Future Farmer

One of the most important skills you can learn in your garden is to strike your own seeds.

It can appear somewhat of a mystical art, especially if you’ve ever had a go, so heres the Good Oil.

The hero of summer vegetable gardens everywhere, but growing tomatoes in our Unpredictable Highland Climate, can be frustrating and unproductive. A bit of know-how, applied logic and good timing, you’ll get a crop by Christmas, probably…

I have found it problematic to import soil. Sometimes it’s hydrophobic, too acid, too alkaline, sometimes it’s good. In spring and summer, I find it harder to get well composted soil. I care most about weed seeds, and I haven’t found a commercial soil that didn’t have a decent load of seed in it

Last week I was being facetious telling you to move if you aren’t experiencing spring on your patch of earth yet, but as the Bard wrote “many a truth is said in jest”. If your chosen growing space is receiving full eastern sun every morning in winter, and plenty of midday sun you are probably experiencing spring.

Seeds Success in highland vegetable gardens can be directly tied to your seed and seedlings.Your garden, like mine, is between 500-900m above sea level. We live and grow in an unpredictable climate with late & early frosts, 40+C in summer with hailstorms and -10C in winter. Extreme in any language. And with the climate crisis

It’s just gone August, but already I can feel Winter is passing and Spring is almost here.
Spring in Australia happens on the 1st Sept, an arbitrary calendar date. Fine for the majority of the Australian populace, who live at or near sea level.