With much of southern Australia experiencing extreme weather conditions, providing some shade for the vege patch and sensitive parts of the garden can help save water while reducing plant stress. See: Sun and heat protection
Mary recently posted a comment on that post giving details of a fully enclosed shade house that encompasses the entire [...]

The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted ‘El Nino’ conditions until the end of January, which will translate into drier conditions for SE Queensland and most of NSW. Some parts of Australia have been enduring extremely hot weather recently and, apparently, there is more to come. Last summer, a period of intense heat caused scorching in [...]

Autumn is a good time in most Australian gardening zones for maintenance work in the garden. My kitchen herb garden needed a serious renovation after three of our chooks escaped from their run during summer and made a total mess of everything. As summer was extremely hot and dry this year, I decided not to [...]

Nights are still cold in many areas of Australia and New Zealand, which can delay planting of seedlings that love warmth. Cold soils delay root growth and frosts can permanently damage delicate seedling foliage.
You can get an early start with seedlings by covering them with a cloche (French for bell). Originally, cloches were round [...]

A cold frame will get your seedlings off to a flying start in spring. Cold frames don’t have to be complicated structures. We make ours from some old bricks and windows, and a small quantity of watered-down white or cream house paint. Materials for this type of cold frame can be found at the local [...]

It’s a shame to throw empty plastic soft drink and soda water bottles into the recycling bin because they have a number of uses in the garden. If you cut the base from each bottle, you have an instant miniature green house. Cucumber, pumpkin, rockmelon, watermelon, zucchini and Brassica (cabbage family) seeds are particularly attractive [...]

To protect our peas, beans, broad beans and corn from birds, we have to net the beds. We have started using supports made from lengths of polypipe slipped over the ends of metal star stakes, or strong wooden stakes. These arches can be left in position to provide support for netting or shade cloth, as [...]

Another chain saw carpentry project, this garden seat is one of my favourite spots in the garden, in all seasons. It is situated on the south side of our vegetable patch, under one of the Jacaranda trees that grow beside our driveway. It’s a wonderful place to relax for a cuppa, admire our work and [...]

It is a term my husband uses for various garden projects that are cut out using a chain saw, or where constructions are nailed, screwed or bolted together and the left over bits are cut off with a chain saw (after making sure those pieces are nail-free, of course). More refined DIYers can use a [...]

We have a lot of weeding to do on our farm and it seemed a good idea to get the chooks to help. Chooks are very good at removing weeds and bugs as they scratch away at the soil – hence the name chicken tractor. They enjoy having plenty of green feed, and a mobile [...]