“Plant pears for your heirs” What a great saying about a tree being long lived. Just in front of our house is a massive ancient pear tree which we presume it was planted at about the time our house was built in the late 1840s. Each spring when it is smothered in its stunning single […]
Understand your pests I regularly encourage gardeners to actively plant and garden to encourage butterflies and my garden is filled with delightful butterflies which flit about and delight us. However, there is one butterfly that I don’t appreciate and that is the cabbage white butterfly. It lays its caterpillars on many of my vegies and
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This is a great way to create a weed free garden area which can later be planted, and if done properly, it is very effective. It is an ideal way to prepare bare ground for future planting, for making a new vegetable garden or for converting part of the front lawn into a garden bed.
It’s school holidays for many, however, this time there isn’t the same sense of excitement that there usually is. There is a tension and uncertainty that we as a community are all souldering and our kids are sensing it too. It is how we model ourselves at this time, and the atmosphere we create in
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One of the main pests at Sophie’s Patch at this time of year are snails, although there are a few slugs too. Not only do we have the common garden snails, but two types of white Italian snails. These tiny creatures are in very large numbers here and in many other rural areas. They can
The first day of winter marked the first significant frost this season at Sophie’s Patch and there have been more since then. Prior to this there had been some minor frosts in lower areas of the garden but last weeks finished off my summer crops. Frost can wreak absolute havoc on plants that are not
Recently I had a visitor ask me about how I managed weeds if I didn’t use chemicals. Since we purchased our property 6 years ago, I have been passionate about demonstrating how it is possible to control weeds without chemicals and I figure if we can do it on three acres, it is possible to
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These sap-sucking insects are black and red or black and orange and while a few don’t hurt, they can cause damage when they are in great numbers. They can cause new growth to wilt and die when they suck a plant’s sap. They can also suck the sap of fruit such as tomatoes and cause
Why mulch your garden? The main reasons we mulch are: 1. Keep moisture in the soil. More specifically it can reduce the loss of water by surface evaporation by 70%.2. Smother or at least suppress existing weeds. Not only do weeds look unsightly, they compete with your plants for moisture nutrients, space and light, and
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Elm leaf beetle Whilst this pest is not a problem at Sophie’s Patch, I see people all over struggling with it and I feel I want to help point out the options available to control or at least manage it. You may not have this problem in your garden, however you may struggle with another