Africanaussie

For quite a few years now I have participated in the World Vison 40 hour famine. I am doing the 40 hr famine again this year. If I raise 100.00 I will give up food for 40 hours If I raise 200.00 I will give up TV as well for 40 hours If I raise 300.00 I will give up Facebook as well for 40 hours. A few facts:  This year is the 40th anniversary of the 40 hour famine.  In the past 7 years alone more than 2 million people have benefitted from food assistance through 40  hour famine funds.  This year you will be supporting World Vision projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos,  Malawi, Nepal, Swaziland and Uganda.  The funds will go towards solutions like nutrition training for  parents, child health services and better agricultural practices. If you would to donate or find out more please visit my fundraising page here: Gillians 40 hour famine fundraising page I will start after dinner on Friday the 14th and will put up a blog po...

As I was doing my update on my in ground worm buckets last week I began to mull over how my gardening has changed since I started blogging.... Worms ;  I had never even heard of worm composting when I first started gardening.  In fact I thought they were talking about earthworms.  I didnt have room for a worm bin, so discounted the idea of having compost worms in my small garden.  Then I read about worm tubes, but wanted to be able to harvest the castings, so with a little bit of inspiration from here and there my worm buckets were born. worm buckets Permaculture :  This is something that still does elude me a little.  I have such a small garden that I really only have zone 1/2 or 1.  Permaculture can spill out into other areas though and so I see those principles popping up in different areas of my life.  Nice to know that we dont have to own a huge farm to become permaculturists. Food forest :  I have lately been seeing more and m...

One of the best ways to propagate ginger plants is by the layering method.  My pink ginger was acquired from a  friend who popped one of her flowers into a pot, and now I am doing the same.   One I put into a pot, and the other I put straight into the ground.  Both were held down with wire pegs so that there is firm connection with the soil.  as you can see the original branch is dying as it gives  life to the new plant.  Isn't that awesome? A  lot of plants can be propagated in this way - here you can see that the flower is already putting out new leaves, and as soon as it is pegged down into the earth or a pot it will begin to grow roots and a new plant. Sometimes gardening just amazes me.

I suppose like all gardeners I do a few strange things.  One is that I cannot bear to throw away (or even recycle) cardboard.  We were very blessed recently to be able to purchase some new items for our home.  These all came wrapped in a huge amount of packaging.  What couldnt be immediately torn up into the worm buckets and compost heap or used as mulch was laid in the veggie garden paths.  This keeps it out of the way for now.  It soaks up the rain and watering runoff, so that when the compost has room again for more browns I simply rip up the floor!  Worms  (earthworms and red wrigglers) simply love cardboard, so even laying it down on a patch of dirt will do wonders to your garden.  You can cover it with mulch if you dont like the look of it. I was burying a pile of prawn shells under one such pice of cardboard last night and the worms were big and fat and juicy.  I wonder if they eat the prawn shells? - I know someone does, ...

I always look forward to this season, it is cooler, the humidity is gone, and I can grow "normal" vegetables in my tropical garden.  We have had an usual amount of rain this year - it seems as though the wet season is starting later in the year and then continuing on later.  Of course that means it is cloudy a lot of the time, and things need sunshine to grow.  I suppose we cant have it all ways. My cucumbers were the first crop of this season and they are still going strong. I made some pickles last night, and realized I dont have  a pot high enough to water bath them, so they are in the fridge.  How long can you keep them in the fridge unopened? I have noticed a little bit of mildew on the lower leaves, so I might give it a bit of a spray with some milky water.  These are growing on the edge of the asparagus bed.  One thing I add to the asparagus bed that I dont put on the rest of the garden is fresh seaweed, and now I am wondering if that...