Jerry Coleby-Williams

Which Trees To Plant At Inverell, NSW, To Cope With Predicted Climate Change?

How do you approach tree planting? “All life on Earth is now experimental. Thanks to a lack of Australian climate leadership, we grow crops and plant gardens in uncharted climate territory. If this is the future of gardening, then we must embrace experimental tree planting for shade, food, fodder and biodiversity”. Jerry Coleby-Williams, Founder of Bellis, Brisbane’s award-winning, affordable sustainable house and garden; Director, Seed Saver’s Network; Patron, National Toxics Network; Patron, Householder’s Options for Protecting the Environment, 2nd February 2019.

King’s Salad Recipe

When cooking in a hot kitchen doesn’t appeal, there’s a flavour-filled alternative: king’s salad – Vietnamese style. Popular in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Whatever you decide, the complex, zesty flavour of king’s salad is delightful on its own. Use it for breakfast, lunch or dinner…

Tomatillo Salsa Verde Recipe

“Salsa verde, chilled and freshly made from home grown tomatillos (Physalis philadelphica), is great on a hot day. An excuse for not cooking on (another) one of those sticky subtropical summer days”.

Make Dessert with Aloe vera

“I planted Aloe vera so I can use its juice to soothe sunburn. It grows effortlessly in my nature strip. People also use it to relieve the itching caused by eczema. I also enjoy cooked Aloe vera as a dessert.”

Do Landscape Suppliers Ever Sell Genuine Soil?

Question: A Brisbane landscape supplier sold me soil for my raised vegetable beds. All my vegetables keep failing. I did a soil pH Test and the result was pH 9. Is there any hope I’ll be able to grow spring crops successfully?

How did they keep lawns trim in the days before lawnmowers?

“How did they keep lawns trim in the days before lawnmowers? asks The Guardian newspaper. Animals and scythes were originally used to maintain closely cut turf…and Australia has an indigenous answer”.

Thuan the Market Gardener

Thuan’s market garden: 1,500 sq m of alluvial, sandy loam in a flood plain of the Perfume River catchment, Hue, Vietnam. Fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, flowers, poultry – and incense – in a prolifically productive, wet, inland subtropical climate.

Saying farewell to organic seed imports and goodbye to Australian food sovereignty?

I’ve signed a petition to the Federal Minister for Agriculture and Water because Australia is a party to the UN’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. I oppose government quarantine cost cutting because it directly restricts access by growers to the genetic diversity of crops, and denies business and consumers the…

Coffee Grounds As A Herbicide

Caffeine is a biochemical with the purpose of affecting the germination, growth, survival, and reproduction of other competing plants. Do not add coffee grounds to worm farms.

Visit The 2018 Singapore Garden Festival with Jerry Coleby-Williams

Join Kew-trained horticulturalist, conservationist, television and radio talkback gardening presenter Jerry Coleby-Williams on a small group tour of Singapore to discover its horticultural and culinary delights.

Book Review: ‘Flowers in the Dust’, by Jenny Mace, published by Shady Tree, Australia, 2017

In the ancient landscapes of Queensland’s desert uplands grow many curious and attractive plants. Dame Quentin Bryce Ad, CVO, remembers the desert uplands for its ‘vivid red soils, its astonishing vegetation, its lakes, its slopes and its plains. For many of us it’s easy to miss these tough, resilient wildflowers when they’re in bloom –…

My avocado fruit look sick. What to do?

It’s avocado season in Australia and Vietnam. Anthracnose disease can significantly affect the yield and quality of avocado fruit. It’s worst in warm, wet, humid, calm weather. Irritatingly, the symptoms of disease become evident when it’s too late to protect your current crop, but once the fruit are harvested, you should begin a disease control…