Join Kew-trained horticulturalist, conservationist and media personality Jerry Coleby-Williams on a small group tour of Timor-Leste. During this tour you will discover community agricultural flair that connects the locals to the land and engage with some of the women who are re-shaping its culture. Learn about the history of this fascinating country and explore rugged coastlines, untouched beaches and landscapes dotted with traditional mountain villages, 15-25.6.2020.
Any Australian can load their photos of native plants and animals on iNaturalist and ask for sightings to be identified by experts.
Well prepared soil is the secret to raising good crops and flowers from seed.
Organic gardening isn’t conventional gardening, so why not enjoy some unconventional pest control?
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.
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… Continue reading
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.
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.
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,… Continue reading
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… Continue reading
If you live in south eastern Queensland and grow pawpaw, it’s worth a quick health check right now. Mild, calm, showery, humid winter weather is perfect for observing outbreaks of pawpaw black spot… Continue reading
We ignore the following key aspects of sustainable food production at our peril:
* A culture of forgetting – we forget our horticultural history;
* Declining crop diversity, both in the range of species grown and in the genetic diversity within each crop;
* The oversimplification and impoverishment of systems of food production;
* A reluctance to apply the precautionary principle where using the least toxic solution in crop protection comes first;
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… Continue reading
I’m waiting for the summer wet season to start. Until the rain arrives, there is little cloud to filter the hot sunlight. Thank goodness for old net curtains and shadecloth! I thought I would… Continue reading
Ten years ago British Petroleum closed Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in the USA. Rusted, leaking oil pipes heavily polluted a region already suffering from accelerating global warming. At the same time, melting… Continue reading
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… Continue reading
