If you are running your own backyard farm you will need a compost heap – the organic engine-room of all backyard farms. Buy a large plastic compost bin with a lid on the top and wider and open at the bottom. The idea is to fill this bin, then lift it off the compost...
The first part of creating a backyard farm begins in the kitchen. You need a special green waste bin or kitchen tidy with a tight-fitting lid to avoid smells. The best of your waste goes directly to the chooks (and not into the bin): The outer leaves on lettuces Old...
Over the next few posts we are going to look at how to create a backyard farm. This is the way to keep your family happy and healthy. The ideal backyard farm starts at the kitchen where you collect all fruit peelings and waste, stale bread, anything that was once...
We all love something for nothing. Well scroungers, this is for you! You can grow excellent avocado trees from the giant seeds in the fruit – even if they do take 12 years or so to produce fruit. You can grow superb mango trees from mango seeds – these will be...
There are some trees that you really should think about before you plant them. The evergreen alder grows far too big for a small block of land and it seeks out water – that means pipes and drains etc. All robinias are grafted onto a thorny green weed. If you damage...
We get many queries about the safety of treated pine products – particularly where they are used around vegie gardens. CCA timber contains copper chromium arsenate and the arsenic part of it scares people. There is no solid evidence that its use in vegie gardens is...
In general there are two nasty pests on chooks and cage birds: the red mite & lice. Red mites live in cracks in nest boxes, walls, perches, etc. & emerge at night in their thousands to suck the blood of your birds. They vary from pinprick to pinhead in size....
Many of our native animals are struggling to survive in suburban areas of Australia. So whatever you can do to help is really important. But what can you do? Well, honey-eating birds really need nectar in autumn and winter. For this, planting banksias is really...
Have you ever eaten witlof? This is a truly magnificent plant that has a slightly bitter licorice-like flavor. ….well sort of. Witlof is the result from growing chicory from seed in spring for about 16 weeks. Then it’s cut back to just below ground level and the...
Did you know that there’s a native species of red-flowering rhododendron. Well there is. It comes from mountaintops in Queensland and has actually been divided into several different species. Rhododendron lochiae is our native birth flower for this month too. It’s...