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We have a great big firewood basket, but once it is filled with wood, it is a heavy bugger to carry from the wood store outside to the fireplace inside. So I have had my eye on a few designs I’ve seen on Pinterest and with a dull, showery Winter’s day, what better way to…
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Easy instructions on how to craft rope baskets.
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Home-Grown Laundry Powder I love living sustainably, and being self-sufficient. I love making things and I have always dabbled at making my own household cleaners and products from leather conditioner to window cleaner. At the back of my mind, I always wanted to try making my own dishwasher powder, and laundry powder. Before Lockdown, I…
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During Sustainable Backyards month of March, we usually open up our garden to visitors to see a working Edible Landscape in action. They ooh and aah and think that it is all incredibly well planned but I point out our mistakes in the hopes of sparing them the same mistake of NOT planning and allowing…
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A daily haul of feijoas Feijoas are wonderful Autumn fruits! Every New Zealand house should have a lemon and feijoa tree! Such versatile fruits and so easy to grow. A mature feijoa tree can produce between 15 and 25kg of fruit! So you can imagine how much we collect from our 8 trees! Gulp! Yes,…
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Okay, so I’ve been stuck at home, harvesting and preparing or preserving food, as normal. I deem myself an Essential Services worker. Every day I have to go to work! In my own backyard! But of course, I get a whole heap of extra time on hand, so I took up a challenge to Pimp…
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A tisket, a tasket, a ripe and yellow basket!! Who said you couldn’t grow bananas in a non-tropical location? Yes, they get hammered by New Zealand’s Wintery blasts, but they are real hardy guys! Come Spring, they bounce back and sprout forth again. Did you know that a banana palm is closely related to ginger?…
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Mid March/April is Olive Time. It’s the time to start picking olives, preparing them and bottling them. It is quite an exciting time and for some, a tedious process of washing the olives twice daily but for me, a daily ritual that I love. You see I love olives, I was introduced to them by…
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March is New Zealand’s Sustainable Backyards month. I am doing a heap of workshops and we also hosted an open day backyard garden tour. So it was no surprise when the Weekend Sun local paper emailed to say they wanted to do a story on us. Sure. Why not? But what turned out to be…
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We have a whole heap of courgettes growing in the garden at this time of the year. Different types; the ordinary supermarket variety green one, Rampicante, scallopini and baby kamokamo. Kamokamo are a Maori squash which can grow quite large and develop a hard outer shell to allow you to store them through winter. As…
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I love my garden. It is a place where I feel alive, where I find my peace and where I grow strong, healthy organic food. It is also a place I like to play in. Where I find that inner child and where there are no rules. Where I can be creative. I love to…
Let's talk deodorant. Back when my son was just 14yrs old, he spent nearly a year on the couch, cradling his head from crippling headaches and migraines. Endless trips to doctors, paediatricians and even a neuro specialist brought slim relief. He lived on pain killers and the last straw came when he was prescribed an…
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Love. noun - a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. - a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. - sexual passion or desire. On our recent trip to Bali, we happened to come across no less than 3 wedding shoots on one day, in the…
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July is Plastic-Free Month. Focussed on getting people to be aware of all the single use plastic we use, and aimed at reducing the amount of plastic us consumers use. So here's a great idea...plastic free dental powder! Easy to make, economical and really nice to use. No plastic packaging needing to be discarded. Yay!…
The blooms have all gone. Deciduous trees are leafless. Face it. Reality check: it's Winter! Despite the fact that I have erlicheer and daffodil blooms in my garden, and it feels a little like spring during the day sometimes, the calendar month tells me we are slap bang in Winter! It's just nature being confused.…
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Winter is here! The temperatures are dropping and night temps are hard on the body comfort zone. Time to break out the hot water bottles! I have just replaced a couple of old ones (life span seems to be about 5-6 years) and so needed some covers for them. Being an avid upcycler, I rummaged…
With these simple instructions you can make your own seed storage enevlopes.
Simple easy ingredients Cheese, glorious cheese! Who doesn’t love cheese? One of the things we missed when we “went vegan” was cheese. Luckily we were able to find “Angel Food”, a vegan cheese readily available in the supermarket. However, Angel Food costs a fair bit and so it is used very sparingly in our house.…
An old Chinese proverb: Have Garden...Will Need Stakes. Okay, I made that up, but I’m sure all gardeners will agree with the sentiment. Staking plants is a common activity. Without stakes, your tomatoes wouldn’t stand to attention for easy picking. Buying bamboo stakes doesn’t come cheap. A set of 10 1.2m bamboo stakes will set…
