Supporting you to grow food

Yearly Archives: 2014

The giant edible trellis project suffered a bit of a set-back this week with the huge winds we had on Tuesday evening. The snow peas were all battered and torn away from the trellis. We’ve tied them back and hopefully they’ll quickly bounce back. We’ve been inundated with snow peas […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Thirteen

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on December 17, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Good bugs and bad bugs in the garden — Recently, I wrote a blog post on the large number of whitefly currently plaguing gardens across Melbourne. While their numbers are still quite high, I’ve noticed a huge increase in predatory insects over the last fortnight. We’ve had plenty of ladybugs, spiders, praying mantis, hover flies and lacewings in our […]

Whitefly Predators

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on December 15, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Things are getting very busy for Leaf, Root & Fruit in the lead up to Christmas. In the two weeks since I’ve been out to Mum’s, the Giant Edible Trellis Project reached another milestone… our first snow pea harvest! The trellis project now has the ability to supply the family […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Eleven, The Snow Peas are ...

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on December 2, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve been out to Mum’s place, and checked on the Giant Edible Trellis. In that time the project has really kicked along. We sowed the third and final phase of seeds back in week seven. The following varieties were planted: Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck Pumpkin […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Nine, Our First Harvest!

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on November 20, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Are you finding that every time you move in the garden you’re being greeted with a cloud of little white or green insects rising up from your precious plants? Don’t be worried, you’re not the only gardener with this problem. Gardens across Melbourne are currently teeming with whitefly. Whitefly are […]

Whitefly control methods

This entry was posted in Garden Pests on November 19, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Bee hovering over a pink poppy — My mother still lives on the family farm at Mickleham. She’s has an extensive and productive veggie patch in the backyard. It’s also the location of our giant edible trellis project. Back in autumn, mum came across some “out of date” packets of flower seeds she had stashed away. The […]

Attracting pollinators into the garden with poppies and other companion ...

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on November 9, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Week seven already! The rain we’ve had during the last week has been fantastic for the garden, but the sparrows and earwigs have not been so good. We’ve even spotted a pesky rabbit around the yard on some evenings. It hasn’t found the tender, tasty goodness growing along the base […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Seven, Pumpkins, Tromboncinos and New ...

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on November 5, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Many of the cucumber seeds that we sowed in week four, emerged this week. Unfortunately the sparrows have already taken their toll. Some of them are damaged, and others ripped out of the ground completely. The beans continue to be ravaged by both sparrows and earwigs. We expected this, and […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Six, Giant Tree Tomatoes

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on October 30, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Week Five of the Giant Edible Garden Trellis Project was a quiet one. The snow peas and beans are all between 5 and 10cm high. They’ll soon start climbing the trellis. I’ve noticed that a few of the beans and snow peas have had some pests bothering them. Most likely […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Five

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on October 23, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Three sisters seeds corn squash and beans — During 2012, my partner Caryn and I spent a gap year in South America. During our trip we developed a keen appreciation of the agricultural practices of the local inhabitants. One of the ancient planting techniques still used there today is the ‘Three Sisters’, a fantastic companion planting technique. According […]

Three Sisters Gardening, an ancient form of Companion Planting

This entry was posted in How to Grow on October 21, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

It’s already week four of the Giant Edible Trellis Project and things are starting to take shape.The flower bed has a fairly thick covering of small seedlings all over it. The snow peas and beans are now well established, although for some reason they are slightly thinner in the […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Four, Cucumber and Watermelon Seeds

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on October 16, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Spring Racing Carnival Glenferrie Road Hawthorn — Ten horses have just made new homes along Glenferrie Road! The aim of the horse installations are to bring a bit of Spring Racing Carnival festivities to the precinct. The installations are a project set-up by the Glenferrie Road Shopping Centre Association and are supported by Leaf, Root & Fruit […]

Glenferrie Road Spring Racing Carnival Horse Installation

This entry was posted in Events on October 13, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Many of the seeds we planted in the previous two weeks germinated in week three of the Edible Trellis Project. The snow peas had started poking through late in week two. This week they are joined by the beans.The flower bed is showing signs of life with several sunflower seeds […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Three

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on October 8, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Last summer we tried growing a small, experimental crop of peanuts, in a planter box. The trial was successful with quite a decent crop. This year we’ll be planting out a much bigger crop. Peanuts are easy to grow and great fun for the kids to grow. Here’s the Leaf, […]

How to Grow Peanuts in Melbourne

This entry was posted in How to Grow on October 4, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Week two of the Edible Trellis Project was a quiet one compared to the previous week. We’re waiting for the beans and peas to germinate and establish prior to phase two of planting. The snow peas are just starting to push through the soil 10 days after sowing. Companion Plants […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week Two, Flower Power and Herb ...

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on September 30, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Yesterday was a fantastic, sunny day. It was a great day for a caterpillar search and destroy mission in the garden. We’ve had real problems with caterpillars in our garden in the last year or so. They love to munch through beetroot, potatoes, rocket and many of the other leafy […]

Caterpillars: Search and Destroy

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on September 30, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Our lemon tree is bursting into bloom with the warmer weather I’ve got a lemon tree growing in a large pot at the back doorstep. It’s just bursting in to bloom at the moment. Unfortunately it is also starting to get a bit of scale appearing on the undersides of […]

Controlling Scale on Citrus Trees

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on September 27, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Building the Giant Edible Trellis Frame We built our trellis frame using old steel water pipe. We twitched it together with fencing wire and stabilised the three A-frames using star pickets. A final test that it would be strong enough, was to swing on each of the A-frames. We’re happy […]

Giant Edible Trellis Project: Week One, Set-up of trellis and ...

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on September 24, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

We all know that trellises are great for maximising our use of space by growing plants vertically. Quite often they are used in edible gardening for growing cucumbers, beans, peas and other vine veggies. I’ve come across a few images on Pinterest that have inspired me to get out in […]

Vertical Gardening on a Giant Edible Trellis: Our latest project

This entry was posted in Giant Edible Trellis on September 19, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

We had a family dinner at Mum’s last week. Before dinner I popped out to inspect the veggie patch and couldn’t believe the size of the broccoli. I wanted to take a photo to share on our social media pages, but I needed something to give perspective. So, we got […]

Aussie the Broccoli Bandit

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on September 15, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Our parsely pesto was so tasty, and such a vibrant green — With all the warm, sunny, spring weather lately, you might have noticed that your herbs have started growing a lot more vigorously. If you don’t cut them back regularly during this flush of growth, they’re going to go to seed. Going to seed spells the beginning of the end for […]

Parsley Pesto Recipe

This entry was posted in Recipes on September 8, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

White oil is among the safest and most effective organic ways of controlling many sap sucking and leaf chewing pests in the garden. Gardeners have been using white oils for centuries, so they’ve been thoroughly tested. The best thing about white oil is that you can make it yourself! White […]

How to Make White Oil

This entry was posted in How to make on September 4, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Rose Creek Estate in East Keilor held their annual Open Day on the last Sunday in August. Leaf, Root & Fruit took the opportunity to visit this impressive family garden. Without the queue of visitors, the house on the corner of Craig Street would look just like any other in […]

Rose Creek Estate Open Day 2014

This entry was posted in Events on September 1, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

This post is now a little old… please head over to our spring planting guide for a much more comprehensive wrap up of all the veggies you can plant in spring and how to go about it! Spring Planting Guide Ah spring. It feels like it’s finally here! This week […]

What to Plant in September for the Melbourne Region

This entry was posted in What to plant on August 29, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Win a $100 Diggers Club Voucher with our free Zucchini Tromboncino Seeds — Zucchini Tromboncino is a heirloom vegetable common throughout Italy. Valued for its abundant, tasty harvests. It was developed in Liguria, in northern Italy. The fruit has a very pale green skin and can have varied faint white stripes like some zucchini varieties as well. The really nice thing about this […]

How to Grow Zucchini Tromboncino

This entry was posted in How to Grow on August 19, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

We may think we are nurturing our garden - Jenny Uglow — There have been some really inspiring gardening quotes and sayings from over the years. We regularly share quotes such as these on our Facebook Page. Here’s a compilation of some of our favourite ones for you to enjoy. Do you have a great gardening quote that we’ve missed out on? […]

Gardening Quotes and Sayings

This entry was posted in Media on August 14, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

It’s citrus time! Lemon, Orange, Lime, Mandarin and Cumquat trees all over Melbourne are heavily laden with ripe fruit. We’ve got heaps of lemons on our tree that need using. Last week we asked our Facebook Fans for some recipes to help use up our glut of lemons. Here’s what […]

Lemon Recipes

This entry was posted in Recipes on August 12, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Images of tomato seedling planting times in Melbourne — The answer was that they represent some of the different methods that gardeners use to decide when to plant out their tomato seedlings into the garden. Some Gardeners consider it a great achievement if you can harvest a ripe tomato before Christmas. Many of you have your own traditions when […]

What do these 4 images have in common?

This entry was posted in How to Grow on August 10, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Originally designed for use in Ethiopia, wicking beds aim to increase food production, while using approximately 50% less water. Think of them as a giant self-watering plant pot. Water is drawn up into the soil via capillary action from a reservoir in the bottom of the wicking bed. Crates, tanks, […]

Make Your Own Self-Watering Wicking Bed

This entry was posted in How to Grow How to make on August 2, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

This post is a little old now… please head over to our spring planting guide for a much more comprehensive wrap up of all the veggies you can plant in spring and how to go about it! Spring Planting Guide It’s August already… doesn’t time fly! In gardens all across […]

What to plant in August

This entry was posted in What to plant on August 1, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

The cauliflowers at Leaf, Root & Fruit Headquarters are nearly ready to be picked. Back at the start of Autumn, we were a bit enthusiastic when we sowed our cauliflower seeds. Now we have more cauliflower heads than we really need. Fortunately, all this wintery weather and Cauliflower and Leek […]

Cauliflower and Leek Soup

This entry was posted in Recipes on July 29, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Growing Giant Pumpkins in Melbourne — The biggest pumpkins come from the variety called ‘ATLANTIC GIANT’. The current world record for an Atlantic Giant pumpkin is held by Beni Meier from Switzerland, with a 2,323 pound Pumpkin, which is a whopping 1054 kg! The current Australian Record is held by Dale Oliver, with an impressive 743kg […]

Growing Giant Pumpkins in Melbourne

This entry was posted in How to Grow on July 26, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Curly leaf Peach Almond Nectarine Tree — Do you have stone fruit trees, such as peaches, nectarines or apricots? If so, give them some TLC now with Bordeaux spray to minimize leaf curl and other fungal diseases this summer. Leaf curl is a fungus that loves cold and wet conditions and infects peach, almond, apricot and nectarine […]

Making Bordeaux Spray to Prevent Leaf Curl

This entry was posted in How to make on July 24, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Fruit Tree Pruning Kyneton — Fruit trees don’t need to be pruned to produce fruit. However, if they do need pruning, then selecting an optimal time will ensure the tree remains healthy, productive and resilient. Neglecting to prune your fruit trees won’t stop production of fruit. However, it can help to establish a strong framework […]

When to Prune Fruit Trees

This entry was posted in How to Grow on July 21, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Recently Duncan and Caryn from Leaf, Root & Fruit took some down-time and had a quick holiday traveling to the UK and Europe. Here’s a few horticultural highlights from the trip: Hanover School Towpath Garden Regent’s Canal, London, England The pupils, staff and parents of Hanover School created a […]

Leaf, Root & Fruit’s recent tour of Europe

This entry was posted in Events on July 17, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

These newspaper pots are so easy to make. There’s no messing around with staples or sticky tape. They’re great for the environment because you’re re-using old newspaper. Best of all though, you’re not using pots made out of plastic. Once your seedlings are ready for transplanting, you can plant the […]

Making newspaper pots

This entry was posted in How to make on July 10, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Next time that you are cooking with eggs, don’t throw the eggshells away. Did you know that eggshells are a great gardening resource? Let the eggshells dry out for a day and then you can crush them up and sprinkle them as a barrier around seedlings. Slugs and snails hate […]

Using Eggshells in the Garden

This entry was posted in How to Grow on June 27, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Thanks to a fellow gardener, Laura for providing us with this delicious quiche recipe. She prepared the quiche using Winter greens she’d grown herself in half wine barrels and pots. You can substitute the Baby Kale, Sorrel and Silver Beet for any other leafy greens. Great comfort food for a […]

Winter Veggie Quiche Recipe

This entry was posted in Recipes on June 18, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Aphids hate the cold. At the moment, with the unusually warm weather they are thriving in protected micro-climates in gardens all over Melbourne. Today, when I was out pottering in the garden, I noticed that all of my parsley and coriander plants were covered in aphids. The plants have been […]

Attack of the Aphids!

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on June 13, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Strawberry runners on a apllet planter box — This blog post is specifically about planting strawberry runners. Why not check out our guide on How to Grow Strawberries as well? Strawberries can “reproduce” either through seeds or from runners. Strawberry runners are horizontal stems that run above the ground and produce new “baby” clone plants at the end […]

How to Plant Strawberry Runners

This entry was posted in How to Grow on June 11, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

This week Leaf, Root & Fruit have spent some time at Heathmont Pre School. We’ve had a great time exploring edible gardening with each of the 4 year old classes. During the first session on Monday, we discussed how the vegetables that we eat at dinner time usually come from […]

Edible Gardening Program at Heathmont Pre School

This entry was posted in Events on June 5, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Gardening With Soul is a documentary split into four parts, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. It follows the daily life of Sister Loyola Galvin as she oversees the gardens and grounds of the Home of Compassion in Wellington, New Zealand. It’s as far removed from a Hollywood blockbuster as you […]

Movie Review: Gardening With Soul

This entry was posted in Media on June 2, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

It’s Peanut Sunday here at LRF Head Quarters in Hawthorn East! Earlier in the year we planted out an experimental crop of peanuts and today we harvested them. As you can see, our crop was a huge success. It was so exciting to uproot the withering plants and finding masses […]

Peanut Sunday

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on May 25, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit

Autumn planting guide onion — Our garlic is leaping up out of the ground at the moment and it’s not too late to get yours in. As long as you’ve got a sunny spot for it, growing garlic is very easy. It loves moist (but not waterlogged), friable soil with plenty of organic matter and […]

Garlic

This entry was posted in In Our Garden on May 19, 2014 by Leaf, Root & Fruit