The Veggie Lady

Following on with our sensory garden series, this week we look at 2 more senses:  taste and touch. Taste There are many edible ornamental plants. Some obvious examples are vegetables, fruit & herbs. These plants are highly decorative as well as productive. Edible plants are rewarding to grow because they do not require too much care and they are very decorative. Examples are: Beetroot Lettuces Rhubarb Shallots Silverbeet Bush tucker plants are especially interesting and have high cultural value for our Australian indigenous population.  Some edible native species include: Syzygium (Lillipilli) Tetragonia tertragoinoides (Warrigal greens) Lemon Myrtle Davidson’s Plum Mountain 

What is a sensory garden? The world is a sensory garden. Our senses allow us to perceive & experience the world. There are five traditional sensory modes: sight, smell, touch, taste & sound.  But there are other senses, less commonly talked of, just as powerful, if more subtle: the haptic sense (awareness of our body in pace), gravity, temperature, space & enclosure. All gardens simulate the senses, to a greater or lesser degree.  You can design your garden to enhance this sensory panoply (the quality & nature of its spaces, boundaries, climate, materials, plants & fauna).  If one of your 

I’ve enjoyed reading Bill’s posts on GMOs and the controversy they ignited.  We hear the term GMO bandied around fairly often but what exactly is it? Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are plants that have been genetically engineered in a laboratory rather than nature. So how does it differ from hybridizing? After all, a hybrid plant has been bred through human intervention to achieve a desired colour, size or growth habit.  Doesn’t that sound the same? Hybridizing happens when two different varieties reproduce to form a new plant. Seed is collected from the plant, sown and grown on to produce a 

Do you love the idea of picking fresh organic veggies yourself but don’t have a garden of your own? Well, you are not on your own.  There are many just like you and they’ve set up a community for you to join them.  It’s called community gardening. You gain access to land that is usually government owned and have the freedom to grow your own veggies on it.  This gives scope to individuals who pave a passion for all things green but no outlet to do anything about it.  Progressive local governments have claimed land for individuals living nearby to 

Worldwide studies, including those conducted at Townsville hopsital in Australia (1999), show that babies are being born with traces of pesticides in their bodies.  Even the breast milk that we feed them has similarly been found to contain traces of DDT, despite the fact that it’s been banned since 1987. This illustrates the persistent nature of some synthetic pesticide residues in our soils and in our food chain. The 20th Australian Total Diet Survey (2003) carried out by Food Standards Australia & New Zealand found a cocktail of up to 36 different types of pesticide residues in commonly eaten food.  

Do you wash your organic veggies? Strangely, I often get asked if it is necessary to wash organic produce.  By thinking that organic produce is grown naturally and without synthetic chemicals, many of us conclude that it’s safe to bite straight into our fruit and veggies without washing them first. Now I would have to ask you if you would freely bite into a handful of manure.  Of course we would be repulsed by this suggestion, yet when our food is grown “naturally” it means that it is fed manure and compost in the soil.  So if we tuck into 

While Miranda is busy thinking about possible baby names now, plant breeders have been doing this for centuries.  So even if Miranda thinks he is unique, unfortunately there is another “Orlando Bloom”. It’s a rose. The “Orlando” rose is a pink, double flowering, hybrid tea rose.  It’s ideal for cutting and bringing indoor for vases because of its long stems and light fragrance. Our continued fascination for roses drives growers to keep making new ones. There are several thousand different roses available all over the world today.  (Thank goodness we parents don’t have that many children to name.) The market 

You don’t need a 5 acre property or even a backyard to grow your own produce. Surprisingly, quite a lot can actually be grown in pots on a sunny balcony, not only providing you with fresh organic herbs and veggies, but also saving you money. You can grow leafy veggies like lettuce, spinach and herbs in foam boxes recycled from your local green grocer very cheaply.  Tomatoes, capsicum and eggplant are better grown in individual plastic pots about 30cm (12 inches) diameter.   Mini or dwarf cabbages and broccoli are also terrific in containers too.  Climbing plants like beans, peas and 

Most of us are pretty convinced that eating organic produce is more nutritious, safer for us and better for the environment.  We’re committed to spending the extra money to support the organic cause. But sometimes our budgets don’t live up to the same standards as our beliefs.  So we think about growing our own organic veggies at home.  Can we become self sufficient in our own right or is it just a romantic ideal that’s beyond the reach of the everyday citizen? Just like the first time you tasted your first organic tomato, the first taste of your own home 

Gardening programs have been widely used for rehabilitation purposes in hospitals and clinics as well as helping with dementia and disability.  But I bet you’ve never realized just how much it helps you and me! The gratification you get when you’ve eaten your own home grown produce or enjoyment from seeing your flowers blooming promote natural endorphins in our bodies that make us feel happy.  A happy and positive outlook, even over the simplest pot of flowers, in the midst of daily turmoil can be a real release from stress. Some of us can struggle just to “turn off” from 

Whenever I ask people what they think organic gardening is, I’m almost always answered by “It’s gardening without the use of pesticides”. While this, in part, is correct, the use of pesticides is the last thing that we should think about. Good organic gardeners are defined by what they do rather than what they don’t do. Organic gardening is all about bringing life back into the soil and the food we produce. Natural fertilisers are used to build rich soil that is full of nutrients.  Plants are only as healthy as the soil they’re grown in, so soil fertility forms