Home Grown

How to: growing vegetables from seed

How to: growing vegetables from seed

22 December 2018 | Arno King

Planting punnets of vegetable seedlings is easy, but it is much more cost-effective and more fulfilling - not to mention offering wider choice and better results - to sow seed directly into the garden. The key is to sow plants suited to your climate, at the appropriate time of year.

How to: herb feast

How to: herb feast

16 March 2015 | Isla Barlow

Skye, Eden and Isla love to collect fresh herbs from the garden to add to dinner. Herbs are easy to grow: a perfectly delicious project for the summer holidays.

How to: make a summer vegetable tepee

How to: make a summer vegetable tepee

12 March 2015 | Linda Ross

For space saving nothing beats a tepee! A single structure will provide 36kg of cherry tomatoes, cucumber and green beans over a 3 month stretch.

How to: make comfrey tea

How to: make comfrey tea

15 May 2015 | Linda Ross

This home-grown fertiliser contains more potash, and more nitrogen, than commercial feeds, and costs only the price of a bucket and its water. Your vegetables will love it, especially your tomatoes.

How to: Make Potting Mix

How to: Make Potting Mix

01 October 2015 | Linda Ross

Plants in pots need the right nutrients, water, air and a quality potting mix to live happily ever after.

How to: use coconut peat

How to: use coconut peat

31 May 2018 | Arno KIng

Need a lightweight, easily stored, highly effective potting medium? Look no further than this byproduct of coconut production, which has advantages for plants as well as gardners.

How to: use your pea harvest

15 May 2015 | Robin Powell

Peas are one of those crops that can make the home gardener feel smugly self-satisfied because they taste so good fresh from the garden.

In my Kitchen Garden

In my Kitchen Garden

20 December 2018 | Kate Neale

In the first of a new series that shares the knowledge and experience of food growers around the country, Kate Neale dishes the dirt on her top summer growing tips and her favourite new harvest.

In my kitchen garden: Camden, NSW

In my kitchen garden: Camden, NSW

28 February 2019 | Mickey Robertson

Mickey Robertson’s kitchen garden at Glenmore House is as beautiful as it is productive, experimental and instructive.

In the Temperate Kitchen Garden this autumn

In the Temperate Kitchen Garden this autumn

15 May 2018 | Linda Ross

The temperate kitchen garden in autumn is all about planning for winter, planting hearty veg and preserving your harvest for the colder months. Linda Ross has plenty of tips on what you can do in your patch right now.

It's time to: Temperate gardens in June

It's time to: Temperate gardens in June

06 June 2017 | Elizabeth Swane

After a big growing season, early winter offers an opportunity to restore a little order. Sharpen those secateurs and get ready, because it's time to whip things into shape in the temperate garden this June

Kale

20 April 2015 | Justin Russell

It’s the most unpretentious of vegetables, yet is so fashionable there was a worldwide shortage of seed recently due to overwhelming demand. Beyond the fad, it’s worth a spot in the garden.

Kitchen garden Artichoke

Kitchen garden Artichoke

19 December 2016 | Justin Russell

Though globe artichokes are simple to grow, preparing them for the table involves that rarest of modern commodities - time. But if you’ve ever eaten freshly cooked artichokes you know the several processes involved amount to small effort for delicious reward.

Kitchen Garden Jobs winter 2017

Kitchen Garden Jobs winter 2017

08 June 2017 | Linda Ross

In the Kitchen Garden this winter Linda Ross is composting, planting winter veg and planning for the future.

Kitchen Garden Spring Jobs

Kitchen Garden Spring Jobs

01 September 2017 | Linda Ross

This spring try something new: a vertical pumpkin patch; a fence line of sweet potato or a hanging basket filled with the sweetest, most productive strawberry ever.

Kitchen Garden Spring: Soft Herbs

Kitchen Garden Spring: Soft Herbs

01 September 2017 | Linda Ross

The key to a thriving herb garden is to give each plant the conditions it needs to prosper. The result is easy gardening, and delicious pickings. Here Linda Ross shows you her favourites and the conditions they need to thrive in spring.

Kitchen garden subtropical

Kitchen garden subtropical

06 September 2018 | Arno King

Arno is a garden designer and writer whose garden in Brisbane is mostly edible. He is constantly testing the received garden wisdom for its relevance to subtropical gardeners, and trialing new products. Let's see what Arno's growing this spring

Kitchen Garden Summer

Kitchen Garden Summer

18 December 2015 | Linda Ross

Summer brings the vegetable patch’s peak of production. The heat of the sun powers growth, but threatens disaster too. Rise with the birds for early deep watering, and let your mantra be mulch, mulch, mulch.

Kitchen Garden winter jobs

Kitchen Garden winter jobs

01 June 2016 | Linda Ross

Warm up this winter with a new project to increase your home harvests: compost bin, worm farm, raised beds, chicken coop, citrus wall? Now’s the time to get stuck in.

Kitchen Garden: Autumn

Kitchen Garden: Autumn

29 April 2016 | Linda Ross

We’re picking basket-loads of dark green kale, snacking on mandarins, pickling the beetroot harvest and turning the last tomatoes into bottles of sauce. From patch to plate autumn is full of colour and flavour.

Kitchen Garden: Autumn

Kitchen Garden: Autumn

20 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Autumn is the crowded moment in the vegetable garden when warm season vegetables reach their peak harvest and the cool season crops are keen to get in the ground. Here’s how we manage it.

Kitchen garden: Rhubarb

Kitchen garden: Rhubarb

13 June 2017 | Linda Ross

Rhubarb is one of the few perennial vegetables. A clump will produce tangy, juicy stems season after season with almost no effort from the gardener.

Kitchen Garden: Spring

Kitchen Garden: Spring

11 February 2015 |

We love picking dinner fresh from the vegie patch. Everything tastes so much better! Spring is a busy time in the edible garden. Here are our tips and tricks for a bumper summer harvest.

Kitchen garden: Spring jobs

Kitchen garden: Spring jobs

17 September 2015 | Linda Ross

There’s inspiration here to help expand your vegetable repertoire – in the garden and on the plate!

Kitchen Garden: Spring Planting

Kitchen Garden: Spring Planting

03 March 2015 | Linda Ross

It’s time to pull out winter crops to make room for summer’s great produce. Here Linda Ross shares her know-how and experience about what to plant now to keep a family of four enjoying delicious home-grown food all through summer.

Kitchen Garden: Subtropical summer

Kitchen Garden: Subtropical summer

28 November 2017 | Arno King

Gardening for the kitchen in the subtropics? Our resident tropical garden expert Arno King has the lowdown on all the seasonal jobs, as well as the tips and tricks to get things happening in the subtropical kitchen garden.

Kitchen Garden: subtropical winter

Kitchen Garden: subtropical winter

01 June 2018 | Arno King

Arno is a garden designer and writer whose garden in Brisbane is mostly edible. He is constantly testing the received garden wisdom for its relevance to subtropical gardeners, and trialling new products. Lets see what Arno's growing this winter

Kitchen Garden: Summer

Kitchen Garden: Summer

11 February 2015 |

Summer is all about harvest: buckets of tomatoes, cucumbers and beans are flooding into the kitchen. The only challenge is finding enough tomato recipes!

Kitchen Garden: Summer Herbs

Kitchen Garden: Summer Herbs

14 February 2018 | Linda Ross

Plenty of summer herbs need the heat of the sun to intensify their flavour. Here Linda Ross lists her pick of the bunch.

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Kitchen Gardens: Peas

Kitchen Gardens: Peas

06 September 2018 | Linda Ross

Nothing tastes like spring quite as much a sweet pea - whether freshly podded, or enjoyed pod and all. The only trick is to get the peas to the kitchen before the children eat them all off the vines!

Kitchen Gardens: Temperate

Kitchen Gardens: Temperate

06 September 2018 | Linda Ross

Springtime in the temperate kitchen garden is time for soil preparation, tomato planting, and building structures for vine crops.

Know your: balcony flowers

Know your: balcony flowers

20 December 2018 | Linda Ross

Add some summer dazzle to a sunny balcony with these pot-loving beauties.

Know your: indoor plants

Know your: indoor plants

06 September 2018 | Linda Ross

Plants make indoor spaces beautiful and people happy. Here are a few easy-care options to start - or enlarge! - your indoor garden.

Lemons

01 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Lemons are the most versatile of fruits – both the juice and zest enliven drinks, marinades, dressings, puddings, cakes, biscuits and sorbets – yet gardeners find that lemons give them a pain. Here Linda explains how to make lemons your favourite squeeze!

Macadamia

06 March 2015 | Linda Ross

There’s more to a macadamia than a chocolate-coated, or salted, roasted nut. This plant might provide our best known and loved native food, but it’s also a beautiful shade tree for a medium-sized garden. Linda Ross shares the good oil on growing the king of the nuts in your own garden.

Macadamia integrifolia

Macadamia integrifolia

06 March 2015 | Ally Jackson

The macadamia hails from Queensland and northern NSW but for a long time it was better known in Hawaii than in its homeland.

Mango

01 June 2015 | Sandra Ross

Nothing on earth smells as good as the first whiff of a new season mango! And the pleasure is even greater when the fruit is from your own garden. Sandra Ross shares her growing hints for this tropical favourite.

Meet Dr Kate Neale, garden-health researcher

Meet Dr Kate Neale, garden-health researcher

01 June 2018 | Robin Powell

What are the therapeutic benefits of gardening in social housing, preschools, schools, health services and aged care? Dr Kate Neale from Southern Cross University is keen to find out, starting with KindyGarden, a program aimed at getting 3-5 year olds growing food.

Meet Tahnee Carroll, Stylist and plant-lover

Meet Tahnee Carroll, Stylist and plant-lover

06 September 2018 | Lauren Camilleri and Sophia Kaplan

Tahnee Carroll has never seen a room that can’t be made more appealing with a plant or two, as she explains in this extract from a new book on indoor plants, ‘Leaf Supply’.

Meet: Justin Russell, market gardener

Meet: Justin Russell, market gardener

18 February 2015 | Robin Powell

Justin Russell was a keen gardener and a writer about gardening until last November, when he and wife Kylie plunged into full-time market gardening. It's been a tough road, with severe drought.

Meet: Matt Purbrick, village life enthusiast

Meet: Matt Purbrick, village life enthusiast

22 December 2018 | Interview: Linda Ross Pictures: Shantanu Starick

The happiest healthiest people in the world are those who live in simple agricultural communities where life is shared. It’s a way of life that Matt Purbrick and his partner Lentil enjoy in regional Victoria and extoll through their business, Grown and Gathered.

Melons

16 March 2015 | Jake Byrne

A sweet slice of cold melon on a hot summer’s day – irresistible! Watermelons, rockmelons and honeydew melons are easy to grow in the backyard as long as you have a bit of space.

Mickey's garden

Mickey's garden

25 June 2015 | Mickey Robertson

Mickey Robertson gardens at Glenmore House near Camden. Sounds like a scene out of Pride and Prejudice? Well yes, you do feel as though you've traveled back in time where women wear linen and the air smells clean. Winter, she says, is crisp mornings thawing to glorious blue-sky days. Early morning reveal traces of frost on cabbage and kale leaves; and sometimes, just sometimes, the paddocks blanketed in white. Evenings also have a rhythm all their own as woodsmoke trails through the valley. Here she shares glimpses of days in her winter garden.

Moon Planting

14 May 2015 | Robin Powell

Could a better understanding of the night sky be your key to a more productive vegetable garden?

Mulberry

19 February 2015 | Linda Ross

No summer goes by in the Ross family household without mulberry jam, mulberry pie, and swirled mulberry icecream. Fancy the menu? Take Linda’s tips on growing the hero ingredient.

Olives

12 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Olives have been cultivated commercially for more than 5000 years, since well before Socrates pondered the meaning of life as he wandered through the groves of Athens. Individual trees are themselves capable of living more than 2000 years, entitling them to oversee not only generations but entire civilisations. Planting one in your garden offers not only delicious pickled fruit, but a link to the past, and way into the future.

Oranges

24 February 2015 | Linda Ross & Justin Russell

Orange trees are jewels for the home garden with shiny green foliage, sweet-smelling blossom and glowing winter fruit.

Oranges 2

17 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Sweet golden oranges are winter’s special treat. They hang on our trees like glowing globes and feature in our kitchens as breakfast juice and marmalade; cakes and desserts; salads and delicious any-time snacks. Linda Ross has the juice on how to get the best from them in your garden.

Papaya

09 August 2016 | Justin Russell

I grew up around papaws. My grandpa grew them. My uncles grew them. My parents grew them. They live in memory, but the old papaw has of late taken a back seat to the more luscious, tropical papaya.

Papaya and coconut muffins

Papaya and coconut muffins

09 August 2016 | Robin Powell

Here’s a healthy morning tea treat or after-school snack. Muffins with the sweet goodness of fresh papaya. It’s too easy!

Ask us

What is the best time and method to propagate daphne?

Any time from spring to autumn is suitable for taking daphne cuttings. Take a cutting of approximately 10cm length, including a node (a swollen section of stem where leaves, stems, roots originate). Dip this into rooting hormone gel or powder and place into propagation mix deep enough so that it stands by itself. A plastic cover over the pot will help retain humidity. Place in a protected position out of direct sunlight. Keep moist and expect roots in a couple of months.

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