Home Grown

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.

How to: grow garlic

07 May 2015 | Linda Ross

April is garlic-planting time and it’s easier than you think to grow a year’s supply for your family.

How to: grow mushrooms

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Button mushrooms are easy to grow at home.

Bob Magnus (owner of Woodbridge, Tasmania) sells four different varieties of apples grafted onto extra-dwarf rootstock. These trees are designed to grow as a one-metre-high hedge. They are pretty and productive in an edible or ornamental garden. Choose all four for many months of fresh apples. Here’s how Bob recommends growing apples as a stepover.

How to: grow strawberries from seed

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Strawberry seed packet holds well over 100 seeds and with a recommended retail price of $3.50 its the most economical way to grow your strawberries.

How to: grow your own ratatouille

22 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Ratatouille will convert the most meat-loving individual into a vegetarian – if only for one night! It was originally a common dish, prepared in the summer with fresh summer vegetables.

How to: grow your vegies on the verge

26 February 2015 | Linda Ross

We are fortunate to have a reasonably big space in our garden that we can allocate simply to growing food. Other gardeners make the most of space on a sunny balcony or terrace. If that’s not an option for you either, consider what might done on the verge!

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

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

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

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 strawberries at the end of winter and next season tomatoes.

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: pickle cucumbers

13 November 2019 | Linda Ross

When cucumbers are on, you may find you have more than enough for salads, sandwiches and crudite platters. The secret - pickles. Our favourite recipe is from Cornersmith: Recipes from the Cafe and Picklery by Alex Elliott-Howery and James Grant.

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

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

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 garden: June

20 May 2019 | Linda Ross

It's time to get the jump on the cold this June and prepare the garden for the mid-winter chill

In the garden: May

28 February 2019 | Robin Powell

Back by popular demand - our reminders of what to do in the garden this season.

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

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

July Jobs

21 May 2020 | Robin Powell

Mid winter is a time to prune. But it doesn't have to be devoid of colour in the garden. Time to get busy with the mid-winter July jobs.

June jobs

21 May 2020 | Robin Powell

Time to get the early winter jobs done 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 winter bulbs

21 May 2020 | Linda Ross

When autumn leaves have fallen, elegant little floral petticoats burst from the soil in optimistic, spring-anticipating growth.

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

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.

Lemon Delicious

21 May 2020 | Robin Powell

Self-saucing puddings are a dessert staple at my place through winter, and the tangy, silky lushness of an old-fashioned lemon delicious is a favourite. I like it with icing sugar sprinkled on top and whipped cream on the side, but my kids always vote for the hot/cold thrill of vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment. If you like, instead of serving from a pudding dish, you can cook the puddings in six individual one-cup ovenproof dishes.

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.