Now that Autumn’s here, our woolshed is bedecked in produce and garlands… brown onions, red onions, preserves, pickles and all the rest. And it turns out (fortunately) that stringing onions into a garland is actually quite easy. Read More
Ok this is a downright divergent post, but what the hey – it’s Saturday. I just found a bunch of Hey Girl meme entries on the important things in life – beehives, seed catalogs and compost…
It seems unbelievable that only 5 months ago our now abundant market garden was a scruffy bare creek flat. But it’s true! And now we’ve got produce coming out our ears, thanks to many fabulous folks coming together to make it so.
Up in the hills as we are, it’s a bit of a harsh climate for growing stuff. About 4 frost free months for growing only, poor soils, 600mm annual rainfall, crazy dry winds, etc and so on. We’re not complaining, but I’d just like to flag that this is a garden created in non-ideal conditions. Except for gumption. We’ve got plenty of that.
The last danger of frosts have passed – finally. It is officially time to plant tomatoes at Milkwood. And plant them we did. Oh yes, how we did.
The plan here is to be awash in tomatoes by early February. We want tomatoes coming out our ears and out our toes. At which point there will be an impromptu passata festival, where all the tomatoes get squished into a year’s worth of pasta sauce. But first we have to grow them… Read More
Thanks to the amazing efforts of many forces, I can officially say that we are now feeding everyone at Milkwood Farm from the Organic Market Garden each day! Starting with feasts of fresh rocket, lettuce and pak choi.
It’s been an adventure of epic proportions to get to this point. But thanks to our amazing crew, and to Joyce and Michael of Allsun farm, it looks like this whole market garden thing might just work…
This idea combines two of my favorite urban food growing solutions – vertical gardening, and aquaponics. Can they be friends? Of course they can!
Charlie from Ecolicious in Sydney has been trialling a funky combo of these techniques in various urban gardens he’s been designing of late. Vertical growing space of edible vegies and herbs, irrigated by a solar powered pump. And beneath it all, an aquaponics system which cycles fishy nutrients to grow the plants above… Read More
I must say that while I’m finding this market garden experiment very exciting, it’s also rather daunting. What are we planting today? What are we planting next week? Where are we going? Who am i and where are my pants? The solution to all this is Allsun Farm’s planting calendar system.
Joyce Wilkie devised this garden card system firstly for her market garden at Allsun Farm, but happily she’s the kind of lady that likes to share. So she shared it with us. And now we can share it with you. It’s un-tangled everything and put us on the straight and narrow. Read More
Tucked away within the Sydney College of Arts campus at Rozelle in Sydney is a gorgeous public garden of eatin’.
Native bees, sugar snap peas, banana circles and raspberries all co-mingle in a glorious emerging jumble of edibility. It’s all flowered from a project called ‘Tending’, an artwork by Lucas Ihlein and Diego Bonetto, and it is one special patch of Sydney. Read More
My first attempt of growing broad beans (or anything for that matter) in something other than a no-dig bed. Not planted in the still-being-pig-tractored market garden, mind you. These beans went into what will become our kitchen garden, next to the woolshed.
Joyce sent up the broad bean seed from Allsun Farm, which is great. Hopefully this will mean that these broad beans will be adapted to our erratic dryish climate, which is similar to Allsun’s. And for the first time, I planted something by the book. Or by the CD Rom, in this case. Read More
Here comes Spring! I can feel it in my bones. No matter that last night was -1.4º at Milkwood Farm… The blossoms as in bud all around. And that means it’s ground-prep time! Bring on the no-dig gardens and the sheet mulching…
Sheet mulching and no-dig gardens have a fair bit of cross-over, and it depends what school of gardening you’re from as to what your preference is, coupled with your conditions. Read More
