We have a real problem here with wild birds eating our seedlings. They love broccoli, lettuce, beans, beetroot, silverbeet, corn – they even pulled out some of our onions and garlic!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the birds – satin bowerbirds and purple swamphens are the main offenders – I just wish they’d leave our gardens [...]

We had a fantastic presentation today at the Jamberoo Community Growers meeting, by the people from Organic Crop Protectants. A big part of the talk was on organic fruit fly control, using their “eco-naturalure” male fruit fly trap and attractant/insecticide products. It looks like a great system to keep these frustrating pests down.

You simply bait [...]

My mate Gavin has a post over at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-Op about how he “thinks differently” from most of the people he knows. I can certainly relate to that!

Me, I can’t help thinking about all the unused bits of land I see when I drive around.

I see a park, and think “why don’t [...]

A few weeks ago I attended another Sustainable Illawarra workshop – “Starting a Backyard Veggie Patch” at Jamberoo Primary School. Megan then attended the repeat of the workshop a week later. It was great that we were both able to do effectively the same workshop without need to organise child care!

The workshop was delivered by [...]

What a great turnout we had at yesterday’s Jamberoo Community Growers meeting!

Don Cairns, former resident of Kiama and Kangaroo Valley and now living in Nowra, gave an excellent talk about growing food through the season.

Don has been gardening for many years, and understands our climate and weather patterns very well. His tips and local knowledge [...]

I’m a big fan of US farmer Joel Salatin. He’s the man behind Polyface Farm, “a family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, local-market farm and informational outreach in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley”.

You might recognise him from the recent films Food, Inc and Fresh, and from Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

One of my favourite articles by Joel [...]

Kiama Council has been putting on a series of focus group workshops this week, on topics such as health, community, waste, and environment. Last night I participated in the Food workshop.

What an awesome experience!

The room at the Harbourside Brighton was packed with people passionate about all aspects of food – there was a chef, someone [...]

As a small fund-raising activity for Jamberoo Community Growers, we’re running a bulb purchase. This is a great way for members and friends to get high-quality bulbs for the garden at very competitive prices.

There are lots of different varieties and colours to choose from – I’ve scanned the catalogue (5.6 MB PDF file) so you [...]

Soil blockers are a great way to start seeds for your garden, but some of the recipes you’ll find around the web aren’t exactly sustainable – including things like peat moss and artificial nutrients.

I’ve tried to take the general ideas from other recipes, and make a more environmentally-friendly soil blocker mix. The main change is [...]

A couple of years ago I bought a soil blocker from Peddler’s Wagon with some birthday money.

Incidentally, it was way cheaper to get it sent from the US than to buy it in Australia – something like 40% cheaper for exactly the same product made by the same manufacturer. It seems the manufacturer or distributor [...]