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Category Archives: My stories
Microplot garden design – 1
One of the things I’m experimenting with is dense microplots for urban gardens. Take three, maybe four species of food or useful plant, and grow them together in a complementary fashion so that they each help each other thrive and … Continue reading →
What do snails like to eat?
I found myself asking this question this morning when sitting outside with my son waiting for the car to take him to daycare. I was staring at the sky, he was staring at my peas, and we saw this: I’ve … Continue reading →
Posted in Hypothetical, My stories
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Tagged caffeine, coffee, copper, helix aspersa, life force, organic pest control, pest control, seedlings, snail damage, snails
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1 Comment
The pistachio bed
The female pistachio bed has been developing slowly over a couple of years. The pistachio itself is in a depression. I dug the soil/sand out to about eight inches, then mixed a bag of cow manure into the sand that … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories
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Tagged chickpeas, drylands, drylands food forest, mediterranean agriculture, oil seeds, pistachio, potato, protein, solanaceae, zone 4
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Bunuru, or secondsummer
As I’ve written about before, I follow the local six-season calendar in my work here with soil, plants, weather and climate. This blog went into a bit of a hiatus halfway through the season of firstsummer, what with the holiday … Continue reading →
Posted in Explainer, My stories
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Tagged bunuru, heat, heat waves, heatwaves, local seasons, seasonal changes, seasonal cycle, seasonal tasks, secondsummer
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1 Comment
Weed control these last months – couch grass
The last of the three Big Weeds I’ve been working with this year is couch grass. Couch is a funny one, because I wouldn’t actually mind having some patches of lawn here and there. It’s just so invasive that I … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories
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Tagged autumn, couch grass, firstsummer, glyphosate, organic weed control, soil protection, soil types, weed management, weeds, winter
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Weed control these last months – brome grass
Yesterday I wrote about my ongoing process with removing oxalis, which is a big job this time of year. A little earlier, through March and April – the local season of Djeran (autumn)-, I was working on brome grass. Greater … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories
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Tagged brome, brome grass, greater brome, organic weed control, ripgut brome, weed, weed management, weeds, weedscaping
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Weed control these last months – oxalis
I’ve spent a fair bit of time the last four to six months on major weed control. I’m a big believer in weedscaping, and letting weeds do my work for me as much as possible. They condition my soil, protect … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories, Plant profiles
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Tagged glyphosate, organic weed control, oxalis, weed control, weed management, weeds, weedscaping
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2 Comments
Makuru, or winter
By the six season calendar we’re now in “winter”, or Makuru to give it the indigenous name. On the seasonal wheels you see around the place it’s marked as being approximately June and July, but that’s a white person’s fiction. … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged local seasons, makuru, seasonal changes, seasonal cycle, seasonal tasks, winter
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3 Comments
Green, cool, productive and droughtproofed – the lower-water vegie garden
As I wrote yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find that even though the watering system broke while we were on holiday, most of the plants survived a summer week or two without water. I’m putting this down to the … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories
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Tagged coolth, drought-tolerant, droughtproofing, greywater, heat tolerance, heat tolerant, hot weather vegetables, low water use, pot plants, rainwater, shade, summer gardens, summer vegetables, zone 2, zone 3
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Leaving a droughtproofed garden for a summer holiday
We recently spent three weeks away on holiday. It’s firstsummer, moving into secondsummer, that time of year also known as “January” or just plain “bloody hot”. My garden is unirrigated but not entirely unwatered, so us being away means no … Continue reading →
Posted in My stories
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Tagged droughtproofing, irrigation, low water use, unirrigated, water conservation, zone 1, zone 2, zone 3, zone 4
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AgriTapestry 