It’s good to see my compost bins are getting around.

I spied my lovely bins on this DIY composting blog – actually they did ask permission to use my Flickr image. Glad I, and my bins, can be of service ;-).

Good to know we are helping to spread the composting word.

It has been raining heavily in Sydney for a couple of weeks now and my worm farm catchments are overflowing. With so much worm wee (juice) and rain I am also running out of plants to put it on.

Rain, particularly heavy rain, is just one of the reasons you need to protect your worm farm from the elements. Luckily my worm farms are out by the shed and under some native trees so they don’t get directly rained on and are protected from harsh sunlight (when it isn’t raining).

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Did you know that about 60 per cent of rubbish Australians throw away could be composted? No? Just as well it’s International Compost Awareness week (May 2 – 8 ) then.

Actually, maybe you did know that but I thought I’d share my composting tips with you anyway. (more…)

Chickens seem to be making a come back to suburban gardens across Australia.

And why not? Chickens eat your food scraps, fertilize your garden, eliminate bugs, keep your kids entertained and best of all produce tasty, fresh eggs. (more…)

I love Autumn in my garden. It’s lovely and cool but not too cold, plus there is still a lot of sunshine about.

Sydney’s autumn weather is great at the moment and I have managed to plant out my vegetable patches. I’ve also (with the help of hubby) emptied out all my compost bins, which cooked nicely over the summer, over the patches.

There’s nothing better than the smell of fresh, new, crumbly compost. A symbol of life really.

This is what I’ve planted: (more…)

School holidays means keeping the kids entertained. Like most mothers I’m keen to get the kids away from the TV and outside.

Today, we made seedling pots out of toilet rolls and egg cartons – not only cheap but a great way to reuse packaging. All you need are the toilet rolls, egg cartons, soil, seeds and water.

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There is nothing better than a good music festival and one of my favourites is Womadelaide, in Adelaide, SA.

Besides the impressive music, relaxed vibe and child friendly feel the festival’s waste management practices are really inspiring. Red wine aside, these practices are enough to leave anyone with a happy, warm, nicely wasted glow.

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I just had to share this picture. A button squash is meant to be small right? Well not in Bellingen, NSW. Vegetables grow freakishly huge up there.

On a recent trip to a friend’s house in Thora – near Bellingen, we picked the hugest yellow button squash I have ever seen. It was bigger than my hand. In fact all the vegetables growing in my friend’s garden were freakishly huge. (more…)

Today is my mother’s birthday and to celebrate her life I ate the last fig from a tree she gave me. It was everything you would expect from a freshly picked fig - soft, sweet, juicy and a truly melt-in-the-mouth experience. Except the fig has an extra special significance because it was from a tree my mother gave me when she first got sick.

My mother passed away at the end of last year after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease and so to me the fig tree represents her, and is a wonderful reminder of mum in my favourite place – my garden.

It is a lovely little tree that I keep in a half wine barrel, which is surrounded by succulents.

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This year I left my garlic a little late to pull up. By the time I got to it all the stems had died down and mostly disappeared. So when I started to dig up the heads, I couldn’t find them.

Well I did eventually but I had to dig around a lot and I accidentally broke up a few of the heads, which is not ideal. I also probably missed a few, so no doubt some are still underneath the soil somewhere. (more…)