I often get asked, "what are you going to do with all that produce?" Sometimes people enquire because their first thought when seeing a glut of homegrown food is waste but here's how I see an oversupply of produce: Success – Whenever we get a great harvest I see the achievement. Backyard farming isn't always,
Over the past few months, I've made some big changes to our vegetable garden and I intend to publicise these "improvements" (I should say) in detail in future articles and videos. But as the video at the end of this post shows, over the past few days I have concentrated my efforts on the central
Updated on 20th Sept 2022 If you have been reading Self Sufficient Me and watching some of my YouTube videos over the past several years, you’ll know how passionate I am about raised bed vegetable gardening. There are many advantages raised bed food gardens have over the traditional in-ground garden beds that use the furrow method
Growing conditions for the Grumichama Growing Grumichama plants (Eugenia Dombeyi) as a backyard fruit tree is certainly not something often talked about mainly because the Grumichama is not a very well known fruit tree. Actually, it's more like a large shrub and is often sold as a nice hedging plant (which also bears edible fruit
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
I'm a total advocate for stand up vegetable gardening because as we age it tends to get harder to get down and even harder to get back up! That's where raised bed food gardening comes into play as a wonderfully convenient way to work in the patch without too much bending. I've also got several old injuries and
I started growing sorghum by accident after it self-seeded in my vegetable garden. I’m positive the seed hitched a ride in the garden mulch I used recycled from our chicken pen. There’s nothing better on the garden and around plants than used mulch from the chicken pen mixed with manure! Anyway, I decided to let a considerable
15 tips to help grow the best large tomatoes Larger varieties of tomatoes are easy enough to grow but to get them at a point where they crop readily and produce good fruit can be a challenge even for the best gardeners! There are numerous diseases and pests which attack tomatoes but pulling out the
Manures are great for fruit and veg growing but sometimes poo just isn't enough So you do the right thing and use natural manure on your garden but some of your plants and vegetables still fail to flourish or grow as good as they should – what's wrong? Sometimes manures like chicken, cow, horse, sheep poo
Disease/Disorder Collection – Iron Deficiency Name of Disorder: Iron (Fe) deficiency Scientific name of pathogen causing disease: Iron (Fe) deficiency in a Lemon tree (Citrus limon) Type of disorder: Nutritional Cause: Alkaline soil, lack of available Fe Host plant where found: Lemon tree (Citrus limon) Horticulture situation or host range where this disorder is typically
Disease/Disorder Collection – Phytophthora Root Rot Name of Disorder: Phytophthora Root rot. Scientific name of pathogen causing disease: Phytophthora spp. Type of disorder: Fungus Cause: Phytophthora spp. fungus Host plant where found: Rhododendron Horticulture situation or host range where this disorder is typically found: Affects broad range of plants; from trees, ornamentals, native plants, fruit
Videos Latest Videos Garden The following is a playlist of all our gardening videos. Gardening is by far the most popular videos I make on YouTube and interest seems to be growing as more people discover the beauty of this video platform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLnWt3n5uUaIqT5eK0VLP6W-jJfcq_SRtd&v=mTIYEJ2TRtQ&feature=emb_title ul > .bdt-post-list-item; delay: 350;”> How to remove thorns from a yellow
I love tomatoes – I really do. This fruit who many confuse as a vegetable (but who cares) is one of the most versatile foods on the planet. Where would we be without tomato ketchup, bolognese sauce, tomato pizza base with sun-dried tomatoes mozzarella cheese and a few basil leaves, tomato and lettuce salad,
Have you ever purchased a fresh vegetable or fruit from the supermarket or green grocer only to find once you bite-in the taste doesn't live up to your expectations? Well, you're not alone (not surprisingly because ever is a rather large window), but also, it seems the trend in tasteless vegetables and fruit is becoming
Article revised on 10 April 2015. This article is a very basic outline but we have plenty of other articles also about chicken keeping in our poultry section. When I initially decided to investigate getting chickens the very first question that came into my mind was how easy are chickens to keep? At the time I
Introduction I know this save money by growing your own food subject has been covered ad nauseam over the past two decades; however, I have never written about the subject and mixed it with politics and today with the squeeze on peoples incomes all around the world becoming alarming I think both subjects could mix
Sweet potato has become quite trendy lately. I've seen this easy to grow vegetable featuring in magazines, on TV in cooking shows (and advertisements). Many Pacific Island countries rely on sweet potato as a staple food source. This oblong tuber is a good source of vitamin A (one of the best) and is high in
Turn 1kg of potatoes into 20kgs without divine intervention! Growing potatoes isn't difficult no matter where you live. It's just a matter of timing, a little digging, some potato food, and then a few short months of growing for you to produce the best tasting taters you'll ever eat. Just a few articles back I
Introduction In our tomato variety reviews we rate and review each variety based on the following criteria: Size of Fruit vs Productivity Taste & Meatiness (texture) Disease and Pest Resistance Growth X-Factor So, without fear, let's get started! Characteristics # 1 in our tomato series is the Black Russian. This odd coloured tomato might be “different”
There are many subtle variants of the Yellow Beefsteak (some with quite different attributes) but this particular variety could be slightly different (or not) from what others grow with the same name. As with all the tomato reviews on SSM, the article will summarise by giving the tomato variety a final rating score by averaging the rating
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.
