Alan's Garden Blog

Clive Puzey and Diana have taken their range of innovative gardening products to the big garden show in Sydney. I knocked up a model showing how the watersaver garden works which he is kindly putting on display at the show. I think it will create quite a bit of interest. Info on Clive's inventions including the very popular Easy Stake can be found at: puzeygardenproducts.com  

While the weather through winter has been cold at times there has not been the extreme cold in Toowoomba knock plants about. I have had basil survive which is remarkable. Anyway some of the veges you should be thinking about: asparagus-Ihave been getting spears for about three weeks which is quite early. beetroot cabbage potatoes-bought four varieties from Torrington nursery and planted about two weeks ago. I shared the boxes with a mate which allowed me to put in a range. schallots/spring onions-I always have spring onions in the garden, better yield than schollots and much quicker than onions. lettuce-mixed...

I made a Thai curry last night which wasn’t too bad if I do say myself. It struck me that everything in the curry except the shrimp paste came from my garden: coriander, galangal, lemongrass, schallots, garlic, turmeric, lime, ginger and the chillies. That’s pretty amazing. Unfortunately I can’t give you the recipe, I made it up as I went along. So this morning while at woolies I checked the price of buying the ingredients. If you had to buy from scratch and bought the minimum where possible it would have cost $13.50. Costing that curry got me excited; doesn’t...

Just how much money are they making? I came across this 1.1 square metre garden at the local hardware store selling for $199. That’s just a shell with no bottom. My Pop-Up with all the advantages of a self-watering garden is 1.4 square metres and sells for $175, with freight free anywhere in QLD, Vic or NSW.

Well that’s Gardenfest over. A lot of work (and talking) but well worth it. We sold out of Pop-Ups and got some local full installations to do. The stall set-up looks really good. The pop-up in the photo has 43 plants in it so it that size would suit a lot of gardeners.