This article is a follow-up to ‘Problems with Light-My Geodesic dome Greenhouse Part 2’. Although I’ve been harvesting lovely vegetables from my geodesic dome and grow tunnel daily, a new problem appeared in February, just after the wet season had started. POWDERY MILDEW!! I really want to make the dome work, as it’s such an
Ginger is a valuable ingredient in food and drinks the world over, not to mention expensive- yet it’s easy to grow at home from just one bulb. A little bit can go a long way, and we can add ginger to all sorts of drinks and food. And it has a ton of other uses!
I’ll happily admit to practising the art of lazy gardening! Years ago, we used to make our gardens pristine, with rows of plants all the same height, lawns mowed within an inch of their life, annual flowers planted with perfect spacing, and trees all neatly pruned…in other words, a green desert. While our gardens were
Domes are such an ideal use of space in the garden, providing heaps of ground area as well as protected height if you need it. My reason for building this dome is probably obvious: to prevent the larger critters from stealing my vegetables and fruit…I grow produce for myself, not for them! At my place,
Often the plants that grow the best are the ones totally adapted to the area they are growing in and whilst most examples in the home garden are ornamentals here are some examples of edible plants that are native to Australia. Macadamia Everyone worldwide knows about the Macadamia nut, but most don’t know it’s a
Most of us have at least one citrus tree in our gardens. Be it a Meyer lemon down the backyard or a Kumquat in a pot on the front verandah. Meyer lemon fruit (image above) Autumn is citrus care time. Right before they begin flowering is the best time to treat all the ails of
Well, here we are at the beginning of a brave new world having been dragged kicking and screaming into this new reality where we must learn to be more self-reliant and more communally and locally co-operative. It’s going to get tough but you know the saying “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”
In case you missed it, late last year I released an introductory video about the Prong garden tool on my YouTube Channel and this blog post is a follow-up of that… What wasn’t mentioned in the video was the fact that the inventor of this simple yet clever and tough tool design is a man
The Plastic Bag Ban will commence on 1st July 2018 around Australia – anyone caught with or using a plastic shopping bag after this date will be ridiculed via a severe public "bagging out" before being jailed for environmental vandalism. The first part of the sentence above is true – the plastic bag ban will
Make a winner out of your kitchen dinner by adding some easy to grow Asian herbs and spices and turn bland into YUM. In this article, I'm going to give you seven of my favourite easy to grow herbs and spices we grow at home and you can as well to use in your own
This transcription of our popular How to Grow a Ton of Lemons video has been requested several times so here it is! The video is at the end… G'day! I'm Mark from Self Sufficient Me and in this video, I'm going to give you my 5 top tips on how to grow a ton
If you are considering growing backyard olives then the Arbequina variety is worth checking out! Arbequina olive trees are a popular commercial variety of olive because they produce a good olive oil but they are also a common variety sold on the domestic market due to being an early fruiting tree and often produce
Where you position you vegetable garden, patch, allotment, or whatever you want to call it is very important for a few reasons. Firstly, most food crops need a good amount of sunlight to produce well and grow strong – food plants need a lot of energy to produce and it's the sun that provides most
Pest Collection – Citrus Bud Mite (deformed fruit) Common Name: Citrus Bud Mite Scientific Name: Eriophyes sheldoni Order: Acarina Host plant where found: Lemon tree (Citrus limon) in an ornamental garden setting. Host range or situation where pest is usually found: Citrus trees Damaging stage (s): Both nymphs and adults feed by sucking sap from
Disease/Disorder Collection – Bacterial Blight Name of Disorder: Bacterial Blight Scientific name of pathogen causing disease: Pseaudomonas syringae Type of disorder: Bacterial disease Cause: Bacteria in the Pseudomonas and Xanthomonas genera Host plant where found in this example: Mulberry (Morus spp.) Horticulture situation or host range where this disorder is typically found: Vast host
Pest Collection – Bronze Orange Bug Common Name: Bronze orange bug Scientific Name: Musgraveia sulciventris Order: Hemiptera Host plant where found: Orange tree (Citrus sinensis) Host range or situation where pest is usually found: Citrus trees The image above shows the nymph stage of the bug the final adult is much larger with a hard outer
How do you tell if a mango is ready to be picked from a tree and when is it ripe enough to eat? Firstly, you can eat green mangoes by turning them into green mango pickles, chutneys, and in cooking. Thinly sliced green mangoes make a wonderful Asian salad and green mangoes go well with
Introduction Freshly harvested ginger from the garden is amazing! Even just removing the rhizome from the soil fills the nostrils with such beautiful fragrance it's almost impossible not to hold the ginger root close to the face for several seconds to appreciate this gift from nature. So often, it's the scent of food which subconsciously
When the end of orange season comes, more often than not we are left with a surplus of this wonderful fruit, which is a really good position for me to be in because it forces me to do something with the extra bounty before they go bad. Orange marmalade is great, fresh orange juice is
Article updated on 04 June 2016 The question, will my olive trees flower and fruit in a warm climate with a mild winter? Is answered! I love eating olives and olive oil so when we finally moved to our acreage one of the first trees I planted was a Manzanillo olive tree. In fact, for our
Self Sufficient Me is a blog about self-sustainment by growing our own produce (plant/animal), and self-fulfilment by looking after our health (physical/mental) through exercise and slowing life down a little.
