Alan's Garden Blog

My first large group of visitors to my gardens are arriving from Brisbane next Sunday. They are sub-tropical fruit growers. After visiting my gardens I am taking them to an amazing range of of fruit trees in the smallest of house blocks, it just shows what can be done with limited space. We will then visit Torrington Nursery. I have another three coaches booked in this month and would be happy with further bookings if anyone is interested. I will provide a short talk on the advantages of the wick garden concept, the history of the gardens and how they can...

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.