Why Won’t My Plants Grow?

Plants not growing

Why won’t my plants grow? I’ve been there too. Plants not growing, seedlings not germinating, small, weak plants much smaller than they should be and taking far too long to grow. It may not be your fault, you may not have a “black thumb”. The problem could be your bought soil or compost not being … Read blog

How To Chicken Proof Your Garden. Protect Plants From Chickens

how to chicken proof your garden photos protect plants from chickens

If you have chickens free-ranging in your garden, on your property, homestead or back yard, you’ll need to chicken proof your garden, pots, raised beds, and vegetables. These are the chicken-proofing ideas and designs that have worked for us in our garden over several years of keeping chickens in a garden or homestead, in suburbia … Read blog

What Grows Well With Pumpkins?

what grows well with pumpkins tropics

Pumpkins are easy to grow and can give you a huge volume of food. But what grows well with pumpkins? What can you plant near pumpkins that will help them grow better? Are there plants that will not be happy near pumpkins and do pumpkins actually have any companion plants? Will pumpkins choke other tropical … Read blog

10 Essential Tips For New Gardeners

10 essential tips for new gardeners

Essential tips for new gardeners, a top 10 of things you need to know, before starting a garden or setting out to grow your own food. It doesn’t matter where you’re gardening, these 10 tips for new gardeners are great for everyone. Here are our best tips for new gardeners. The most important, is probably … Read blog

How Often to Water Basil Plant?

How To Water Basil, How Often, When to water

How often to water a basil plant depends on many factors. Is the plant small or large and bushy with lush green leaves? Is it in a small pot and is that pot plastic or permeable like terracotta? Is the plant in good soil, rich in organic matter, or is the soil poor and hydrophobic? … Read blog

How To Grow Green Chillies

growing green chillies

It may surprise you to know that green chillies and red chillies are the same plant, just one is ripe,and one is picked early. Of course, there are many, many varieties of chilli pepper plant (chile or chili to our US friends, the double l in chilli is the British English version also used in … Read blog

May in the Garden

Tropical Garden in May bananas

What’s growing, fruiting, flowering, germinating, and cropping in our tropical food garden in May? May is the last month of autumn where we are. It’s getting towards the start of the tropical dry season, our winter. We are still getting a little rain, the garden isn’t as dry as a chip, yet. At night it’s … Read blog

Growing Tomatoes in The Tropics

This post is about my experience and things I’ve learned growing tomatoes in the tropics. Yes, of course you can grow tomatoes in the tropics, but it’s a little different to growing cherry, heirloom, grape, beefsteak and slicer tomatoes in more temperate climates. I grew up growing tomatoes in a temperate environment, where winters didn’t … Read blog

What Food Can I Grow in The Wet Season?

Wet Season gardening tomatoes

The wet season of 2021 was our first wet season at home, in the tropics for 9 years. As such, it was hugely interesting to see exactly which food plants would survive the low light, intense heat, humidity, and torrential rain of the tropical summer. Not just survive, I wanted to see which vegetables, herbs, … Read blog

December in The Garden

December growing vegetables garden

What’s growing, fruiting, flowering, germinating, and cropping in our tropical food garden in December? December is the first month of summer where we are. It’s also the tropical wet season This means it’s going to be super-interesting to see what effect torrential rain, less sun, and waterlogging or even soil erosion will have on what’s … Read blog

October Harvesting and Planting

Sunrise in October in a tropical garden

What’s going on in the tropical food garden in October? October for us, here in the Southern Hemisphere, just 16 degrees south of the equator, is still spring officially, but it feels like full summer to me .October is a month of abundance in the garden, temperatures have climbed so much that we start to … Read blog

September Harvesting and Planting

What’s growing, fruiting, flowering, germinating, and cropping in our tropical food garden in September. That’s the first month of spring where we are. By the end of the first week of September the days were starting to get unpleasantly hot. For the first time I could feel summer coming and dreading it, honestly. There was … Read blog

What To Plant in The Tropics in May

May is the last month of autumn for us but already it’s getting a bit chilly at night. If you can call 20 degrees C chilly! Days are still hot and we’re still having a little rain, but the dry season is around the corner. We’re still eating tropical vegetables and fruits like aubergines (eggplant), … Read blog

November Harvesting and Planting

Pumpkin flowering in November in the tropics

In November in the southern hemisphere tropics the heat is building for us and rain is scarce at the beginning of the month. By November we’re hiding from the heat indoors and only venture outside very early or around sunset. The rains can arrive in late November but the start of the month is usually … Read blog

Snake Beans and Green Ants

Snake neans and green ants

What’s with snake beans and green ants? As soon as the first flowers appeared on our snake bean plants the green ants were there clustered around the flowers and setting up home in the leaves. Until those flowers appeared ( in July, first bean harvest August for us) there had been no green ants at … Read blog

August Harvesting and Planting

Lemon tree flowering in late August in the tropics

What’s growing, fruiting, flowering, germinating, and cropping in our tropical food garden in August. Remember, we’re in the southern hemisphere, just 16 degrees south of the Equator, you may have to flip the seasons if you’re in the tropics in the northern hemisphere. August is the last month of winter for us and we’re into … Read blog

Make Your Own Fertiliser

making fertiliser from garden waste

Yes, you can make your own fertiliser for your plants at home, easily. It can even be free. Making your own fertiliser for garden plants using various methods. One of the first steps in gardening is to fix, improve, or at least understand your soil. You won’t grow much with bad soil but there are … Read blog