fruit

Do This to Protect Your Fruit Trees

Fruit trees are a long-term step towards food security. So it makes sense that you’ll want to look after them as best you can. They can take several years to become productive though, during which time you’ll invest a lot of effort, care and energy. Painting the trunks of fruit trees is an ages-old practice

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The Easiest 5 Fruit Trees to Grow

There are literally thousands of fruit trees you can try to grow. So many, in fact, that it can be hard to narrow it down or know where to start. Whether you’re a beginner, short on space or just plain undecided, why not start with the easiest? Some fruit trees are so easy to grow

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QLD SPECIAL! Emergency Care for Flooded Fruit Trees

Those who have recently experienced the major flood event in southeast QLD and northern New South Wales will be reeling at best and completely devastated at worst. If you have lost it all, I offer my deepest sympathies. Our food garden is like a family member, and when something happens to it, we suffer grief

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10 Unusual Fruit Trees For the Sub Tropics

The wet summer season in the subtropics is a time for lush grass, sunshine, Christmas holidays and vigorous plant growth. So what better time to investigate some new and interesting fruit trees for your orchard? The traditional fruit trees that require a cold snap to set fruit are never going to be winners in the

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Possum Problems: My Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Part 4

This is the fourth part in a series of articles on my self-built geodesic dome greenhouse. If you need to catch up, here is part 3. It’s All About the Possums! As if my problems with light and powdery mildew weren’t enough, I now had pest damage to contend with. Will it ever end?! The

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Quick Guide to The QLD Fruit Fly

The Queensland fruit fly is a serious garden pest that destroys a wide variety of crops by laying its eggs inside fruit and vegetables. This results in fruit which is full of maggots and rotting, sloppy flesh…in other words, completely ruined. While they are a nuisance for the backyard gardener, the damage they cause means

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What’s Wrong With My Lemon Tree The Fruit Tastes Awful?

The other day, I received an email from Nytasha asking me if I could help her find out what was wrong with her lemon tree… Basically, Nytasha was puzzled by how bad the fruit (produced by her "seemingly healthy" lemon tree) tasted and if I had any experience or thoughts as to what was causing the

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Self-Sufficiency Tip: Grow More Than You Need

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,

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Growing Grumichama Fruit Tree/Shrub Tips in Your Backyard

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

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Beat Fruit Fly In QLD – Grow Winter Fruits

Some fruits to grow in winter to prevent fruit fly strike  Fruit fly in Queensland can become a real pain for the backyard grower turning beautiful fruit and vegetables into a rotten mess. However, there are ways to control this awful pest and one of the most effective but not often considered is growing crops best

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Same Fruits Different Tastes

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

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Tamarillo Sliced Quarts

Tamarillo or Tree Tomato

I'm always on the lookout for new fruit trees to plant in my garden. Many people don't realise how many thousands of different varieties of fruit there really are in the world besides the standard ones committed to the larger displays in the big supermarkets. However, if you check the back shelves in the supermarket

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Fruit leathers wrapped in wax paper for storage

Tamarillo Fruit Leather Recipe

Right, I want to make this a straight forward quick post about how to make tamarillo fruit leathers. Often, I write rather long in-depth articles but this recipe is so easy and plus I have written about tamarillos before (Tamarillo or Tree Tomato) so there isn't any need to re-hash about growing the fruit. We have had

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Dragon fruit flowers at sunrise

Dragon Fruit (Pitaya) – How-to Guide for Growing

Article updated on 13th Jan 2016  Dragon fruit or called by its proper name Pitaya is one of the lessor known fruiting plants in the Western world (perhaps the whole world). The name “dragon fruit” has its origins in Asia and probably was formed as a way to describe the bright coloured fruit with a chunky scaled

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Valencia orange tree thriving

How To Transplant A Fruit Tree – In 4 Easy Steps?

Fruit trees are arguably the best and most important plants people can grow in their garden. These trees provide us with good healthy food, fantastic scenery, habitat for animals, and an excellent excuse to wander out through the orchard (or garden). Most fruit trees have similar sighting considerations, and whilst there are some exceptions, trees

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Home grown ripe strawberries

Growing Strawberries, Tips From The Farm, & Home-grown

September means spring in my part of the world and at spring time no matter where in the world you are one of the best plants to grow is the strawberry. As we all know, strawberries are a divine and decadent fruit but they can be pricey to buy from the markets so I grow

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food test lab

Simple Food Made With Poison, Pesticides, And Other Chemicals

  More cynical is one way to describe how view the world these days. For me, it’s a trait which has developed from life experience and knowledge gained along the way because I believe most people become a little more cynical as they get older. When I first joined the Army at just 18, I was

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