Do you remember seeing more flying insects in your childhood than you see today? If you have, you're not alone. There's a frightening trend worldwide. Research has found populations of flying insects have dropped dramatically - by as much as three quarters - over the past 30 years.

So, what is causing it? (Hint - it's more than you think.) What does it mean for ecosystems - and ourselves? And is there anything that we can do about it that goes beyond platitudes and that will make a meaningful difference? This post explains what's happening and the key reasons for it. My following blog episodes will explore how to effectively tackle each cause in turn.

This autumn we harvested summer beans until almost the end of April - an unexpected bonus harvest because the frosts took so long to arrive this year. This may be part of an emerging trend. Did you know that Canberra’s winter nights are forecast to get warmer over the coming years? This will mean fewer and fewer frosty nights over the coming decades. Could this eventually change what we can grow here in Canberra?

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!

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...

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.