Gardening, Homesteading, and Growing Food in the Tropics
Baby guinea pigs available Port Douglas, Mossman, Cooya Beach, Julatten and surrounding area. We can deliver. Simply leave a comment with your email address or phone number and we’ll be in touch. Located in Far North Queensland Australia, we have baby guinea pigs as pets or lawn mowers. Guinea pigs are easy to keep, but … Read blog
Domestic Guinea Fowl come in many many colours, including Pearl ( dark grey, wild type), White, Peach, Buff Dundotte, Cinnamon, Copper, Coral, Royal Purple, Porcelain, Slate, Chocolate, Violet or Mulberry, Lavender (also common, light grey) and Coral Blue. In addition almost any type can be pied, pied birds have white patches. Guinea fowl also have some blue red and white markings around their … Read blog
Many types of nuts will grow well in the tropics, including coconuts, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts peanuts and almonds. While peanuts and almonds are not true nuts, most people would think of them as such, we give you the botanical definition of a nut in this post. Don’t mistake nuts for vegetables, because nuts are … Read blog
Growing bananas is relatively easy, but requires a warm, humid climate and well-draining soil. Bananas are generally grown in the tropics and are an excelled food plant to grow in a tropical climate. This post covers how to grow bananas for new gardeners who want to branch out from vegetables. Each banana plant will only … Read blog
People say that gardening is when you spend $300 to grow $1 worth of tomatoes. This can be true for some people, but if you get it right, growing your own fruit and vegetables can be a great way to save money. In these difficult times, with household expenses going through the roof and a … Read blog
Yes, you can freeze lemons. You can freeze lemons whole, halved, sliced, as zest or juice. The way in which you freeze lemons must be determined by what you plan to use the frozen lemon for. This posts talks about the various ways to freeze lemons, and uses of frozen lemon of all kinds. Lemons … Read blog
Mulberries grow on trees, not bushes, so despite the popular song, it’s a tree, a deciduous tree that grows easily in seemingly any climate. The fruit, bark and leaves of a mulberry tree are all edible and there are various culinary, medicinal, and other uses of mulberry leaves. This post is about mulberry leaves and … Read blog
Yes, Mulberries do grow in the tropics. We are picking or harvesting ripe purple mulberries from our tropical garden right now, in early October, our spring. Which came as a surprise to me as I first encountered mulberries back in my home country, Wales UK, and later in the mountains of Romania, where winter temperatures … Read blog
A lot of people wonder if you can eat silkie chicken eggs. Are these fluffy chickens just pets, or are they any use as egg layers or meat birds? We have a breeding flock of, currently, 12 silkie hens and roosters, and yes, silkie chicken eggs are edible. People, us included, eat silkie chicken eggs … Read blog
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
Life in the tropics, realities, advantages and disadvantages of tropical life and what’s it actually like to live, garden, or homestead in the tropics. Many dream of tropical beaches and enveloping heat and for a 2 week holiday it can be wonderful. But what about long-term? What’s it like to travel, live in, go offgrid. … Read blog
Tropical is defined as relating to the tropics. But what are the tropics? The tropics are the part of the world closest to the equator, with the northern boundary being the Tropic of Cancer, the southern boundary being the Tropic of Capricorn. However, being in the tropics and having a tropical climate aren’t exactly the … Read blog
Yes, you can grow cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) in a pot, container or raised bed so long as you provide them with good soil, adequate water, and adequate sunlight. You will need to provide a stake or trellis, in the pot or nearby if you plan to grow them vertically. A vining cucumber will trail and … Read blog
Full, deep shade isn’t the best choice, partial or dappled shade is more what we need for these shade-tolerant food plants. Shade can be very useful in summer to stop plants such as rocket and lettuces from bolting and going to seed. Shade can also reduce the rate of a plant’s growth in some instances. … Read blog
Lemongrass recipes are surprisingly diverse and this traditionally Asian ingredient has found its way into dishes from diverse cuisines around the world. We give you a round up of lemongrass recipes, which you’ll need if you’re growing lemongrass in your tropical or subtropical garden. Some people even grow lemongrass in their gardens in cooler climates, … Read blog
Growing bananas and banana plants is pretty easy if you have a warm-tropical environment, This post covers how to grow bananas , some important tips and tricks to produce your best banana crop, and some vital facts about growing bananas. Growing Bananas Bananas grow in bunches on a banana plant. A banana plant is not … Read blog
Point of lay chickens are chickens that are just at the point at which they will start laying eggs. You’ll often see chickens advertised for sale as being at “point of lay” and this is a good time to buy chickens, you should get eggs from these birds within days or weeks. Of course, nobody … Read blog
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
You can grow lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus or Cymbopogon flexuosus) in a large pot, raised bed, or direct in your garden soil. Growing lemongrass is easy if you have a tropical climate. In cooler climates, you will likely have to overwinter your lemongrass plant indoors. Lemongrass is a fragrant large grass used in many Asian dishes, … Read blog
The list of fruits that grow in tropical climates is incredibly long. There are so many tropical and subtropical fruits you can grow in a tropical climate that you’ll never be able to taste them all. Some fruits that grow in cooler or temperate climates will also grow in the tropics. This post lists all … Read blog
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
Growing papayas in the tropics is super easy. Or, at least, I’ve been able to grow them with no problems in a tropical climate so I think you should probably be able to too. Here in Queensland Australia, they call papayas pawpaws. Well, I’m from Europe, they’ll always be papayas to me. Pawpaw is actually … Read blog
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
There are many, many food plants that you can grow from supermarket scraps. Don’t believe anyone who says you can’t. There are way more than I can even mention in this post, but I’ll do my best to tell you how. Once you know how, for different plant, herb, and fruit types, you can try … Read blog
Towards the end of 2021, after almost 2 years of lockdown, we bought a farm. A homestead, if you like, a place to settle, our own land, our forever home. Can we guarantee that? No. But we’ll give it a go and if we don’t like farm life, we’ll move on again. So we bought … Read blog
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
Pineapples are sweet, delicious, golden yellow fruits from tropical regions. If you love to eat pineapple but have only seen it in tins or at the grocery store, this post explains how do pineapples grow, and how to grow pineapples. Pineapples are farmed commercially in our region, field after field of rows of spiky pineapple … Read blog
If you grow chillies you’ll know that each plant produces a lot of fruit! Whether you grow chillies indoors or in the tropics, and no matter what variety, your harvest should be plentiful if you have good soil, water, and warmth. For me, chillies grow as a perennial, I have fresh chillies every day of … Read blog
In the tropics we really need to mulch. Mulching keeps weeds down, retains moisture, adds nutrients and keeps harsh rain and sun from damaging your soil. I’ve mulched with every imaginable substance, straw, hay, coconut mulch, grass clipping, and now I’ve found the best mulch for my garden. Chop and drop makes the best mulch … Read blog
Guppies should do fine in outside pots, ponds, or other containers in a tropical climate. They are very easy to keep, and depending on your set-up need almost no maintenance. Finding a suitable pot or container to keep guppies outside can be tricky, we’ll talk about that, also about maintaining water temperature, filtration, water plants, … Read blog
You can grow a lot of herbs in the tropics, including those normally associated with cooler or Mediterranean climates. There are some special tropical herbs that do particularly well, but you should be able to grow most herbs without too much difficulty. This post gives you a list of herbs that can be grown in … Read blog
Growing your own food is not just a hobby, it’s an investment. You are investing in future food supplies, in nature, in sustainability, your health, and in your soil. You can save yourself a lot of money by growing a tropical edible garden, and you’ll be helping the planet at the same time. Lets look … Read blog
There are a lot of gardening influencers, bloggers, and vloggers today making an income or even a full-time living out of sharing their gardens online. Instagram is where most garden bloggers and influencers start, sharing photos and garden-related captions of their gardens, produce, and plants. In this post we give you a list of captions … Read blog
Pigeon peas are the seeds of the pigeon pea plant and they are edible. The Latin name for the species is Cajanus Cajan or Cajanus Indicus.They are a type of lentil, pea, or seed and the pigeon pea plant is a tropical perennial legume of the family Fabaceae. This makes is a very useful, and … Read blog
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
June is a great month in the garden, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere and a good time to plant just about anything other than the real heat-loving plants. It’s not a good time to sew snake beans or basil, but brassicas will be much happier in winter. What are we planting and harvesting in … Read blog
The grapefruit tree (citrus pandisi) in our garden must be ten years old now and it gives us prolific grapefruit every year. This post is about growing grapefruit, caring for a grapefruit tree, types of grapefruit tree, uses for and harvesting grapefruit and as many other grapefruit tree-related facts I can come up with! The … Read blog
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
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
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
