Blog
Weekly tales from The Outpost.
July in the garden
Winter might be upon us, but there’s still plenty to do in the garden.
Canning lemonade syrup
The lemon tree is heaving and I need to do something about all these lemons!
Improving soils organically
A deep dive into everything you need to know about your garden’s soils and improving them naturally.
We’re chicken people
Once again, it’s time to top up the chooks, which means baby chickens!
Walking to the mailbox
Some observations and musings on a long, mostly-up hill walk.
Lurverly luffas
The story of my failure to grow very many luffas.
Garlic bread
A simple garlic and herb bread recipe.
Lockdown week three: Some updates
A whole lot of updates on things I’ve blogged about before.
How to learn how to grow stuff
So you want to learn to grow stuff? Here are my favourite gardening resources to follow and learn from.
Lockdown week two: feeling down, gardening anyway
During the second week of lockdown, I’m feeling my anxiety creep back up. But I know being in my garden helps.
Growing fresh food from kitchen ingredients
Even if you can’t buy seeds, you can still grow a lot with common kitchen and supermarket ingredients.
Lockdown week one: giving thanks
A reflection on what I’m grateful for at the start of an unprecidented 4+ week nationwide lockdown.
Controlling garden pests without visiting a garden centre
So you’ve planted a pandemic garden – and now the snails are attacking! What can you do without leaving your house?
9 things to grow in a pandemic
In the middle of a pandemic, what can you grow to keep you and your family fed and healthy this winter?
Should I buy seeds, or seedlings?
When should you use seeds, and when can you get away with a few seedlings?
Sowing seeds for transplant
Need to get some seeds growing indoors in trays? Here’s some tips from my garden.
Pricking out seedlings
Between sowing seeds in trays, and transplanting them outdoors, they need pricking out. Find out what that means and how to do it.
Direct-sowing guide
Direct sowing is spreading seed in the place you want to grow it. This is the best way of getting good results for some crops. Find out which ones!
A proliferation of pineapples
Life really gave us pineapples this week.
Our first drought
Our lifestyle block is officially in the middle of a drought. So, how are we doing?
Learning to love my garden (again)
The garden is finally turning into something I’m happy with!
A trusted tool
When you own the equivalent of 5 city blocks, sometimes you can’t see what’s going on at the other end.

















