Sometimes, it’s interesting to do a bit of background research on some of the plants and trees you grow. When choosing our mandarin variety, I did exactly that and found something with a little bit of Australian history to it.

The mandarin I planted a couple of days ago is an Ellendale mandarin. It is named [...]

The Australian government is waffling on the issue of a nationalised renewable energy feed-in tariff for homes. Recent announcements seem to indicate that they’ll favour a net tariff, which is very much inferior to the gross feed-in tariff the solar industry is calling for.

A gross feed-in tariff (where the energy-producing household is paid for all [...]

On Sunday I drove up to the Wollongong Wholesale Nursery at Albion Park Rail to buy some fruit trees with my Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge vouchers. The staff there were really helpful, and gave me some good ideas for the types of trees that would suit our needs for the front yard.

I pretty much already [...]

If you’re one of the families in the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge and you chose vouchers as part of your incentive package, make sure you check the use-by dates on them.

I got vouchers for Cosmo Lighting and Wollongong Wholesale Nursery, and they are both valid only until the end of January.

So get out there and [...]

[ February 25, 2009 12:36 pm to March 4, 2009 6:45 pm. ] The New Moon phase for February 2009 runs from 25 Feb – 4 Mar. The New Moon is the time for planting above-ground annual leaf and seed crops, as well as flowering annuals and melons in the traditional [lunar planting calendar](http://green-change.com/2008/12/11/what-is-lunar-planting/). It is also a good time to plant green manure crops and apply liquid fertilisers. For [...]

[ February 17, 2009 8:39 am to February 25, 2009 12:36 pm. ] The Last Quarter moon phase for February 2009 runs from 17 Feb – 25 Feb. The Last Quarter is the time of rest in the traditional [lunar planting calendar](http://green-change.com/2008/12/11/what-is-lunar-planting/). This is not a time for sowing anything, but it is a good time to catch up on weeding, preparing garden beds, and general maintenance. For information on [...]

[ January 26, 2009 6:56 pm to February 3, 2009 10:13 am. ] The New Moon phase for January 2009 runs from 26 Jan – Feb 3. The New Moon is the time for planting above-ground annual leaf and seed crops, as well as flowering annuals and melons in the traditional [lunar planting calendar](http://green-change.com/2008/12/11/what-is-lunar-planting/). It is also a good time to plant green manure crops and apply liquid fertilisers. For [...]

[ January 18, 2009 1:47 pm to January 26, 2009 6:56 pm. ] The Last Quarter moon phase for January 2009 runs from 18 Jan – 26 Jan. The Last Quarter is the time of rest in the traditional [lunar planting calendar](http://green-change.com/2008/12/11/what-is-lunar-planting/). This is not a time for sowing anything, but it is a good time to catch up on weeding, preparing garden beds, and general maintenance. For information on [...]

You’ve probably seen those mushroom kits you can buy from stores like Bunnings. Well, they’re a total ripoff. I’ve never met anyone who got a good yield from them. Here’s a much cheaper way to grow your own mushrooms…

Every once in a while I take my trailer up to the mushroom farm. They sell bags [...]

Would you eat escargot (i.e. snails) in a fancy French restaurant?

Would you buy prepared snails from a deli and cook them at home?

What about eating snails from your garden?

I was doing some research, trying to figure out how to get rid of snails in gardens, and discovered that the garden snails we get around here [...]