Alan's Garden Blog

I made Thai Hot and Sour Prawn Soup last night. If I had to buy the following ingredients that came out of my gardens it would have cost an extra $19: garlic, shallots, lime, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, tomato, chilli, lemongrass, and coriander. Not a bad saving considering all I had to do was plant the products and watch them grow.If you combine that sort of saving once or twice a week with the usual suspects for regular meals such as tomatoes, lettuce, shallots, silverbeet, snow peas, carrots, potatoes and garlic a Watersaver Garden can put a big dent in...

I hosted morning tea for the Logan Garden Club yesterday. About sixty came by coach and spent a couple of hours enjoying the gardens and listening to my tips on saving water in the garden. Clive Puzey (puzeygardenproducts.com) was also there showing off his latest inventions. From all accounts they enjoyed the visit immensely. They were off to the Golf Club for lunch and then paid a visit to our very beautiful and serene Japanese Gardens. If you are part of a group who might be interested in doing something similar please contact me for more details.

I am sometimes asked how larger plants manage in a Watersaver Garden so I thought I would show you my perennial basil. I don't use it much as I prefer the sweet basil but I keep it because it attracts heaps of bees.

The show was spectacular. I shared a stall with Clive & Diana (puzeygardenproducts.com) so everything we sold was made in Toowoomba. It worked well with their easy stake and plant cages complimenting my self-watering gardens. Not only Melbourne people were impressed, I have orders from South Australia, Tasmania and even New Zealand. One thing that I learnt was the importance to Melbourniens of getting the most out of their space. The fact that I can make a garden to fit a certain area on the balcony or court yard was a great selling point. My next shows: GardenFest Toowoomba 2-4...

I am sharing a stall with Puzey Garden Products at the show from Wednesday to Sunday. If you are in Melbourne it's a great chance to see our products and buy without having to pay freight. I am taking plenty of gardens down with me in a range of colours and sizes. This is some of the stock I have loaded. The cylinders on the right are the canopy frames.