From the Good Old Aussie Big Back Yard to the New Suburbia Living Lifestyle it is time to connect with Mother Earth. It is time to start a garden. Gardening is a great passion of mine and so rewarding when you plant your seeds and see them germinate and grow into beautiful flowers, herbs and vegetables or even trees. You don’t need a lot of space to grow successfully. A few years ago I decided to prove just that with the New Suburbia Living Lifestyle in mind. I hope I can encourage people with small space to grow a garden so please keep reading. I wanted the garden to easily fit into the new and modern suburbia where there is not much room for playing cricket or airing the family dog so I decided that 34m2 of kitchen garden would help feed a family quite nicely. A small garden can … [Read more...] about Growing a Small Garden
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A World of Wonderful Seed Exchange
Creating space for all ages to come together, socialise, walk beautiful gardens, exchange invaluable information, ideas and have space to learn with likeminded people. That’s exactly what we do when we get together for a Mareeba Seed Savers and Gardening Group meeting. Seed Savers Up North, the first seed savers group in our local area, was coordinated by Annie Jenkins who started the group in 1995. Their meetings were usually held on the Southern Tablelands in Tarzali. The group folded in 2010 after 15 very successful years. The Mareeba Seed Savers and Garden Group was founded in 2009 by Peder and myself. We are a part of the Australia wide Seed Savings Network which was founded by Michel and Jude Fanton based in Byron … [Read more...] about A World of Wonderful Seed Exchange
Seed Saving
Seed saving goes back to the dawn of agriculture so we are looking at very ancient traditions. Seeds were carried by nomads and planted where they stopped for spring, summer and autumn. Many of their seeds were sacred to them and very important for their ritual life. I was taught about seed saving when I was 4 years old my Grandmother as my Mentor. She had a compost heap. We got cow manure from an uncle out of town. We collected lots of seaweed at the nearby beach. We got leaf litter from the nearby forest where we also filled up our water containers from a sacred mineral spring. Grandmother had a beautiful garden full of edible stuff and lots of herbs and flowers for medicinal use. She taught me how to save seeds and she had a small personal seed catalogue full of … [Read more...] about Seed Saving
Companion Planting in Mareeba Region
Parsley, Shallots and Marjoram Basil, Shallots and Comfrey Comfrey and Winter Tarragon Winter Tarragon, Brazil Spinach and tomatoes Pigeon Pea and Brazil Spinach Rocket and Wild Rocket Tree Lettuce seems to like all Comfrey grows well with Brazil Spinach and Arrow Root Brazil Spinach grows well with Spring Onion and Shallots Comfrey, Lemongrass, Bird Eye Chilli and Sacred Basil Sunflowers, Arrow Root and Turmeric Cucumber, Snake Bean and Rocket Dandelion, Mint and Tree Capsicum Edible Hibiscus, Sweet Leaf, Chinese Spinach, Arrow Root Brazil Spinach and Pawpaw Silver Beet, Comfrey and Shallots Amaranth, Broad leaf Plantain, tomatoes and beans Passion fruit loves to grow up Mango trees Mint, Parsley, Oregano, Rosemary and Basil Edible Chrysanthemum, Coriander, Winter Tarragon, Nasturtium, … [Read more...] about Companion Planting in Mareeba Region
What to Plant/Sow When in Mareeba Region
What grows all year round in Mareeba Region Aibika, Aloe Vera, Arrow Root and Queensland, Basil, Bean, Bok Choy, Capsicum, Cassava, Chillies, Chives Common and Garlic, Comfrey, Cosmos, Cranberry, Cucumber, Dandelion, Eggplant, Galangal, Ginger, Lemongrass, Lettuce Tree and Darwin, Luffa, Marigold, Mint, Mustard hot green leaf, Nasturtium, Nut Meg Basil, Old Woman Gossip Tree Kale/Cabbage, Parsley, Peppers, Pigeon Pea, Plantain Broad and Narrow leaf, Pumpkin, Rocket, Rosemary, Shallots , Spinach Brazil, Warringal, Ceylon, Salad Mallow and Chinese, Sweet Corn, Sweet Leaf, Thai coriander, Thyme, Tomato, Tree Capsicum, Turmeric, Winter Tarragon January Summer and wet season Aibika, Aloe Vera, Amaranth, Arrow root, Atherton Bulb Shallots, Basil Purple, Camphor and Thai, Bean … [Read more...] about What to Plant/Sow When in Mareeba Region
Garden Spirit and the Wildlife
I always tell the garden spirits that I am going away on a holiday of any length. They like to know my whereabouts and this way they don’t feel left out. More important is for us humans to acknowledge that the garden spirits are our helpers and supporters and they perform a lot of magic that you might not be aware of if you can’t see, feel or hear it. If you still your mind and take time to observe with all your senses what is going on in your garden or nature you will eventually start learning and understand. The spirits all present themselves one way or the other. Sometimes you will see a different light or energy movement between the sunflowers. You might get a pat on your shoulder or you hat will get knocked off your head while walking through your fruit orchard all caused by the … [Read more...] about Garden Spirit and the Wildlife