Home Grown

Crown Vegetables

28 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Asparagus and rhubarb are two long-lived plants you can grow from crowns planted in winter. Both these plants do best with an entire garden bed to themselves.

Mail Order Vegetable Seed Supplies

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

We like to buy our vegetable seeds from trusted mail order seed companies, this way we get a considerable range of varieties for a lifetime of experimentation and flavour. Here are our favourites.

10 things you didn’t know about fruit flies

13 December 2018 | Robin Powell

Robin Powell reports from behind enemy lines on the fascinating, infuriating fruit fly.

5 steps to starting a veggie patch from scratch

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Ever wanted to grow your own veggies but never knew where to start? Here are five steps to consider when starting a patch from scratch.

Pick delicious crisp apples from your own Garden of Eden! Apples are commonly grown in Victoria, Tasmania and cooler areas of western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales, and are becoming easier to grow due to improved disease resistance.

Asparagus

19 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Home-grown asparagus is easy, but it’s not quick. You’ll need to wait three years from planting before you can harvest a bunch of tender green spears, but the wait will have been worth it, and the asparagus patch will keep on giving for decades. Linda Ross shares her growing tips.

Beetroot

16 February 2015 | Linda Ross

How versatile is this vegetable! Grate it, shred it, boil it, or roast it. It can be a pickle, a soup, a dip, a side dish, a main event, or a salad.

Berries

01 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Growing berries is not a cinch - they have fierce thorns, troublesome pruning rules and require commitment (and hardware) to keep wildlife away from ripening fruit. But if berry-stained lips sound to you like a rich reward, take notes from Linda’s masterclass, and plant in winter.

Best crops for small plots

06 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Even the smallest balcony plots can produce crops from an interesting range of small-fruited, ‘patio’-sized vegetables. Linda Ross shares tips on making it work.

Best-ever roast potatoes

20 May 2019 | Robin Powell

Want the best-ever roast potatoes? Simple, delicious and deeply comforting the humble roast spud is a must-have in the cook’s bag of tricks. Here are a few of our favourite versions.

Broad Beans

22 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Broad beans offer one of spring’s best seasonal flavours. And as well as tasting good they enrich the soil with nitrogen, and handle the toughest frosts so can be planted now in all areas of Australia.

Brussels Sprouts

20 May 2015 | Linda Ross

The much-derided Brussels sprout is delicious when grown fresh and cooked quickly. Here’s how.

Carrots

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

We are harvesting handfuls of delicious carrots and using them in a variety of ways in the kitchen. Sow spring, summer and autumn, all year in mild areas. So buy a packet today and get crunching!

Cauliflower

13 February 2015 | Justin Russell

Justin Russell says cauliflower is no cheesy addition to the vegetable patch; it’s a stand-alone star.

Cauliflower

24 May 2016 | Justin Russell

In a classic segment of ‘River Cottage’ host Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall damns the cauliflower, describing it as insipid and boring. Not fair. While caulis can devolve into tasteless watery mush when treated badly in the kitchen, the best
varieties are packed with flavor.

Chilli

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Spice up your life with the aroma and piquancy of chilli. Measured on a rating from one to over two million, there is a chilli to suit all taste buds from the chilli-phobic to the chilli-freak.

Chinese style Brussels sprouts

20 May 2015 | Robin Powell

The European sprout gets an Asian makeover in this tasty stir fry.

Companion Planting 1

03 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Companion planting is about wisely using plants to reduce the work of the gardener. These are our favourite garden workers.

Companion Planting 2

16 March 2015 | Linda Ross

We love any strategy that reduces human intervention in the vegetable garden. Here are a few of our favourite tips for creating a productive garden with less personal effort.

Composting

25 April 2015 | Sandra Ross

All too often gardeners start composting with great excitement and enthusiasm, only for interest to wane as the results disappoint. Here is a quick guide to help you produce the best compost in whatever composting bin you choose.

Cool season vegetable guide

06 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Many vegetable gardeners believe that the date to start planting cool season crops is on the first day of winter. Big mistake. The time to start winter crops is early autumn.

Crop Rotation

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Passionate vegetable gardeners and those looking for a holistic approach will want a way of rotating their crops for maximum benefit, health and harvest.

Cucumbers

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Cucumbers are such a versatile vegetable with so many uses - sliced, grated, in salads and cold soups.

Cucumbers

13 November 2019 | Linda Ross

Cool as a cucumber is the taste of summer.

Delicious: Lentil’s summer breakfast bowl

13 December 2018 | Lentil Purbrick

Breakfast eggs get a super-fresh makeover in this dish from ‘The Village’ by Matt and Lentil from Grown and Gathered.

Delicious: Sweet potato and chickpea curry

21 May 2018 | Robin Powell

Sweet potato and chickpea curry is comfort food of the first order - warming, satisfying and dead-simple.

Edible Weeds

20 April 2015 | Linda Ross

The annoying habit of weeds to grow fast (and often better than the vegetables they smother!) is good news for foragers. Follow these rules for weed eating: check and double check the identification; pick new leaves; pick leaves before flowering; pick only from areas that haven't been sprayed; and wash everything before using. These are our top 5 weeds.

Edibles everywhere

26 August 2019 | Robin Powell

Delicious ideas seen on our travels this year

Eggplant

26 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Eggplants have diverse origins: Italy, Africa, Thailand, China and India. Their shapes and colours are just as diverse and provide a little visual interest in the vegie patch.

Fennel

13 February 2015 | Justin Russell

Among the carefully chosen selection of seeds and plants that the First Fleet brought from England in 1788, was fennel. The plant has been held in high regard since Roman times, and at one stage, people believed that stuffing fennel seeds into their keyholes would keep ghosts from entering the room.

Figs

16 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Figs are delicious, expensive and hard to transport – three excellent reasons to grow one in your garden. Linda Ross tells how it’s done.

Flower Farm: Summer jobs

23 January 2018 | Linda Ross

We've dedicated a part of the patch to growing flowers just for picking. And the bonus? Armfuls of flowers for vases and arrangements.

Flower farm: Winter jobs

30 May 2018 | Linda Ross

Here Linda gives advice and plans for winter; planting sunflowers, ranunculus, and spring bulbs; admiring the pansies, and picking winter flowers.

Globe Artichokes

25 April 2015 | Libby Cameron

Globe artichokes look good in the garden, taste great at the table and improve things in the bedroom! Or so they say. Libby Cameron turns the light on globe artichokes.

Growing Soup Vegetables

18 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Homemade soup made from home grown vegetables is both nourishing and nurturing. Start now by sowing or planting out soup vegetables, including parsnip, carrot, swede, turnip and leek. In 12 weeks you’ll be picking your first soup pot harvest.

Herbs / Autumn

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Cut & come again herbs such as parsley, rocket, sorrel, chervil and coriander, prefer growing in the cooler months. Sow some seeds every month straight into the garden for a trickle harvest into the kitchen.

Home Grown: Nashi

19 December 2016 | Justin Russell

Crisp and crunchy nashi pears are just as cold-hardy as common pears but need fewer chilling hours to produce fruit, making them a delicious choice for every climate zone in Australia.

Homegrown: Sweet Potato

30 May 2018 | Linda Ross

This delicious tuber is one of the least-demanding vegetables in the patch. All it wants is sun and space.

How to: arrange flowers

31 May 2018 | Linda Ross

I love the look of flowers picked straight from the garden and casually arranged in a charming jug, jar, urn, vase - even a bucket. But when I pick a posy from my garden and aim for a natural aesthetic with casual grace, my arrangement looks not so much just-picked as just-plonked! So I asked Sonya Gardiner for help and these are her tips - the 5 Fs of Fabulous Flower Arranging.

How to: brew compost tea

05 September 2018 | Arno King

When I was a child all our neighbours and friends had a large tub - generally an old enamel washing machine tub - buried close to the vegetable garden. This was the ‘brew’ tub. Ingredients for the brew - compost, manures and seaweed - were widely discussed and benefits widely acclaimed. And it turns out these gardeners were onto something!

How to: build a salad bar

15 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Our salad bar makes the most of winter’s great salad greens.

How to: fix the lawn

31 May 2018 | Narelle Smith

Most warm-season grasses stop growing when the nights turn cold, allowing weeds to get a foothold while your attention has turned indoors. So now is the time to target terrors like bindii, wintergrass and dandelions and avoid seeding - and many years more weeding.

How to: fix your tomatoes

27 May 2017 | Linda Ross

Fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes are one of the great joys of summer. The best way to ensure that your tomato-growing experience delivers baskets of delicious fruit is to keep plants healthy.

How to: grow a salad bowl

17 March 2015 | Isla Barlow

Eden, Isla and Skye amazed their school friends when they took their own salad greens for lunch. Lettuce show you how easy it is!

How to: grow African violets

20 May 2019 | Linda Ross

African violets are treasured, long-lived indoor plants. Make them shine with these tips.

How to: grow amazing geraniums

01 October 2015 | Linda Ross

The plants I'm talking about here are botanically speaking Pelargonium though commonly called geranium. True Geranium species are delicate-looking perennials, usually with blue flowers.

How to: grow blueberries

28 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Blueberries are pretty shrubs, with delicate, pink, bell-shaped flowers that give way to delicious purple-blue berries full of goodness and high in antioxidants.

How to: grow chocolate

21 December 2018 | Robin Powell

Wherever we take travellers in the tropics, from Mexico to Singapore, the Daintree to Cuba, there is one tree that grabs their attention - cacao, the source of our lingering love, chocolate.