Category: growing
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PK Reviews: Mr Fothergill’s Windowsill Greenhouse Kits
The lovely people at Mr Fothergill’s (Australia) have sent me out four of their Windowsill greenhouse kits to review. I am reviewing the Lebanese Cucumber kit here and I have asked three of my friends to trial the others. I simply love this company’s ethos and focus on consistently delivering a good product. Although not…
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Mole Crickets
The elusive mole cricket, Gryllotalpa pluvialis, caught by one of my boys. Love these things. Males sing at the entrances of vertical burrows specially shaped to amplify their songs. Singing characteristically commences at dusk and usually ceases within a few hours. The songs of mole crickets are deeper than those of typical crickets and many…
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Make Tea, Kill Weeds!
I just wanted to share a chemical free way of killing weeds. This tip is great for those tenacious weeds growing in brick paving or growing right next to another plant. I guess you just have to weigh up for yourself the cost to the planet to use and boil the water vs the chemicals, water,…
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Bucket Pond Make And Manage
I just can’t bring myself to like mosquitoes. They suck your blood, make you itch and can give you some nasty diseases. Certainly entry grounds into my BadCritters club :). So I take much pleasure in my bucket pond’s mosquito killing power. It was so easy and cheap to make. Maintenance varies from rarely to…
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Bish Grows Spring Onions The Thrifty Way
I’ll readily admit I heard about this from PK directly, and have been super happy with how it’s gone – I’ve not bought spring onions for over a year as a result. The trick is to buy (your last!) bunch of spring onions from the supermarket, and make sure a few of the ends have…
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Garden Auger Veggie Bed Makeover
Gardening in Perth means you are going to get acquainted with a quartz sand that repels water and is low in the good stuff most plants love. You can add wetting agents and fertiliser as a short term fix for the water issue but without adding organic matter and some clay your vegetable beds won’t…
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is one of those plants that everyone recognises on sight. I grow it because I love the look of it. The thick fleshy leaves have little white barbs that look like teeth but this has to be one of the friendliest and useful plants. Aloe extract pops up in all sorts of beverages,…
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Basil And How To Store It
This ‘king of herbs’ is an amazingly aromatic cooking annual. It grows to about 15cm tall and although it does better in summer sun it will provide all year. It dries well but I would avoid freezing it as it doesn’t hold up well. I use it in salads, pasta, pizzas, pesto, soups and stocks.…
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Marjoram
Marjoram is a member of the same genus as Oregano and has a similar flavour but is milder. Like oregano it is easy to grow. It is an ingredient in ‘Italian Herbs’ and ‘Herbes de Provence’, both popular spice mixes. I use it primarily in pasta sauces and sprinkled over pizzas. If you are starting…
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PK’s Worm Farms
Although this is my first ever worm farm, I am already hooked and singing their virtues.
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Lime Common
I love cooking with limes (and adding slices of them to Gin and Tonics) just as much as I do sharing limes from the tree in my kitchen garden. No one in Perth will turn down a home grown lime, they are that prized. There is even a lime tree in my driveway ,that is constantly…
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PK’s Working Garden
A working home garden (or kitchen garden) is one where the emphasis is on the growing of herbs, vegetables and fruit. There may also be areas for composting and hopefully a system of natural pest management aka insecticide free bug control. They can be just as visually appealing as any other type of garden. However, their…
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Curry Leaf Tree (Murraya koenigii)
I love this tree. The sight of it and the smell it releases when you brush past it make me smile. It can be hard to find in a nursery and they are not cheap. I got mine from Bunnings as a small seedling and resisting the temptation to harvest it too early took a…
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PK Reviews: Life Cykel Home Grown Mushroom Box
Julian Mitchell and Ryan Creed are doing amazing things over at LifeCykel. Based in Fremantle, Western Australia and with an ethos of growing food in a sustainable way, they have created the world’s first urban mushroom farm. The amazing thing is that their growing medium is coffee grounds collected from local businesses. They even go…
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Want a free Life Cykel Home Grown Mushroom Box?
Well of course you do! Life Cykel and growitcatchitcookit.com have a Home Grown Mushroom Box to give away to one lucky Western Australian resident. Submit your favourite mushroom recipe for your chance to win. Special guest blogger ‘Welchy’ is going to choose the winner on 20th June 2016. I know she will be looking for recipes that use…
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Day 6 Life Cykel Home Grown Mushroom Box
I was so ecstatic this morning when in a pre-coffee stupor I checked my Life Cykel Home Grown Mushroom Box. After 5 days of nothing I was rewarded with little baby mushrooms :). Don’t forget our competition where you can win one of these boxes simply for submitting your favourite recipe that features mushrooms. See Want…
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Day 12 Life Cykel Home Grown Mushroom Box Side 1
Yesterday my patience paid off when I got to harvest my first batch of mushrooms. I got almost 250 g (edit: I got almost 500g in the end of batch 1) and could have harvested a few more. I am leaving them to get bigger and I can already see new ones emerging. When they…
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PK’s First Worm Farm Tray Change
Today I harvested my first lot of worm castings from my worm farm. It took about 6 months for this first batch but now the farm is cranking along. Even with all the vegetable waste the kitchen garden makes and scraps from the kitchen, I am only just keeping up with their appetite. Just look…
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Coriander
If I could only choose one herb to cook with for the rest of my life, this would be it. Luckily I don’t have to choose :). You can use the roots, stems, leaves and seeds in your cooking. Quite a claim to fame! I want to show you a full life cycle from seed…
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