http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog Grow your own Organic Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit! Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:44:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I can't tell you just how important it is to mulch your garden. It doesn't have to be something that breaks down in a year or two, but the benefits of this kind of mulch are even greater than say organic pebbles / stones. This is probably my best organic gardening ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/286/how-to-mulch-an-organic-garden/ Just to shock you a little I'm going to show you a small part of my derelict farm that I've moved into. But it's not only for shock value. :-) I've just taken a tiny bit of dirt right next to my kitchen door that had a rain water tank sitting ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/278/creating-a-new-organic-gardening-plot/ I want to say a quick thanks to Tony Lawrence for emailing me with a tip to keep the rabbits off my organic veggie garden. He suggests trying a red pepper and garlic spray. I presume he means using both ingredients together and to spray over the plants that the ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/275/red-pepper-and-garlic-spray/ So another year has passed us by. WOW it goes quickly these days. I want to wish you a *HAPPY NEW YEAR*. It's the middle of our summer here in South Australia, so we're in the middle of our gardening season - but if you are in the Northern Hemisphere you're ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/271/new-years-gardening-resolution/ So hasn't another year wizzed by so quickly? I just don't know where the time goes - maybe I'm just getting older??? I want to take a few moments to wish you a very merry Christmas and thank you for taking an interest in my blog...  and even more to the ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/267/merry-christmas-all-over-the-world/ We had a really hot spell here in South Australia a few weeks ago. It almost seems like a bad dream now, because we've had perfect spring weather for the past three weeks or so. But when we were suffering through the 40 degrees C + for a few days ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/263/adding-mulch-to-save-plants-through-the-summer/ Right, so I've got very little water, a very windy location... but guess what? Yes, another problem. RABBITS! They seem to be getting up in numbers again here in South Australia. Not that I had really noticed them much living in a town, although we do see them running across ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/256/rabbits-eating-my-vegetables/ Growing veggies in quite an open location has it's own complication. My new organic veggie garden is fairly exposed and our location has pretty strong winds on a regular basis - great for our future wind turbine, but really bad for growing vegetables. I think I'll probably end up building a ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/251/organic-gardening-in-a-windy-location/ OK, so what are these problems that I'm talking about with my new organic garden? The first and main problem is that we don't have mains water. We're relying on rain water alone. This is our first growing season on the farm and we haven't got any water system in place ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/246/getting-water-to-my-organic-garden/ OK... it's been a really long time since I've posted on the blog...  really sorry, but so much has happened since March!!! We've bought a small farm in South Australia, just on the outskirts of the Barossa Valley. It's 111 acres, though about 100 acres of it is share farmed. We ... http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/blog/235/growing-organic-herbs-on-the-farm/