Issue #13.4 - 2022

Good Organic Gardening

Grow your own organic food

Good Organic Gardening1 min read
Good Organic Gardening
Editor Kerry Boyne Email: kboyne@umco.com.au Designer Kate Atkinson Contributors Claire Bickle, Dr Karen Bridgman, Angelo Eliades, Jana Holmer, Jo Immig, Megg Miller, Jennifer Stackhouse, Chris Stafford, Angus Stewart, Meg Thompson, Chloe Thomson Nat
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
What’s hot RIGHT NOW
A horticulturist, writer, presenter and passionate organic gardener, Chloe uses her social media profile Bean There Dug That to educate and inform like-minded gardeners, using fun, creative videos and posts. Find her on Facebook and Instagram @beanth
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
Nature Strip
The Heart Gardening Project has launched a crowdfunding campaign to establish an Australian first: a pollinator corridor linking Port Melbourne’s Westgate Park to the Royal Botanic Gardens. When finished, the corridor will be an 8km-long urban wildli
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
THE Grapevine
Jo is an environmental scientist, photographer and writer. She has worked in the environment movement for decades and is co-ordinator of the National Toxics Network, an organisation dedicated to creating a toxic-free future. She has written many arti
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
Native Citrus
Lemon aspen is a highly prized bush tucker plant native to north Queensland, the Atherton Tableland in particular, growing at altitudes of 100 metres. Its pulpy fruit, most abundant in summer and autumn, is edible with a lemony grapefruit tang. The c
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Red Jewels
I’d been using pomegranate molasses in recipes long before I ever bought a fresh pomegranate to throw its exploding ruby-red seeds into a salad. And what a revelation it was. It brought that salad alive. Perhaps luckily, this fruit has a limited seas
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
Shady Reputation
The beautyleaf tree definitely has a split personality. While it’s admired for its beauty and shade, there’s a dangerous undercurrent. This is a tree native to the tropics where it’s grown in parks and on large properties as a shade tree. One of its
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Food Of The Gourds
Paintings of melons, including their seeds and leaves, appear in 4000-year-old Egyptian tomb art and there’s evidence they were cultivated at least 1000 years before that, so it’s fair to say humans have been enjoying these sun-loving fruits for quit
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
The Distant Grove
The cool climate and well-drained soils of North Boyanup, not far inland from Bunbury on Western Australia’s coast, are particularly favourable for the cultivation of olives. That’s the prime crop growing on Jenny and Carlo Ioppolo’s 70-acre property
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Inner-city Forest
Serendipity is defined as making fortunate discoveries by accident and, in one such instance, it resulted in the unexpected creation of a pioneering style of garden with incredible productivity. Nestled in the inner northern suburbs of temperate Melb
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Beyond The Suburbs
Travel southwest from the outskirts of Brisbane and you’ll find yourself in semirural Mount Crosby. That’s where Doctors Ketah Silvester and Todd Silvester live with children Otis and Arlo on a property with one acre reserved as Land for Wildlife plu
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
This Issue
At the time of writing, the prices of fresh produce are through the roof and, for all we know, by the time we hit the newsstands they could be even worse. Now, more than ever, growing any food you can is not just sensible — it’s practically imperativ
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
Moon Planting
The calendar says it’s still spring but it feels more like summer in many parts of Australia. Staggered planting from now on will extend the summer harvest. It’s the end of another year but a good time to plant those salad vegies that love the heat,
Good Organic Gardening2 min read
Time To Plant
Amaranth, artichoke, Asian greens, asparagus, beans, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chicory, chilli, cucumber, eggplant, endive, fennel, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Sprouts In Space
The humble chickpea could hardly be considered out of this world but lately it’s been playing its part in space exploration as a pioneer in supporting human life on other planets. Space agency NASA has grown a succession of edible and flowering plant
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Cool As A Cuke
In most areas, it’s easy to grow cucumbers from spring to autumn and the vines are highly productive. Although cucumbers grow on a sprawling vine, they can be grown in vegetable gardens of any size or in large containers. Manage their growth by train
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
The Upright Onion
Being tall and narrow, spring onions can be squeezed into nearly any vegie garden. Grow them in neat rows if that’s your gardening style or just poke little seedlings in wherever you can among other plants. Either way, this fast-growing crop is a mus
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Petals On Plates
Edible flowers are more than just beautiful — these blooms can be used as a decorative flourish or to add a dash of flavour to desserts, salads or cakes. Homegrown edible flowers are the best! They’ll be fresh, free from nasty chemicals and on hand f
Good Organic Gardening5 min read
Social Climber
Passionfruit is one of Australia’s favourite backyard crops and a useful plant to grow as a living screen for shade or privacy as well as delicious fruit. Though a warm-climate plant, it grows productively in all but the very coldest parts of the cou
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
10 Tips
If you have a barren plot or paddock that’s hard to reach, put together some home-made seed bombs and throw them out there to create patches of native, local wildflowers. To make your floral missiles, mix clay, compost and seeds in a ratio of 5:1:1 w
Good Organic Gardening5 min read
Bush Salad
While we know First Nations people have been living off this unique country for thousands of years, not all of us are aware of the many edible bush plants that will happily grow in our gardens. Yet more and more chefs and even home cooks who are look
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
China Rose
Hibiscus flowers bring back memories of beachside holidays and tropical islands. The island of Hawaii has claimed the hibiscus as its state flower and the shrub is often called Hawaiian hibiscus. Yet, despite that common name, hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
How To Build A Worm Tunnel
Worm farms are an excellent way to recycle household waste into nutrient-rich worm castings for the garden. Compost worms eat twice as much as regular earthworms, thus getting the job done more efficiently. The purpose of worm farms is to process foo
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Living Carpets
From covering bare patches in the garden to spilling over walls or from pots, groundcovers are versatile plants. They can help supress weeds and provide habitat for beneficial creatures in the garden, such as small birds and lizards including water d
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Mind Your Beeswax
If you’re wondering what’s so great about beeswax wraps and why they’ve become such a thing of late, there are some pretty good reasons. For starters, they remove the need for single-use plastic wrap that you’d use for sandwiches, fruit, cake, to cov
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
We’ve Got It Covered
Mulching is like spreading a blanket over your garden to protect it from extremes of heat and cold and to hold in precious moisture. When the sun is hot, soil tends to dry out and harden. Mulch helps prevent the soil and your plants from baking. At t
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Point Of Sale
What’s your style when it comes to buying poultry: a well-researched and organised approach or a spontaneous decision you’re inadequately prepared for? I must confess to staying well away from poultry auctions; it’s too easy to get a rush of blood to
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Things To Do In November
• Plan for the upcoming summer heat — it will come! — by preparing shadecloth tents for your more sun-sensitive vegies and delicate petals. • Even if it’s still cool, why wait to start planting herbs such as dill, oregano and Simon and Garfunkel’s fa
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Things To Do In December
• Until the New Year, this is as warm as it gets in the cooler regions. It’s a good time to put in capsicums, cucurbits and, if you haven’t planted some already, sweet corn. You might also try tomatillos and perhaps a crop of borlotti beans for autum
Good Organic Gardening3 min readDiet & Nutrition
Health News
“A garden is a lovesome thing,” wrote Victorian poet Thomas Edward Brown. The notion that gardening promotes health and wellbeing has been around for at least 200 years and any gardener will tell you their patch is their happy place. In a study publi
Good Organic Gardening4 min read
Lion’s Tooth
Historically, dandelion root and leaves have been used to treat liver and kidney problems across Native American, Chinese and European cultures. As well as being a beneficial plant medicine, dandelion can be consumed in many ways: the root either as
Good Organic Gardening6 min read
Homegrown Heroes
In Australia, we have more than 5000 species of edible native plants. However, if you asked the average Australian to name some, they may struggle to get past macadamia and lemon myrtle. Why aren’t these incredible plants, herbs and spices more integ
Good Organic Gardening5 min readDiet & Nutrition
The Yeast from The East
Kombucha may be trendy with the health-conscious crowd but its history dates back at least 2000 years, originating in the Ural Mountains region of Russia, though some claim China as its birthplace. Whether it did originate in Russia or not, it was ce
Good Organic Gardening1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Fresh And Local
Apples (Lady Williams), avocados, bananas, blueberries, cherries, grapefruit, loquats, lychees, mangoes, melons, mulberries, nectarines, oranges (Valencia), papaya, passionfruit, pawpaw, peaches, pineapples, starfruit (carambola), strawberries, young
Good Organic Gardening5 min readRegional & Ethnic
Garden To Table
From Australian Eggs, healthy recipes to cater to everyone’s tastebuds. These recipes are a mix of low-FODMAP, gluten-free and heart-healthy, while being certain family favourites. For more eggy inspiration, visit australianeggs.org.au. LOW-FODMAP PR
Good Organic Gardening3 min read
Cover To Cover
By Terry Memory, Pan Macmillan, $29.99 Smartphones, smart TVs, smart cars — it must be time for smart gardening. Terry Memory’s Smart Veggie Patch, like Angelo Eliades’ garden on page 24, combines ancient agrarian traditions and modern technology to
Good Organic Gardening1 min read
Different Drummer
Common name: Double drummer Scientific name: Thopha saccata In the summer parade of Australian cicadas, the double drummer is the noisy bloke at the back with a set of kettle drums. Often cited as the loudest insect in the world as well as the larges
Good Organic Gardening4 min readDiet & Nutrition
Pick Of The Crop
Flower Blend is used by professional growers, commercial nurseries and award-winning gardeners. This secret to gardening success is as simple as throwing a handful or two around any plants in pots or in the ground. Formulated with minerals, microbes
Good Organic Gardening1 min read
Special Offer
As the new year unfolds, so do the exquisite gardens we have found to inspire you throughout the year. Featuring striking photography and illustrations of beautiful blooms, grand gardens and outback oases, these 2023 calendars and diaries capture the

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