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Category: Garden

Quails

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.

Cone flowers, five of them, bright pink circle of petals around an orange centre. The background is leaves. We can just make out an insect sitting on the underside of one.

Garden Pharmacy – Echinacea

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…

Home Improvement

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…

A small plant with light green lobed leaves and lots of small flowers with a single row of white petals around a yellow centre. Flowers are borne in clusters at the branch tips.

Garden Pharmacy – Feverfew

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.