It’s springtime in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and much of South America. COVID-19 first came to the attention of most of us here in the northern hemisphere during our springtime – and the many concerns about our food supply made it a very different planting season. In fact, those concerns are why I initiatedContinue reading “Advice for southern hemisphere vegetable gardeners in this time of COVID”
Category Archives: spring
My spice garden: Growing ginger and turmeric in pots
This post is a continuation from yesterday’s, which documented my challenges finding imported fresh spice ingredients (like curry leaves, kaffir limes and fresh turmeric) on last week’s trip to the big city. Long before COVID19 hit us, I have been experimenting with growing various exotic plant foods (those that are usually imported, like rice, quinoa,Continue reading “My spice garden: Growing ginger and turmeric in pots”
Mmm mmm mustard greens
One of the (many) great things about growing your own fresh vegetables – aside from the unmatched freshness – is that you get to eat foods that are hard to find, or even impossible, to buy. Mustard greens are one of the garden delights that definitely fit into that category. Just like apples (Mackintosh, GrannyContinue reading “Mmm mmm mustard greens”
Photo essay: Spring garden harvest, June 14, 2020
It’s actually shocking how much food you can grow in even a small garden. The trick of small-scale food production is only having a little bit of everything ready each day – rather than having a large harvest all ready at once. Here’s a little photo essay of some of the fruits and vegetables IContinue reading “Photo essay: Spring garden harvest, June 14, 2020”
How to grow lettuce in containers on your patio or balcony
It’s not even summer yet, but I’ve already been harvesting lots of lettuce, both from my backyard garden and from containers on my balcony. Lettuce is a pretty easy “beginner” vegetable to grow in either garden beds or in pots – but in some ways it is actually more practical to grow in containers. TheContinue reading “How to grow lettuce in containers on your patio or balcony”
Spring seedlings: tomatoes and peppers and more…
Early spring is the time to start some of your seedlings indoors, such as: tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplants – and, of course, the perfect accompaniment to them, your basil. (More about growing basil in a future post). All of these plants are in the nightshade family (Solanacae). They really are sub-tropical species, so unless youContinue reading “Spring seedlings: tomatoes and peppers and more…”
The Food Garden 