Spring is a good time to start a patch of both regular and sweet potatoes. Linda Ross tells how to plan for buried treasures.
The ultimate comfort food starts here, with plans for a potato patch.
There are many types of basil to choose from: Thai, lemon, Greek perennial, globe, holy and purple, but regular sweet basil is indispensable, so start with that, then add to your collection.
More reasons to grow your own food - a dwarf-growing blueberry with fruit the size of a grape! The luscious fruits are produced in large quantities in late winter and early spring.
This sweet and fragrant soup has a creamy texture courtesy of potato, and is topped with the luxurious surprise of whipped cream flavoured with cream sherry!
Pumpkins are part of the cucurbit, along with zucchini, gourd, squash and cucumber, and have been cultivated for more 5000 years. Join in, urges Linda.
This season we have dedicated one complete plot of our vegetable patch to roots. Nothing beats them for hearty winter dishes; soups and casseroles.
Every night of the week a different salad is served up on the Ross family dinner table as Linda explores the range of textures and flavours in grow-your-own greens. She says salad leaves are so easy and quick to grow you’d be mad not to join in.
In an era of masterchefs and duelling kitchens it’s hard to believe that 30 years ago a salad was iceberg lettuce, a pale, firm tomato wedge and a splash of bottled French or Italian dressing. These days there are cookbooks dedicated solely to the art of the salad and the variety of leaves we can grow in our gardens is enticingly large. Join the salad revolution!
The last of the spring blooms are falling. The mauve carpets of Jacaranda flowers are covering lawns and the throng of the crickets and songs of the frogs has begun. Here's a list of the last remaining spring jobs to be done in preparation for a big summer ahead
October is an energetic month for gardeners but there’s much to appreciate on the way. Here's a list of October essentials in the mid-spring garden.
With the cooler weather setting in, its time to bring healthy vegetables inside onto the window sill and start to grow your own sprouts.
These easy-care, minty-fresh flowery fillers offer reliable and long-lasting summer colour.
Maria Hitchcock holds the National Living Collection of this wonderful little native, which is easy-care, versatile, generously flowering and bird-attracting. Here she shares her favourites and her growing tips.
Fresh strawberries for dessert, or jam-making on the weekend? These are the tough choices facing the home strawberry grower. Linda Ross, who in October will harvest a kilo every second day from the family strawberry patch, tells how it’s done.
Some tips on growing strawberries.
Peas can be grown throughout Australia in the cool months and with both dwarf and tall-growing varieties available, peas are pod-perfect for any size garden.
Here are the 5 must-have purple veg this winter. Why purple? The colour is caused by a pigment called anthocyanin which is responsible for the colour of blueberries, purple and red grapes and red cabbage. It’s an antioxidant that appears to have a number of health benefits but also tastes yum!
You might not have space for a vegetable plot, but foraging in the garden can still yield treats for dinner. Linda Ross picks a few delicious surprises.
Tim Warren grows all the fresh ingredients he needs to make his Garnisha range of spice pastes and chutneys. Here we take a deliciously fragrant walk through the garden.
Much as I love my tomatoes and always give them pride of place in my summer garden, their outlandish Mexican cousin has really grown on me in recent years. Tomatillos are easy to grow, bear heavily without the need for constant attention, and taste fantastic.
An unpronounceable mouthful of consonants hasn’t stopped ‘Wapsipinicon Peach’ being pronounced delicious in tomato taste tests. The slightly furry skin accounts for the peach reference, and the rest is a river in Iowa. We call it a wapsi and think it’s a beauty!
There is much joy to be had in picking sun-ripened, richly flavoured sweet tomatoes from your own garden. Linda Ross shares her tried and trusted tips and techniques.
Wherever you live it’s time to think tomatoes: plan for a summer crop in cool areas, and grow now in warm areas.
For home-grown tomato tragics like Linda early spring doesn’t signal a time to ramp up the gym membership and line up a fake tan. Rather she is busy germinating heirloom tomatoes seeds. Whether you are joining her in growing from seed, or skipping that step with seedlings from the nursery, here are her top tips for growing a great feed of tomatoes this summer.
Gardeners are often advised to add nutrients and trace elements to the soil before planting, especially before planting edible plants. Why? Linda has the answers.
Jo Wright is a keen baker (she’s notched up several wins the Royal Easter Show for her cakes!) an avid gardener, a treasured member of Garden Clinic, and for the last three years, has been the trusted baker of goodies for our garden classes. She wowed attendees at our recent Bees and Butterflies workshop with this delicious ginger cake. As we said our goodbyes everyone begged for the recipe. So here it is. Thanks for sharing it Jo!
Turnips carry their share of clodhopper baggage, but like other humble veg the turnip is experiencing a renaissance. And not before time. They are dead simple to grow, highly productive and, given careful varietal selection, utterly delicious.
James Cook’s crew dined on it to ward off scurvy. Now top chefs are going wild for this antioxidant-rich native spinach that grows like a weed.
For a peppery zing in a salad or sandwich, and a serious green heat in a silky soup, you can’t beat watercress. Fortunately it’s as simple to grow, as it is good to eat.
Winter is a busy time in the vegetable garden and a delicious time in the kitchen. Roast parsnip and potatoes, sprouting broccoli, and hot pan-fried radicchio, all fresh from the garden, are the highlights of the season.
Robin Powell admires the view with pioneering heirloom apple grower Bob Magnus, whose ideas about pruning will change your mind about how to grow apples.
Zucchinis are exuberant summer vegetables that ramble along the ground. They produce a harvest every second day, which might overwhelm if it weren’t for their versatility as raw, cooked, pickled, souped, or frittered deliciousness.
Quick and easy to grow, even in pots, nutritious and incrediblyversatile in the kitchen.
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