I’ve been invited to speak about Bellis at the 8th Global Botanic Gardens Congress which is being hosted by Singapore Botanic Gardens, the world’s second best botanic garden*. Established in 2003, Bellis is an award-winning pocket botanic garden, an 815 square metre property on a peculiar, ancient acid sulphate soil. This Queensland government sustainability project is…

Recycling is good, except when it is car tyres being up-cycled in food gardens. Permaculturists often misguidedly include tyres in ‘earth ship’ designs.
 What could possibly go wrong?

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…

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…

Grab your camera and join gardener and conservationist Jerry Coleby-Williams on an eleven day tour of choice gardens of the South Island of New Zealand while Middle Earth is looking its best this spring.

Heathland is a general term for a gardenesque plant community found in parts of Australia where conditions are too tough for forest. In NSW, heathland is associated with sandstone, while Queensland’s Wallum heath (named after the Wallum Banksia, Banksia aemula) occurs on coastal sand. Kwongan is Western Australia’s version of heathland. Kwongan also occurs on various…

“Come as tourists, return as friends” said Sujee, our guide. The summit of Sigiriya was a 1,000 step climb in the western sun, but the reward was stunning views of one of Asia’s oldest landscapes. Also known as Lion Rock, Sigiriya is a fortified palace-garden-complex similar to South America’s 15th century Machu Picchu, only the…

In June I was on a gardeners’ tour of Vietnam, great fun, but I returned to a lot of weeding! This winter has been mild and damp with just two cold snaps so far. Ideal conditions for weeds and watercress are not ideal conditions for snow peas, which prefer it cooler. Drizzle and humidity haven’t…