Homely Capers

Potato Tower: Harvest

After watching the tops go yellow for a week, today was the day to do the big harvest. Who would have thought that four months had passed since the build stage of the potato tower? Above you can see the yellowing stalks and leaves, a sure sign that things are coming to an end inside the [...]

Heirloom vs Hybrid

In December I started two tomato plants growing as seeds in Jiffy pots. After having them crop prolifically for many months, they were left to the elements and mealy bugs. They haven’t had any water, love or attention since March, and now being the end of July there are two distinct differences between them. One is [...]

Garden Update – July ‘09

We are now half way into the dry season in the top end of Australia. Even though we have not seen a cloud for months, growth in the garden has slowed significantly due to the shorter days and lower sun intensity. The arrowroot received a severe pruning after the caterpillar infestation over the wet season. [...]

On tough times

We’ve all read the headlines, watched the business channel, listened to the radio reports for nearly twelve months and all we have heard is lines like “unprecedented downturn in the economy”, “economy set for biggest losses since great depression” Blah Blah Blah… For those of us who have not been made redundant due to the slow [...]

Introducing the Family

Since the birth of this blog there have been some mentions of my family, so here they all are (except my wife, she’s shy… that’s what she says anyway…) Maggie, or Margret when she’s in trouble, is a three year old cat. Not sure what kind of genetic line she comes from, but she is wonderfully [...]

Aquaponics

What do you get when you cross a tank full of fish and a vegetable garden? You get a very productive food producing system called Aquaponics! Over the weekend I ducked down to my local nursery and ordered a Balcony Kit aquaponics setup. I wish I had the balcony to put it on, but the kit is [...]

Nasturtiums – a flower and a food

No garden is complete without a Nasturtium plant growing somewhere, thats why I planted some the other day… This fast growing annual originates from Peru and has fascinated gardeners with its long stemmed large green umbrella shaped leaves for many generations. For those who are getting their kids involved in gardening, the Nasturtium is a great [...]

Top Dressing Lawn – Horse Poo

With the abundant supply of horse manure I have at my disposal there has been some creativity in alternative uses around the yard over the weekend. A trial of overseeding lawn and top dressing with horse manure in a slow growing area has began. The area is quite sandy and bare with only some boring weeds [...]

Potato Tower: Update

Its been three weeks since the build stage of my potato tower! After removing a heap of weeds that popped their heads up early, the potatoes began to show through and have developed well. Keeping in line with the plan I’ve put down a layer of hay on top to cover them up so they will [...]

Planting Day

Living in a tropical environment has its benefits such as lots of rain, plenty of warm weather and great lightning shows, the best of all is the great weather during the ‘Dry Season’ or winter as it is more commonly known in all other parts of Australia. Being a long weekend the garden has had a [...]