Scarecrow's Garden (South Australia; 1/2 acre; organic fruit and vegetables)

Scarecrow's Garden was recommended by Peggy at Organic Growing Pains in Ireland.

The wonderful thing for Northern Hemisphere gardeners is that when they are inside after short, cold days during winter they can be following and learning about spring and summer growing (although in different climate conditions) Down Under.

Scarecrow lives with her husband in "a quiet rural town in the Mid North of South Australia," their two children now having grown and left the region for work.

She was kind enough to drop me a line about their garden and her blog.

Their total "block" (a good Australian term) is half an acre and "most of the area is in food production"

Scarecrow is studying permaculture design so she tries "to have all elements on the property linked in some manner and multi-use."

"We keep chickens (12 at last count) not only for the eggs (not meat yet) but also for their value in the garden. They eat the weeds, keep the bugs down in the orchard area, and provide a clean source of manure where we at least know whats gone into the making of it. We also keep 'Compost Worms' that provide us with a rich compost (castings) that forms the basic growing medium for the 'Wicking Beds' we grow our food in."

The climate in their part of the world is "quite arid and I'm always willing to experiment with the latest water saving ideas to make it easier to grow our food."

"We like to eat organic food and up here that is quite difficult to achieve so we grow our own. Folks tell us that we can't grow stuff here it's too hot, over 40C in summer or too cold, down to -7C on frosty mornings or too dry with 360mm of rain in a good year."

"We eat well from our little patch. We try to grow as much food as we can on the land that we have."

"Fruit trees that were planted when we moved here 15 years ago are now either in full production or dead and haven't been replaced. I have allowed some seedling trees to grow where they have voluntarily sprouted and these are fruiting well too."

Scarecrow is "always keen to grow unusual, hardy or new crops" so she is trialling "some Australian 'Bush Foods' this year. Ones found in the arid regions mainly so hopefully these will add to our food supply."

As to the blog, Scarecrow's Garden is "basically a weekly journal of what I get up to in the garden. Planting notes, weather check, suppliers. From the comments left and emails I get, I often post with more information. I'll also make posts that I may need to refer back to later. For example testing soil pH and the moon planting notes."

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Organic Growing Pains Recommends

I recently did a posting on Farm Blogs from Around the World about Peggy at Organic Growing Pains in Ireland.





Peggy has links to Food, Fun and Farm Life in East Africa, as well as to Life on a Southern Farm, both listed here at Farm Blogs from Around the World.

However there are a few others she would like to recommend:

• Dave's Allotment (which I think is England, and, which from a quick glance, has to be one of the finest allotments I have seen in a while)
• Scarecrow's Garden (Mid North of South Australia on a half acre town block)
• Freedom Gardners.org which Peggy thinks is based in Australia but has contributors from all over the world, a network of '978 freedom gardeners'.

As ever, I will be adding the above to the blog roll here at Farm Blogs and contacting them myself for more info and their recommendations.

N.B If you just want to see Recommendations postings,

click on the label Recommendations for a full list.

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Organic Growing Pains (Ireland; allotment)

When I was back off with the fairies on holiday I missed this comment on Farm Blogs from Peggy at Organic Growing Pains in Ireland (Peggy sorry). So let me make ammends and bring a bit more attention to her blog.

Here's what Peggy had to say.

Thanks for being interested in my blog. I did not consider it a farm or small holding but just enjoy being outdoors and showing my grandchildren how our food is grown as my parents and grandparents did before me.

Hopefully they will have respect for the land and all growing things and a curiosity for life and living.

Allotments are not big in Ireland but are becoming increasingly sought after as we become more worried about where our food is coming from and how it is grown.

We live in a country where farmer's wives go to the local supermarket to buy 'fresh' veg imported from around the globe rather than tend a patch on their own land.

I am amazed at the people from all over the world who grow their own in various plots big and small and willing to share their knowledge with the rest of us online.

Peggy has some recommendations that I hope to be posting soon.






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