollinate flowers, disperse seeds and keep insects under control — they bring a host of other benefits. The beautiful sound of birdsong can uplift the spirit and watching birds fly gracefully from flower to flower in your own backyard is balm to the soul. To tempt feathered fauna into your outdoor landscape, the key is to create a space filled with rich biodiversity that will offer food, water and shelter from predators. Design a space that beckons birds by creating a garden landscape with plants of staggered heights: a multi-tiered habitat with larger shrubs or trees, then smaller shrubs and, in the foreground, even smaller plants and groundcovers. This will not only draw the eye — with the right plants, birds will flock…

When we make the decision to start growing our own food, often we are impatient to get plants in immediately so we can see results as soon as possible. This can be the novice gardener’s first big mistake. Before planting anything, it’s crucial to create the right environment for it to flourish — and that means getting the soil right. In fact, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of healthy, balanced, mineralised, living soil. The nutrients in our food come directly from the soil. A mantra of organic gardening is compost, compost, compost, but it’s only part of the story. Added organic matter is great, but if the compost comes from plants that have been grown in mineral-depleted soil it may do little to remineralise soil that has given up…

EAT RIGHT, SAVE THE PLANET Research has shown us that at least 30 per cent of the environmental impacts humans generate comes from the food we eat. For a new study, researchers surveyed young British adults. Subjects were asked questions about their understanding of what a sustainable diet is and their willingness to make changes. The UN defines a sustainable diet as one that has a low environmental impact and that contributes to nutrition security and health for current and future generations. However, the survey showed that many subjects did not know what a sustainable diet was and were not considering sustainability at all when making food choices. Yet they were willing to make changes to their diet to reduce climate impact when told it could be done. As a…

IN SEASON MAY FRUITS Apple, avocado, banana, cumquat, custard apple, dates, feijoa, grapes, kiwifruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, nashi, nuts (chestnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, walnuts), orange (navel), pear, persimmon, pomegranate, quince, rhubarb VEGIES Asian greens, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, daikon, eggplant, eschalot, fennel, garlic, ginger, horseradish, kale, leek, lettuce, mushrooms, okra, olives, onion, spring onion, parsnip, peas, potato, pumpkin, silverbeet, snow peas, spinach, squash, sugar snap peas, swede, sweet corn, sweet potato, taro, tomato, turnip, witlof, zucchini IN SEASON JUNE FRUITS Apple, avocado, banana, custard apple, dates, grapefruit, kiwifruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, nashi, nuts (chestnuts, hazelnuts, walnuts), orange (navel), passionfruit, pear, persimmon, pomelo, quince, rhubarb VEGIES Asian greens, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, eschalot, fennel, garlic, ginger, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, leek,…

Jo is an environmental scientist, photographer and writer. She has worked in the environment movement for decades and is co-ordinator of the National Toxics Network, an organisation dedicated to creating a toxic-free future. She has written many articles for magazines and is the author of two books: Toxic Playground and Safer Solutions. ACT GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY The phrase “think global, act local” came into common usage in the 1970s as a grassroots meme to galvanise community action in the face of environmental disasters that were already unfolding. Implicit in the phrase is the understanding that the planet is a living, interconnected system and what we do in one place impacts the whole. It follows that our actions at a local level can also be a force for positive change across…

Gum arabic is a naturally occurring gum harvested from a thorny tree native to sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the commercial harvest comes from war-torn Sudan. There may be no other natural additive that’s so pervasive in our lives yet barely noticed and little known. Unlike the gum that oozes from many native Australian trees — acacias and gumtrees in particular — gum arabic is low in tannins so it’s sweet tasting rather than bitter. Gum arabic is harvested commercially from cuts made in the bark but is often seen on trees when the bark splits during extremely dry times. Sap oozes from the splits, forming hard balls or lumps known as “tears”. The gum is made into a powder that can be found on the shelves of supermarkets and hardware…

If you are searching for an easy-togrow, high-value vegie to harvest in winter and spring, don’t overlook broad beans. They grow readily from seed and produce a bountiful, nutritious crop in a small space. They have a short season and are expensive to buy fresh, so having your own makes sense (and cents). As well as enjoying them in season, you can easily freeze them for later. While broad beans are very easy to grow, they do come with baggage. That would be the large green pod which, as with peas, must be shelled to release the starchy treat inside. (Mind you, tender young beans can be cooked and eaten whole.) To get to the fresh pea-green broad bean, a second process is needed: the removal of the husk after…

Loquats are better known in Asia than Australia where, despite more than 100 years of cultivation, they are still viewed as an exotic fruit. The trees are often seen in old, overgrown gardens, laden in late winter and early spring with yellow fruit. The loquat originated in China where it’s known as pipa; its golden fruit symbolises wealth. It has been long grown in Japan — its specific name is japonica — and many named varieties originated there. These handsome evergreen trees are normally 3–4m tall in gardens but, if unpruned, can reach up to 10m in height. They can also be grown as large ornamental shrubs. The large dark-green leaves are heavily veined with a pleated look. The underside of the leaf is brown and downy, as are new…

COOL & TEMPERATE VEGIES • If you haven’t already tried it, drop everything and start growing garlic, a slow but rewarding crop. A good rule of thumb: plant on Anzac Day, harvest around Remembrance Day. Simply stick separate cloves of organic garlic — skin on, pointy end up — in wellprepped soil 10–15cm apart. • It’s time for some cool-season crops: leafy and salad greens such as Asian greens, brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale), mustard and rocket; fruiting veg such as broad beans, fennel, peas and snowpeas; root crops (beetroot, carrots, leeks, spring onion, onions, parsnip, radish, swedes, turnips); and herbs (coriander, chives, dill, mints, parsley, thyme). • Remove summer crops that are finishing or near done. Divide overcrowded perennials such as asparagus and artichoke by digging them up and…

Limes are hybrid citrus fruits and there are several varieties, categorised in two groups: acid or sour and acidless or sweet. The tangy fruit is often used in cooking to accentuate flavour and is integral in Southeast Asian and Mexican cuisines. The most commonly grown lime variety is the Persian or Tahitian lime (Citrus × latifolia), but there are other familiar varieties such as Key lime (C. × aurantifolia), which is rounder and more acidic, and kaffir lime (C. hystrix), with a distinctive flavour and leaves that are used more than the fruit. There are also Australian examples such as native desert lime (C. glauca) and finger lime (C. australasica). The wild lime is believed to have originated in Indonesia, Southeast Asia or northern India. The modern lime is invariably…

DF, GF, VG SERVES 8 During religious fasting periods, many iconic Greek dishes are given a vegan makeover to eliminate animal products. This is my healthy and delicious vegan moussaka. You get all those familiar flavours, but instead of a creamy bechamel, I finish it with a light and fluffy vegetable mash — and it works beautifully. Loaded with vegetables, this express moussaka is a good option any time of the year when you want something hearty and comforting. You can assemble the moussaka a day ahead if you wish and just pop it in the oven after work. INGREDIENTS • 2 eggplants, finely sliced, patted dry• 2 zucchini, finely sliced, patted dry• Extra-virgin olive oil, for pan-frying• 2 large all-purpose potatoes (such as Sebago), peeled, finely sliced & steamed…

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