Buying soil for veggie beds

Grow healthy soil and you will have healthy vegetables is the motto of many food gardeners, so, when starting a new veggie bed, people want to buy the best soil they can get. Many food gardeners, however, have been disappointed with the quality of soil they bought. The aim of this blog post is to give people a few ways of checking the quality of soils before buying, so they can make the best possible start with their new veggie bed.

Compost heap and worm farm

What are the benefits of having a compost heap in your food garden? And how do these benefits compare with having a worm farm? So why do some food gardeners have both?

Veggie Patch Basics - 6 (Dec - Jan)

The December to January part of the food garden season is a busy time in the food garden. Veggie Patch Basics - 6 covers this period and aims to help you make your food garden even more productive and successful.

Pink Eye potato flowers

Veggie Patch Basics - 5 (Oct-Nov)

Spring opens up great opportunities for growing vegetables, but the tricky Tasmanian climate makes timing really important.  This fifth post in the Veggie Patch Basics series covers the October - November period.  It aims to help you decide what to grow, and when to sow and plant it.

A Blank Canvas

Developing a new property from scratch is both an exciting challenge and a daunting experience.  This blog post summarises a brainstorm session of Food Garden Group members that recently took place during a visit to a rural property where new owners are starting with a blank canvas. It may assist others in the similar circumstances.

Marvelous Manure

Manure is nature's best fertiliser.  For as long as farms have had sheep, cows and chooks, manure has been used to fertilise food gardens. But are all manures of equal value? And how should we use manure on our gardens?

Microbes in your soil

In this blog post Letetia Ware explains how to make bokashi, and also a simple fermented liquid, a simple fungi-rich compost and potting soil.  It documents information provided by her during the Food Garden Group's 2016 winter workshop.

Making Compost - part 2

In this second blog post on making compost we look at what people make compost in, and tools and gadgets that can be useful when making compost.

'luxury' compost bays at the Botanical Gardens in Hobart

Making Compost - part 1

Your fruit and vegie garden will really benefit if you make your own compost.  This blog post explains how good compost is made. It also provides many tips and hints that will help you to produce nutrient-rich compost that your garden will love.

Composting with Clay

Gordon is a food gardener who has made compost for many years.  Recently he decided to experiment with clay in his compost and he believes that it is now significantly better than it used to be.  Here is what he had to say on the subject.

A network of navigable canals across the plains

Making compost in small piles

Hot composting is recommended in large piles (1 - 1.5 metres high and wide), but Jo, one of our Food Garden Group members, finds that composting works much better in much smaller piles.  She generally has two piles on the go in her garden at any one time.  Here is how Jo explained it: