Originally from Manchester in the UK, Clare James has called Australia home for decades. She and her partner, Brisbaneborn Simon, and 16-year-old son Ollie share an acre block in Mount Crosby in the Queensland capital’s leafy southwest. A qualified h

Apricots are one of the most delicious fruits to eat picked fresh from the tree as they ripen in late summer. These stone fruits thrive in warm temperate and especially Mediterranean climates with a period of winter chill. But they particularly hate

Horticultural oil, also known as white oil, is an easy and inexpensive pesticide to prepare at home from readily available materials. It can be used to control scale, aphids, mealy bug, citrus leaf miner, mites and caterpillars on roses, ornamentals,

This dish is a celebration of good olive oil as well as leeks. I first had it at the house of a Turkish chef, Serif Kaya, where his wife Gulbahar had cooked the most amazing spread of dishes. They very kindly shared the secret of one. • 12 small (4 l

Leafy, peppery mustard greens are an easy-to-grow cool-season crop related to cabbages, broccoli and other brassicas. The young leaves add a spicy kick to salads — or you can cook up the older leaves in soups and stir-fries. Mustard greens are frost

Thick, sour/sweet pomegranate molasses (available from Middle Eastern food stores and some supermarkets) adds a beautiful complexity to this dish, although you can also make it without. • 1 large eggplant• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil• 1 tabl

The PestFree Cover system provides a fast and effective barrier to stop bugs, birds, possums and rabbits from eating your crops. Rather than unclipping nets to access your beds, simply lift the whole frame off in seconds. Includes a full range of pip

Walnuts are tree nuts of the genus Juglans, the most common varieties being the English (or Persian) walnut (Juglans regia) or the black walnut (J. nigra). Technically, walnuts are stone fruit and not true nuts. The “nuts” are picked when green for p

These maps are simplified versions adapted from climate maps by the Bureau of Meteorology and are only a rough guide. Microclimates can be formed anywhere. ■

∙ Autumnal cool is yet to take over so, while there’s still some daytime warmth, now’s the time to prepare for winter and spring harvests by starting cabbage, broad beans, Asian greens, lettuce, rocket, carrots, silverbeet, spring onions and spinach.

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Common name: Masked plover, masked lapwing Scientific name: Vanellis miles The masked plover or lapwing is an odd bird, and not just because of its fancy yellow headgear. Equally at home in secluded wetlands and suburban carparks, by turns timid and

For type-A green thumbs, one of the rarely admitted joys of gardening is tinkering about with ways to store, file and sort our gardening paraphernalia. Don’t tell anyone, but the sight of labels and markers fills me with glee while the discovery on I

Bone broth, turmeric, ginger, citrus and homemade chicken soup are well-known immune-boosting foods, but some you may not have considered are medicinal mushrooms such as shiitake, maitake, lion’s mane, reishi and porcini. In many ways, you could cons

Apples, bananas, berries (raspberry, strawberry), breadfruit, dates, figs, finger limes, grapes, guava, kiwifruit, lemons, limes, mangosteens, melons (honeydew, rockmelon, watermelon), nashi, nectarines, olives, oranges (Valencia), passionfruit, pawp

Natural loofah sponges come from the cylindrical fruits of the tropical plant luffa, a cucurbit related to cucumbers, melons and pumpkins. As such it is an annual vine that grows throughout spring and summer. There are about six species in the Luffa

Starting plants from seeds is a wonderfully economical way to grow lots of plants, with each seed packet usually containing dozens or hundreds of seeds. Several fragrant annual and biennial plants — such as alyssum, sweet peas and sweet rocket — do b

By Angus Stewart & Emma Stewart, Murdoch Books, $45 For regular readers of Good Organic Gardening, our native plants expert Angus Stewart will need no introduction. Here, he and daughter Emma show how you can adapt your garden to a changing climate i

∙ As autumn takes hold, don’t stop putting in brassicas, broad beans, peas, spring onions and spinach. Now is also a good time to consider putting in carrots and spuds as well as artichokes, asparagus and beetroot. Snow peas and spinach planted at th

Are you guilty of putting your leftover food in the fridge only to find it growing moss a week later? You’re not the only one. Australians throw out a whopping $8–10 billion worth of food every year, which eventually ends up in landfill. Fortunately,

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Have you ever stopped to wonder what plant produces saffron? Those long orange threads sold as saffron come from a crocus flower that grows from a corm. The saffron crocus flowers in autumn, producing lavender cup-like flowers with a cluster of golde

There is plenty of advice out there as to the time of day you should eat. Some of it is anecdotal, some mythical and some cynical. A recent study measured the difference between calorie loading in the morning versus the evening. It did so using an is

When lichen appears, some gardeners get very worried. Be curious, not afraid. Lichen is a flat green growth that can have a slightly leafy look but it isn’t a plant and isn’t usually damaging. It can grow on the bark of trees as well as on fences or

I work from home — in Tumbarumba, in the western foothills of the Snowy Mountains — as a graphic designer and food photographer. I produce a few market goodies (homemade condiments, seed packs, greeting cards), create content for my Snowy Foodie blog

The ‘vin’ in this dish is wine, and while most Anglicised recipes use red, I prefer white. According to The Art of Eating, an insightful quarterly publication from the US, the French actually use their local wine for this dish — so in Alsace, for exa

Mid-autumn in most of Australia means there are still plenty of daytime high temperatures, which in turn means lots to plant in your vegie patch and herb garden. April brings more autumnal conditions as the days become shorter and the nights cooler,

If you’re mindful of your responsibility to the planet, then developing a sustainable approach to poultry keeping will come naturally. You may be sustainable already or just need to tweak a few areas. We’ll get to them, but let’s start by identifying

Cauliflower has had a makeover. The much-loved white vegetable often served with creamy cheese is now available in new colours and enjoying new popularity in innovative recipes. Visit the greengrocer or the seedling section of the garden centre to di

Have you ever heard a gardener say, “Time to dose up my gardenia with Epsom salts because the leaves are turning yellow again”? Is this the correct diagnosis and action? Possibly, but it’s likely to be only partially correct. Many gardening articles