Alan's Garden Blog

Not much exciting happens in Toowoomba gardens in July but I have just planted some carrots, spring onions, broad beans, lettuce (in a sheltered area), and silverbeet. Beat this, I got twenty eight silverbeet seedlings out of one punnet. So visitors to my gardens in six weeks can expect free silverbeet to go with the free limes, mandarins and spring onions. The tomato plant I have in the frame with cling wrap (previous blog) got frosted because I left a gap near the top to let in air. I have closed the gap so now it has only about six...

All is good this winter, particularly my cash crop, ninety garlic. On the way out but hanging in there: sweet basil, chilli, eggplant and cherry tomatoes. I still have a good range of herbs saving me money at the supermarket: galangal, dill, coriander, vietnamese mint, thai mint, thai basil, greek oregano, thyme, flat leaf parsley, rosemary and dill. Veges all doing well: kale, fennel, rocket, silverbeet, cabbage, snow peas, spring onions, carrots, chinese veges, and broad beans. All this with the minimum of fuss in the watersaver gardens.  You can see some of my garlic on the left and the fennel on...

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.