tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68264189489206948662024-03-19T16:51:33.559+11:00MudflowerOur journey to self sufficiencyDBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.comBlogger491125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-45861238139300990042024-03-15T12:10:00.001+11:002024-03-15T12:10:25.010+11:00LiverwortsI like liverworts, they are interesting little plants. They don't have a significant economic importance, and they are small, so mostly they go unnoticed. Even though they are small, they have an interesting lifecycle, and there is something about them that I like the look of. Thallose liverworts gametophyte with gemmae cupsWhen I was a child liverworts used to grow in the DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-7890923222760471972024-03-08T16:12:00.001+11:002024-03-11T15:11:40.128+11:00Asparagus seed germinationI wrote in an earlier post about saving asparagus seed from my purple asparagus plants. It was a bit of work, but the result was worth the effort. I got a decen number of seed, then got my daughter to count out 100 seeds, I soaked them, then planted them, and recorded the results. Planting one hundred seeds makes estimating the germination percentage both easy and DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-61043834305085071762024-03-01T09:05:00.000+11:002024-03-01T09:05:23.612+11:00Asparagus seed saving I have grown asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) from seed many times. Growing from sed is fiddly and takes time. It takes a few years to get a crop when grown from seed, which means that many people prefer to buy year old crowns instead. Many heirloom asparagus varieties have a superior flavour and texture, but other than a few varieties nowhere sells plants. I buy DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-83843784876478678322024-02-23T09:06:00.000+11:002024-02-23T09:06:10.393+11:00Zolotoe serdtse tomato This year I grew a tomato called Zolotoe serdtse (золотое сердце), this roughly translates to something along the lines of golden heart, or heart of gold. I am not entirely certain how to spell this in English, Zolotoe or Zolotoye or Zoloto, I have seen all these spellings used in different places. This is a semi determinate tomato variety, that produces very early in the season. DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-90632245126850532882024-02-19T17:20:00.003+11:002024-02-19T17:22:23.553+11:00Igloo tomatoesOne of my first attempts at breeding tomatoes is also one of my best. This project began when I was in high school where I had limited access to germplasm and limited knowledge of genetics and breeding. I was aiming to breed a tasty, highly productive, early ripening tomato that did not need much water. Igloo tomatoes tick all of these boxes and more. Igloo DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-64963895657640914352024-02-16T14:22:00.003+11:002024-02-16T14:22:47.146+11:00Giant Broad Leaf Dandelion I have been breeding dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) for a few years. Not just deliberately growing them, but intentionally breeding with the aim of improving them.Given that every part of this remarkable plant is edible and useful, I mostly focused on breeding for larger leaves. I also grow pink dandelions (Taraxacum pseudoroseum), I have not done any breeding work with pink DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-5763890557043167792024-02-12T17:07:00.003+11:002024-02-12T17:08:39.557+11:00Mulberry tree for food securityA mulberry tree is like a vegetable garden on a trunk. Mulberry trees are well known for producing delicious berries. What many people do not realise is that mulberry trees also produce abundant and surprisingly nutritious leafy greens. I have cooked and eaten mulberry leaves, they taste nice and can be used like spinach or silverbeet. I have only cooked DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-55131508448993785312024-01-05T12:17:00.001+11:002024-01-05T13:41:35.845+11:00Maidenhair fern comparison of varietiesI grow a few different maidenhair ferns, they are lovely ferns and I really like them. Each type that I grow are noticeably different. I sell a few maidenhair ferns each year, and hope they the buyer looks after them. Sadly, most people think of maidenhair ferns (or any potted plants) like a bunch of flowers: they look great when they buy it and they expect to throw it awayDBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-45508266373613417082023-12-19T16:27:00.000+11:002023-12-19T16:27:20.313+11:00Grow water chestnuts in milk bottlesI have written a few blog posts on growing Chinese water chestnuts in buckets and flexitubs, it's easy and they are very productive when grown like that. As well as this I also grow a few aquatic vegetables in milk bottles. Growing water chestnuts in a milk bottle is not ideal. When grown like this the yield is low or even non-existent, but it keeps the plants alive. DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-84260213078141206282023-12-15T10:36:00.001+11:002023-12-15T10:36:31.997+11:00Fragaria virginiana breeding larger berriesI grow a few different strawberries, some different species and some garden strawberries. One of the species of wild strawberries I grow is Fragaria virginiana. Fragaria virginiana strawberriesF virginiana comes from North America. This species was used as one of the two main parents to develop the garden strawberries that you can buy from the shops. This was used as a DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-1929957964839679042023-12-12T17:20:00.001+11:002024-03-19T16:51:02.329+11:00Leaf Cuttings African Violet A few years ago I bought an African violet. For some reason I don't see many African violets around these days. They are lovely little ornamental flowers with no particular use that I can gather beyond being nice to look at. I have always heard that African violets are difficult to grow. My one has been easy to grow. It lives in a little self watering pot on my DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-79048838698184327312023-12-08T09:05:00.002+11:002023-12-08T09:05:43.606+11:00Variegated maidenhair fern updateI wrote a post a while ago on my variegated maidenhair fern. I mentioned how I didn't look after it properly and it died back to a single frond, and how at that stage it was starting to regain strength. I was worried because variegated maidenhair ferns are rare and incredibly difficult to find, so if I lost mine I probably would never be able to get another one. Variegated DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-10880112993868663402023-12-02T15:32:00.001+11:002023-12-02T15:32:13.661+11:00Raspberries: yellow red and blackI do a bit of vegetable breeding, I also breed other plants with various different aims. A number of years ago I bred a new variety of red raspberry. I acknowledge that I am biased - I like this raspberry (Rubus idaeus). It is genetically thornless, very vigorous, incredibly productive, produces dozens of flowers per cluster, fruits multiple times per year, and tastes DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-68080726021438478852023-11-30T16:40:00.000+11:002023-11-30T16:40:37.095+11:00Flexi tub pond for vegetablesFor over ten years I have been growing water chestnuts in a bucket. It is simple, it is cheap, and it works well enough. For the past seven or so years I also grew some duck potatoes and Chinese water chestnuts in a large flexitub with some soil in it. From this I got much the same result as I get from growing them in a bucket, but a yield of larger corms. DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-20455982101399171222023-11-24T08:54:00.002+11:002023-11-24T08:54:58.923+11:00Water Celery Variegated vs GreenI have been growing water celery (Oenanthe javanica) for a long time. I have had it since at least 2015, I possibly even grew it for a year or two prior to that. I grow the colourful and attractive variegated flamingo or rainbow form. It has a bunch of common names including: water parsley, Java waterdropwort, Japanese parsley, Chinese celery, rainbow water parsley. DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0Australia-25.274398 133.775136-53.584631836178843 98.618886 3.035835836178844 168.931386tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-7794295591970059122023-11-20T18:11:00.002+11:002024-02-19T17:36:00.114+11:00Pineberry strawberry A few years ago we bought some Pineberry strawberry plants. Pineberry are an old variety of strawberry that are a little different. Pineberry is a very old variety that is said to be a hybrid of two species of strawberry, the South American Fragaria chiloensis, and the North American Fragaria virginiana but they may also have other species in their heritage and probably some backDBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-16924047767750480072023-11-16T18:44:00.000+11:002023-11-16T18:44:08.937+11:00Sturt Desert PeaEarlier this year we went to Coober Pedy for a holiday. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town in outback Australia. I was unfamiliar with most plants I saw growing out in the desert. One of the very few plants that I was familiar with was the Sturt Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa). I have seen these in cultivation before, I even grew one in a pot years ago, but seeing thisDBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-60944411082733490212023-11-10T14:53:00.001+11:002023-11-10T14:53:17.234+11:00Pink Dandelion Pink dandelions (Taraxacum pseudoroseum) are probably a little different than you may think. Pink dandelions are available in Australia, I have been growing them for a few years. They are a pretty little flower that should be grown more commonly. I wrote an earlier post on pink dandelions and after growing them for a few years thought it may be time to do an update. DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0Australia-25.274398 133.775136-53.584631836178843 98.618886 3.035835836178844 168.931386tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-46037379408380125932023-11-03T08:31:00.000+11:002023-11-03T08:31:04.750+11:00Grow water chestnuts and other aquatic vegetables Chinese water chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) are a perennial vegetable that are incredibly simple to grow. I wrote a post about growing water chestnuts in a bucket. It is simple and the yield was exceptional. Each bucket often gives me a dozen or so edible size corms, and well over a hundred smaller ones to replant. You could eat the small ones, but I find them too fiddly DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-38698268440121912732023-10-26T17:46:00.001+11:002023-10-26T17:46:19.579+11:00Jekkas thyme variety comparisonI wrote a previous post comparing different varieties of thyme. Some were clearly better than others, some were far more vigorous than others. Out of all the varieties of thyme I have grown over the years, the real stand out has been Jekkas Thyme. In my climate, Jekka's thyme grows far more vigorously than any other thyme variety. It grows more stems, each stem has DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-77057371012668076272023-10-12T18:06:00.003+11:002023-10-14T09:15:11.901+11:00Buckwheat Atmospheric Nitrogen FixationLegumes fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, some are far more efficient than others. Some legumes sequester a tiny percentage of the nitrogen they consume, others sequester significantly more than they consume. Buckwheat is not a legume. There are a few non-legumes that are known to sequester significant amounts of atmospheric nitrogen. I have heard that buckwheat DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-16201412063009921992023-10-07T08:57:00.004+11:002023-10-14T09:27:31.311+11:00SucculentsI grow a lot of edible things. I like to grow things that I otherwise could not eat, such as mulberries or diploid potatoes or pink/purple sweet corn. I also grow a few ornamental plants including a few nice ferns. Like many people, I also have a few succulents. Variegated succulents Recently I got a cutting from a variegated succulent, I need to look up DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-83087728881638473872023-10-02T09:31:00.002+11:002023-10-14T09:25:47.965+11:00Olive Garden in the DesertRecently we went to Coober Pedy for a holiday. Coober Pedy is a town in outback South Australia, it is located in the largest desert in Australia - the Great Victoria Desert. In Coober Pedy many houses have been dug underground, they do this as the climate is too hot and hostile above ground. Not surprisingly, there are not many gardens out that way. While we DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-44092925880777594242023-09-14T18:41:00.000+10:002023-09-14T18:41:50.010+10:00Milk bottle watererRecently we went away for a few weeks. I was worried that my carnivorous plants would dry out and die. These are swamp plants, and need constant water, and I didn't know what to do. My carnivorous plants are growing in trays that normally hold a low level of water, and I try to keep the water at a constant (yet low) level. I filled the trays to the top with water, butDBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826418948920694866.post-18315049537131472072023-08-20T15:59:00.003+10:002023-08-20T15:59:55.861+10:00'DCXL' vft and 'Wally' vft growth rate comparison I wrote a previous blog post comparing different Venus flytrap clones. I did my best to provide the best comparison that I could by using similar age plants grown side by side under the same conditions for one year. In that post I compared several different Venus flytrap varieties to 'Wally' as this is my standard as it is a very vigorous clone that I had a number of plants at DBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07244051758724811250noreply@blogger.com0