December 2011 Blog Posts (10)

Hi all, good to be a new member here! Thought I would just let you all know about my garden. My wife and I are renting so we have gotten into the container planting craze, mostly so that things are portable when we move. Currently I have in my garden:

Meyer lemon tree

Chilean Guavas (which I plan to take lots of cuttings from to make a nice edible hedge)

Brown Turkey Fig

Boysenberry Brulee

Thornless blackberry

Dwarf Nectarine

Dwarf…

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So I finally signed up to Ooooby, finally managed to get some gardening done, and thought i'd finally post a blog on here instead of just hunting through everyone else's posts and absorbing too much information.

Today my zucchini finally threw up two nice yellow flowers, so hopefully it will catch up with the masses of flowers on my neglected cucumber plant. If i'm lucky my nice lush green cherry tomatoes will flower. The plants are looking somewhat impressive now, but they're really…

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article entitled When Agriculture Goes Mad which talked about the problems that GE or GO (Genetic fiddling) was causing in America, South America and India. This week I received an email which linked to a clip of an interview with Dr Don Huber. The email stated: Monsanto has unleashed a micro-monster that could kill us all. That's according to Dr. Don Huber, an agricultural scientist and expert in microbial ecology, who's convinced that Monsanto's genetically…

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http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_doiron_my_subversive_garden_plot.html?awesm=on.ted.com_RDoiron&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=awesm-publisher

Thanks for your thoughts

I wasn’t sure how you were planning to dispose of the eggs especially as some of the over 3,500 species have very resilient eggs:

For instance, Wyeomyia larvae typically get frozen into solid lumps of ice during winter and only complete their development in spring. The eggs of some species of Aedes remain unharmed in diapause if they dry out, and hatch later when they are covered by water.

Also apparently not all species lay their…

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We have eight new Barnevelde chickens - or maybe seven, one might be something else. I've posted a photo.Our guinea fowl, Ginny, now just a year old, has started laying.

We were part of a garden safari  in November, organised by the local Lions - lots of work but lots of fun too, when the weeds were (mostly) dispatched into the compost and visitors told us what a lovely garden we have :)

I want quails next time we get birds, we have enough chooks and one guinea fowl is sometimes more…

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"NZ food bill to make growing food a government privilege rather than a human right"

The God-given human right to freely cultivate food is under attack in New Zealand (NZ) as special interest groups and others are currently attempting to push a "food security" bill through the nation's parliament that will strip individuals of their right to grow food,…

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I've already shared a little about our bees and catching a swarm. so this is a kind of update but a lot has changed since the season started. We have now collected a second swarm and we are experimenting with three different kinds of hives. I thought I would journal some of our learning curves. 

As far…

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Hello,

 

I just moved to aro not so long ago. I am used to having a place to put my food scraps rather than in the bin! I was wondering if there is a community garden with a composting station I could use, or any alternative non-wasteful place.

Also I am wanting to find out how to get involved in the community gardens in the area, maybe contribute some hours of care to it?

Any help greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Chris

The garden is doing well despite the lack of attention. Potatoes are flowering but only the last lot that we planted not the earlly ones. Snap peas are flowering, one gerkhins and cucumber plant has survived. The courgettes and sweetcorn have decided to live after our late spring snow fall (November). Tomatoes are starting to flower and the fennel plants are doing well. what I have planted straight into the garden from seed hasn't been as successful.



Due to surgery I am unable to do… Continue