6. Good Organic Gardening - November-December 2016 AvxHome.in

Ann & Steve Robertson | GARDENING FOLK
A wisteria vine in full bloom brings
colour and life to the garden
Comfrey leaves make a great
tea to give plants a boost
Agapanthus clump well to form
an attractive border
After attending a workshop by
biodynamic gardener Jade Woodhouse,
Ann learned that for vegetable gardening in
Queensland’s climate, you only need six or
so hours of sunlight.
Ann and Steve grow a diverse selection
of vegetables, including salad greens, bitter
leaves and mustard greens, shallots, red onions,
leeks, Asian greens, kale, cauliflower, beans,
snow peas, celery, beetroot, spinach, rhubarb,
asparagus, zucchini, capsicum, various herbs,
comfrey, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, sweet
potatoes, ginger, turmeric and garlic.
To add nutrients to the soil, Ann uses
comfrey tea, worm juice, green manures,
occasional sheep manure and organic fertilisers
containing minerals and beneficial microbes.
Cuppa anyone?
Here’s Ann’s comfrey tea recipe. Comfrey is a
shade-loving, deep-rooted plant that’s rich in
nutrients and high in nitrogen. It will give your
vegetables a real boost.
Fill a bucket with hand-torn or chopped
comfrey leaves and cover with water. Give
it a stir each day and leave to ferment for
two weeks. Dilute the resulting brew 1L to a
bucket of water and pour on plants.
Ann’s tips
Have a knife handy blade-down in the
vegie patch so you can easily take
a snip of what you’d like to harvest
for dinner (a tip passed on by Ann’s
grandfather).
Collect leaves — these can be mown
up and gathered to use in the compost
heap, or use unmown.
Don’t overplant — if you have a small
family, don’t plant whole punnets of
any vegetables at the same time. Swap
seedlings with family and friends or
As well as beds bursting with
blooms there’s also plenty of
open grassland
eat the plants when they are quite
young (works well with leaf crops).
Then you’re left with a manageable
number, giving you some room for
successive crops and a longer period
of productivity.
Use green manures to revitalise beds.
A compost heap is a must — for lawn
clippings, vegie scraps, crop surplus
and leaves. Three bays are ideal to
allow turning of the heaps and addition
of moisture and other organic matter.
Good Organic Gardening | 31