Good Organic Gardening

“In summer, the song sings itself,” wrote the poet William Carlos Williams. Lately, though, it seems the melody has taken some unpredictable turns as our summers swing from one extreme to another: too dry, too wet, too hot … too bad. Bushfires one mi

Comfrey has fallen in and out of favour. Once commonly used as a herbal remedy, its internal medicinal use was banned when it was shown to cause liver toxicity and the plant has since been listed as a poison. In ancient times, it was considered so he

Panama berry sounds a bit too good to be true. It’s a fast-growing tropical shade tree with a slightly weeping habit. It produces white flowers with prominent yellow stamens, followed by sweet, tasty red fruit. Even more, it flowers and fruits for mo

I first encountered okra as the allimportant green in gumbo, that piquant stew that symbolises the multicultural mix of New Orleans but is served all over the American South. The ingredients vary but usually include a base of filé, a Choctaw Indian i

Originally grown for thousands of years in China and India, the versatile eggplant made its way to the Middle East and the Mediterranean well before 1300 and was warmly received. Yet, when it finally reached the Americas in the 16th century, it was g

In South America there’s a drink that has the same sort of standing that coffee has in other countries: yerba mate. As with tea and herbal tisanes, it’s made by steeping dried leaves of a plant, in this case Ilex paraguariensis, an evergreen tree tha

Food production is an important element of our garden. The vegie garden is probably the most obvious feature, made up of five beds measuring 3m by 1.5m each, totalling just over 20m2 all up. The width of the beds makes them easy to manage — it’s comf

When you think about wartime victory gardens and European allotment farming, there’s nothing new about community gardens — but they’re almost certainly the wave of the future, bringing urban neighbourhoods together with the added promise of food secu

A landscaper and garden designer by trade, Tohm Hajncl — along with his partner Danielle and children Max and Charlotte — can often be found in the garden in the subtropical Sunshine Coast hinterland. Around three acres of their 10-acre property are

Mid-summer is a time of high productivity but the heat can be very harsh. Protect your plants with some shade and keep the watering consistent if the weather is dry. This month you can start to focus on sowing some cooler-season crops, but you may ne

Cauliflower has recently morphed from a white vegetable to one with Technicolor aspirations thanks to the arrival of green, purple and orange varieties. Whether white or coloured, the head of the cauliflower is a flower referred to as the “curd”. It

Gooseberry is a cool-climate berry that may leave many people underwhelmed as the fruit is small, tart and found on prickly stems. But if you grew up with a gooseberry patch, they are sure to be a sentimental favourite. Gooseberries are not easy to f

As people seek a healthier lifestyle, often a first step is to cut back on caffeine — or even give it up completely and imbibe a caffeine-free herbal infusion. While there are plenty of herbal teabags and leaf teas available to buy, anyone with a gar

Allo, ’allo! Too much summer sun? Then reach for a leaf of home-grown Aloe barbadensis right now, break it open and wipe the cooling gel onto that burning skin. Despite the serrated edges that give it a ferocious appearance, aloe vera has been used m

In the heat of the summer garden, when your spinach leaves become bitter and the plants wilt in the hot sun, then it’s time to consider a heat-loving alternative — one undeterred by the extreme summer conditions. A heat-tolerant climbing vine from th

Zinnias are bright, bold and literally out of this world: they have made it into space. A few years back, a small orange zinnia flowered aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and became the first ornamental to bloom in space. The event was twe

There’s a host of truly spectacular Australian plants that are perfectly suited to growing in pots, where they can reach their full flowering potential. Many of our showiest native plants need the superior drainage that a good potting mix will provid

A raised bed is any elevated gardening platform designed to improve drainage while retaining moisture, holding nutrients and often providing an ergonomic advantage — and that means no bending. Have you ever installed raised beds and found they don’t

As we head into the heat of summer, most gardeners’ thoughts are on how best to drought- and heat-proof their gardens and protect their plants. In this article we look at various ways to achieve this using a combination of methods. We know water is o

Summer is the season when nature’s energies reach their peak. As the days get longer and the nights warm up, plants respond with prolific growth and amazing displays of flowers and fruit. However, these ideal conditions can sometimes take a turn for

Add height to your garden and create the perfect growing conditions with a brick tower planted with succulents. With a few spare bricks and some gravel you can make a mini mountain ideal for growing drought-loving plants. The love aff air with succul

If you haven’t developed a heatwave plan for your poultry you may be putting their lives at risk. Once the thermometer reaches 30°C they start panting but, if it tops 38°C, luck and the measures you’ve put in place are all that may save them. We have

In 1878, three years after Charles Darwin first published his thesis on insectivorous plants, it was reported that a young woman in Madagascar had been devoured by a “man-eating tree”. The sensational story, which circulated widely and was even publi

• Fruit fly are more active as crops ripen. Use organic baits and traps or cover individual fruit with exclusion bags. Clean up fallen fruit. As fruit fly is spreading to fruit-fly-free areas, watch for signs of attack. Use fruit-fly traps to monitor

• Reduce mozzie numbers by regularly emptying water in containers and saucers under potted plants, which removes their breeding grounds. Even pet water should be replenished daily to avoid it being used by mosquitoes to breed in. • Stay on top of pes

Apricot, avocado, banana, berries, carambola (starfruit), cherry (Morello sour), currants (red currant, black currant), grapes, lemon, limes, lychee, mango, melons, nectarine, passionfruit, peach, pear (Paradise, Williams), pineapple, plum, prickly p

Sweet delights made with seasonal fruit (and veg) are perfect for summer picnics, barbecues and guest drop-ins. These recipes from Sydney’s Cornersmith folk come from their third cookbook. Images and text from Use It All by Alex Elliott-Howery and Ja

This light and fluffy cake is super easy to make. Its beauty is in its simple flavour, which can be tricked up with the addition of a teaspoon or two of spices and herbs, such as ground cinnamon, wattleseeds, thyme or rosemary. Thinly slice whatever

This cake comes from Cornersmith chef Greer Rochford. It’s a twist on a simple butter cake, using ricotta instead of only milk and replacing some of the flour with desiccated coconut. She’s used rhubarb in this recipe, but it also works well with oth

This tea loaf recipe is a staple at the Cornersmith cafe and in our kitchens at home. We love it because you can throw in any grated fruits or vegetables, any nuts, seeds or choc chips and any spices you need to use up and it always works. Avoid very

• 1 pineapple• 1½ cups (150g) almond meal• 2¾ cups (250g) desiccated coconut• 1 tsp baking powder• 6 eggs• 250g saster (superfine) sugar• Toasted coconut flakes, to serve• Natural or Greek yoghurt, to serve Pineapple skin syrup • Skin 1 pineapple• 2

Documentary Directed by Rebecca Tickell & Josh Tickell, streaming on Netflix Do we really need more bad news about the climate crisis? Well, even though it begins with narrator Woody Harrelson glumly contemplating the planet’s dicey future, Kiss the

Subscribe now to receive a free 2021 wall calendar 6 ISSUES (1 YEAR) OF Good Organic Gardening magazine RRP $47.70 + YOUR CHOICE of 2021 wall calendar RRP $19.95 each ONLY $45 *In the event that your chosen wall calendar is out of stock, we will repl