Recently we’ve been getting some rain, and the compost bin was getting a little waterlogged, which is not a good thing. It’s fine to have damp compost, as it helps decomposition, but too wet is not good, as it just rots.    Besides this, the worms could drown, and they are a great help in getting [...]

It’s Autumn here in Australia, and time to get the garden tidied up for Winter. This week, we’ve been doing some pruning, weeding, and general tidying up.  Of course, there’s plenty more to do – there always is in a garden! Today I planted some broad beans, always a productive vegetable, and very easy to [...]

Although we’ve had some rain in the last couple of months, we’ve also had some very hot weather, and while wandering around the garden, I discovered some very stressed plants. There is a very new acacia, which has lost about 50% of its leaves to sunburn, and now looks a little tattered.     Just about all [...]

Recently, we’ve lost one alo-casuarina, and had a lot of damage to a plum tree and and an apricot tree, due to an as yet unidentified pest. My partner thinks it is the codling moth, but I’m not sure because moths go for the fruit and this particular pest goes for the bark and sap [...]

Holidays are great! What isn’t so great is getting back to see the grass has grown like crazy, the chickens have dug up as much as they could manage while you’ve been away, and the aphids have taken over the new shoots on the apricot tree. I won’t even talk about the weeds….. There’s certainly [...]

September was the first month of Spring, and for the first time in years, the spring rains happened! At least for the first month. We’re hoping for a lot more in the next two months, before summer arrives. The weather bureau isn’t being very hopeful, however. Our total for the month was 95.25 mls, a [...]

Have you noticed that whenever you think you’ve finished weeding the garden, you look around and see more weeds coming up behind you? Don’t they ever stop growing? It’s a never ending battle, especially if you don’t want to use pesticides, or weedkillers, which I don’t. Having pets, and wanting wild birds to visit my [...]

If you have aphids, then you’ll probably use white oil spray, which is quite good at deterring them, along with a variety of other pests. My poor apricot tree suffers badly every Spring and summer from aphid, and it’s been quite difficult controlling them. Recently I’ve had some success using home made white oil. Here’s [...]

For the past couple of days, we’ve been having some very strong winds here in Melbourne, and quite a bit of damage has been caused. I’ve been lucky, because my house and garden haven’t suffered very much, only one branch on a bottlebrush in the front garden. Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that a branch was [...]

In a recent post, I mentioned that although it was still Winter, the plum tree was sure it was Spring. Last night we had the warmest August night on record – 14C; not bad for what is usually the coldest Winter month! Anyway, here’s a shot of a section of the plum tree against the [...]