Plantains are big bananas. While they may be unfamiliar in Australian home gardens and restaurants, plantains and dessert bananas are important foods in tropical and subtropical regions. Their starch has a low glycaemic index (low GI) and also gluten free, so they are a source of sustained energy for physically active gardeners as well as…
Tag: productive
What Can I Grow As Stock Feed In SE Queensland?
Question We live on 1 acre of land at Boonah, Qld approx same temperature as Ipswich, Qld, in black soil country. We run our own poultry and a pig and are working towards a reasonable self-sufficiency with substantial vegetable garden, orchard, plus a food forest. What I am wishing to do is try to cut…
The First Day Of Crematoria
The first koel of summer has called, the first mosquito has bitten and the first dust storm has sprinkled Brisbane red ochre. While I’m out there watering, counting every drop as it falls onto the crisped ground, thunderstorm clouds are full of promise yet lacking in rain. It’s the first day of crematoria, south east Queensland’s flexible new season, that bridges that rigid, neat European concept of spring and summer.
Honey Flora Report – June
Blue-banded bees are up early, busily pollinating our eggplants and tomatoes. Our potatoes and Phillip Island hibiscus are budding. Meanwhile our honeybees are zooming around gathering far and wide… AUSTRALIAN WILD PLANTS Broad-leaved Paperbark, Melaleuca quinquinervia Forest red gum, Eucalyptus tereticornis Spotted gum, Corymbia citriodora subsp. maculata (syn. C. maculata, Eucalyptus maculata) Brisbane wattle, black…
Open Letter To The Climate Change Minister: How Effective Carbon Sequestration Offers A Healthy Economy
An organically farmed Australia could naturally sequester almost 70% of national Greenhouse Gas emissions. The amount of CO2 sequestered is based on achievements through current low-till, sustainable farming practices. “This is not a theoretical estimate as in some of the tree plantation models, or unproven like the millions of dollars being spent on clean coal or mechanical…
Autumn Harvest And Wild Weather
We’ve just enjoyed a good picking of autumn crops from the garden On Friday I planted out the mangelwurzel seedlings in their final positions. We ate the tender, leafy thinnings which taste like silverbeet in a stir fry. Damo provided sugar syrup for the honeybees, which aren’t foraging in this wild weather. The native honeybee…
“Queensland Gardeners Too Dumb To Grow” – Minister
In a recent guide, ‘Waterwise Queensland: Gardening with greywater’*, published on 26th April 2008, Queensland minister for Natural Resources and Water, the Honourable Craig Wallace hopes to popularise grey water in home gardens. During the ongoing drought in SE Qld, home gardeners have grabbed their buckets and answered government calls to reduce their mains water…
Native Bee Day
On Saturday I became the proud owner of a hive of native stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria. A little web-searching found that Dr Tim Heard, a CSIRO entomologist and native bee specialist, supplies colonies and his brother, Frank, makes specially designed hives for them. Stingless bees and honeybees happily co-exist. Happily Brisbane provides an ideal climate…
Honey Flora Report – May
We’re members of the Bayside Beekeepers Association, and every month they release a Honey Flora Report listing significant flowering local native plants useful for honey production. Our hives are busy harvesting pollen and nectar from the urban forest and garden plants as well, so we’ve decided to add them to the BBA report.
Water – Decisions And Dilemmas
Jerry talks about the hard decisions he’ll have to make in the productive garden if the summer rains fail again…
Perfect Peas
We’ve got some very healthy heritage snow and shelling peas, Pisum sativum var. sativum, most of which came from Seedsavers. I get such a happy feeling observing our growing peas. The seeds feel lovely to the touch, they unfurl and push through the soil so eagerly as they germinate, their leaves are very soft and…
In Production Today
We currently have an abundance of crops in production today in our 400 square metre back garden. SE Queensland’s dams are just over 80% empty, but we’ve got sufficient recycled water to garden satisfactorily in winter. And using our own recycled water means that we can still use a hose. The coffee has produced its…
Jerry Coleby-Williams 