Canberra Permaculture Design: Blog

We grew over 300kg of fresh produce with no insecticides

29/7/2019

Since 1 January 2019, we have grown over 300 kg of fresh produce in our moderately sized suburban Canberra garden: from tomatoes, zucchini, tomatilloes, green and purple beans, and herbs over summer to Jerusalem artichokes, perennial leeks, parsley, Asian greens and kale now it's winter. But we'd like to let you into a little secret: we have done this without using any insecticides, bug killing sprays, or chemical fertilisers. Read on to learn how we did it, and why it matters so much. We'll share our 7 key principles to get you started.

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Top 5 'bang-for-your-buck' edibles to grow in Canberra

29/4/2019

There are many edible plants that you can grow successfully in Canberra, but here is a list of five stand-out plants that grow here very easily and with relatively little maintenance. We chose these five plants because they also produce a lot of food for relatively little input from you.

Read on to discover why we think these five plants are so awesome!

138 kg of homegrown food in only 2 months - how we did it

6/3/2019

It's been a hot, dry summer this year. But, in spite of this (and perhaps because of it) we've recorded our biggest ever two-month harvest - almost 140kg. The freezer is bursting and we already have a year's supply of tomato passata! Read on to learn the 5 key lessons we've learned in growing vegetables productively in a regular Canberra suburban garden with the usual uninspiring clay to begin with...

Biggest tomato harvest ever!

19/2/2019

Seriously, this has been the most exciting tomato year ever!

In fact, until this year, I can't say we have ever had that much success with tomatoes, and I was actually a bit skeptical that this year would be any different. But something changed this year and the result has been a harvest of over 50 kilos of tomatoes so far!!

Spring pesto with lemon balm and parsley

12/11/2018

Ever wanted to know what to do with all that lemon balm that keeps popping up all over your garden? Here's a recipe to make use of it..

151 kg and counting: our harvest since December

23/5/2018

So we dug up the lawn and planted up the beds, and then because we're a bit nerdy, we started weighing all the produce that came in...

And the results were really interesting. Here's our list of what grew well, not so well, and what grew extremely well over the summer of 2017/18...

APC 14 Canberra 15-19 April 2018

5/5/2018

If you are wondering why the blog went a bit quiet over the last couple of months, this is why. For the past few months I've been thoroughly caught up in the management of the 14th Australasian Permaculture Convergence (APC 14 for short) which was held in Canberra for the very first time this April.

No 1 edible weed - fat hen

24/3/2018

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There's a bit of press out there about eating weeds and how healthy they are. But really, is it worth it? I am always game to try new things and have been experimenting all summer with some edible weeds. The verdict: some are a bit naah, but fat hen passes all the taste tests with flying colours. It tastes just like spinach - only it's nicer. No kidding, it really is! If there's one weed worth eating, this is it...

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Rocket on your pizza

6/1/2018

We have a lot of rocket in the garden - perhaps a little too much! Perennial or wild rocket, diplotaxis tenuifolia, is a fabulously successful plant in Canberra that provides pungent leafy greens for most of the year. The trick is finding enough ways to eat the stuff.

Spring in our garden

28/11/2017

It’s hard to believe now that the happily growing food forest in the pictures below was a patchy bare lawn less than 5 months ago. Hard to spot, but there are numerous establishing fruit trees in between the other plants - see how many you can find!

Even though we haven’t completed all of the water infrastructure yet, things are growing well and we have more lettuce and rocket than we know what to do with. Hooray for yesterday’s big rainfall too!

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