Labels can be confusing. The terms permaculture, organic farming, and regenerative agriculture are a shift to natural methods of tending the land and you may have even used them interchangeably, but the fact is that each one represents a different approach to sustainable gardening and farming. If you’re still confused as to which refers to...
The busy buzz of pollinating bees is a sound most of us associate with summer. If you live in temperate regions of Australia, you may start to notice fewer insects as the weather gets colder. Across most of the continent, however, some flower-visiting insects are active all year round – and some are more common...
Whether you are a composting novice or an experienced home composter, no composting journey is smooth and hassle-free. As often happens with composting, life gets in the way and before you know it, you’re struggling with your compost pile, whether it be a rodent problem, an odour problem, or both. There’s no need to panic,...
When you buy through our links, we may earn fees from our affiliate partners. Learn more. Permaculture was developed as a solution to the problems caused by Western agribusiness: unsustainable land use, land exploitation, environmental degradation, pollution, food insecurity, health issues and energy dependence. The term permaculture (a combination of the words “permanent” and “agriculture”) was...
By Emily Newton The urgent need to halt the rapid spread of COVID-19 contagion required people worldwide to adapt to drastically new ways of life. As leaders issued shelter-in-place orders, citizens only left their homes for essential reasons. Others found themselves in isolation after testing positive for the virus or coming into contact with someone...
The COVID-19 lockdowns have kept many people at home resulting in a renewed interest in self-reliance skills such as growing food. In many parts of the world where drought is a frequent occurrence however, such as Australia, across the African continent and in the state of California, water shortages and drops in groundwater levels are...
Don’t have enough room in your garden shed and need to create more storage space for your gardening tools and equipment? A quick and inexpensive solution is to go vertical by hanging items on hooks, nails, rods or a hanging rack. You can hang thrifted baskets, picks, trowels, shovels, watering cans and in fact, just...
Gardening isn’t just about retreating to your own place of calm surrounded by flowers, birds and butterflies. For some, gardening is revolutionary; a radical act that challenges the status quo. In the United States, less than 2% of farms in America is black-owned. The promises made by government after the American Civil War for land...
When you buy through our links, we may earn fees from our affiliate partners. Learn more. So you’ve recently started gardening and discovered that plastic abounds in the world of plants. If you’ve committed to plastic-free living and are trying to detox from plastic, here are some useful plastic-free gardening tips to try: 1. Buy plants...
Zero waste living shouldn’t just apply to what you do in your home, but what you do in your gardens too. What most people realise only after they begin gardening, is that for an activity that embraces nature, there’s a surprising amount of plastic waste involved. So here are some zero waste gardening tips for...
According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, about one-third of the foods produced worldwide for human consumption annually— approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — is lost or wasted. Furthermore, food waste is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions so much so that if it were a nation, it would the third largest emitter after China and...
Earliest archaeological records of composting dates back to around 2320 BC with the discovery of a set of clay tablets. The discovery that compost could fertilise and improve soil occured as civilisation moved from hunting and gathering to tending fields and livestock. Fast forward to present day, and this ancient gardening technique is still being...