Aren’t they the cutest little things? They’re day old quail chicks, and we’re finding they’re nicely suited to raising in suburbia. Besides being prolific egg layers, there’s some good science that quail eggs are very effective against hayfever, and possibly, probably other allergies too.
A mix of black-eyed peas, black seeded snake beans and brown seeded snake beans, all home grown and harvested today, about to go in the slow cooker. Protein, fibre, complex carbs, versatility, deliciousness. And a step into a blue zone.
They’re such a pretty flower. Nothing in my garden has just one purpose – this little suburban garden is too small to fit nectar sources for pest predators, pollen sources for pollinators, flowers for cutting for the vase on the kitchen table, compost materials, food and medicinals for the chooks and quails, food and medicinals for us – everything has to do at least two or three of those. More…
Last year, this was my water chestnut pond. And it worked so well. In this little suburban garden I have so little space that everything has to be miniature, but the discipline of making every centimetre count has been an epiphany. Water chestnuts in one side, kang kong in the other, and as much of each as we could eat in its season. I still have a couple of tubs…
Feverfew is a pretty little perennial herb with flowers that look very much like chamomile. It’s is best known as a migraine preventative, and there is now some decent evidence that it works and is safe. Luckily I don’t get migraines. But there is also some evidence that it is useful as an antihistamine, and as a hayfever sufferer, that earns it a spot in my garden.
The question I see come up more often than any other in garden forums is how to deal with pests. And I get it. Watching the aphids arrive right when your beautiful broccolini get to the stage where you don’t know if you want to eat it or photograph it is hard, especially in a small garden. It takes nerve to hold fire.
My part of the world is not kind to potatoes, or wheat, or sugar cane. More and more I am realising that our northern European food culture, imported along with the first fleet, makes very hard work of it. The food crops that dominate the Farmer’s Market are mostly south-east Asian, African, Central American, or Pacific Islander. Besides all the wonderful range of greens and fruits, there’s the starchy calorie…