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  • Fact Sheets (Page 2)

Rockmelon

Rockmelon, or cantaloupe, are large fruit that grow on vines that trail along the ground.  Each melon can weigh between 1 and 2kg and one vine can produce around 4 to 6 melons. Rockmelons are round or oval in shape and have a textured brown skin that looks like it has been covered in netting.  When the melon is cut […]

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Rainbow Chard

Rainbow chard is exactly the same as silverbeet except its stems are red, yellow, pink and purple; all the colours of the rainbow.  Some people mass plant it in their garden beds with their flowers and shrubs because the stems are so beautiful and the leaves are a deep, glossy green. Just like silverbeet, rainbow […]

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Sweet Basil

Everyone who has ever eaten Italian food such as pizza would have seen sweet basil as it is used so much in Mediterranean cooking.  It adds a sweet, aniseed type flavour that is unlike any other herb. The sweet basil plant doesn’t like cold weather so in Australia it is mostly grown from late spring […]

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Radish

Radishes come in all sizes and shapes including long like a carrot but the most common are the red, round radishes which are generally eaten raw. Radishes grow really quickly and can be grown successively in the vegetable garden all year round.  They are also delicious in salads because they add a crunchy texture and a […]

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Sugar Snap Peas

Sugar snap peas are plump little pods that grow like normal peas from a vine.  Each pod contains round peas but unlike other peas, the whole sugar snap pod is eaten.  They are deliciously sweet can be eaten as soon as they are picked. The vines that the sugar snap peas grow on climb up trellises or climbing frames so that […]

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Pak Choi

Pak choi is from the cabbage family and is used in lots of Asian dishes.  It has other names as well including ‘bok choy’ or ‘Chinese white cabbage’.  It has thick, glossy stems with large green leaves which grow upright from the base to form one whole vegetable. It is best to grow pak choi in […]

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Mini Pumpkins

Pumpkins are one of the most versatile of all vegetables because it can be used in savoury and sweet dishes.  It’s a lot of fun to grow as the vines creep along the ground and the bright orange pumpkins start to appear from under the massive leaves. Although some varieties of pumpkin can grow to be […]

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Lettuce ‘Salad Mix’

Lettuce is so easy to grow that it should be in every vegetable garden and ‘cut and come again’ varieties are possibly the best of the bunch. ‘Cut and come again’ means that, instead of harvesting the whole lettuce in one go, only the leaves are picked leaving the smaller ones to keep growing. This way, one lettuce […]

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Spring Onions

Spring onions are from the same family as common globe onions but instead of having the large bulb at the base, spring onions have slender white stems with green strappy leaves on the top. They can be grown throughout most of the year. Spring onions are sometimes called bunching onions because they tend to grow in […]

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Leek

Leek is a strange name for a vegetable but it really is an interesting one to grow.  Leeks are related to onions but their flavour is more mild and much sweeter. Leek are a cylindrical vegetable that grows straight up with a white stem that is between 3 to 6cm wide and then green, strappy […]

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The Blog!

  • Gardening’s not rocket science!

    Years ago, when our parents planted out their vegie patches, they turned over the soil, mixed some sheep manure through,...

    08 Dec,13
  • Have fun with your food!

    Just because I’m a grown up doesn’t mean that I can’t play with my food! The other day, I became...

    05 Dec,13
  • Little Halloween Pumpkin Heads

    Did you manage to grow some pumpkins for Halloween this year?  Don’t worry if you didn’t as they’re still available...

    28 Oct,13
  • Crazy Capsicums

    Capsicums are a confusing vegetable; not least because they are actually a fruit!  But also because they are related to...

    20 Oct,13
  • Take broccoli off the table!

    Since the beginning of time parents have been asking the age old question, ‘How do I get my kids to...

    06 Oct,13
  • Garden Gnomes are Back

    Yay! Garden Gnomes are back! Where have they been all these years?  I imagine that, having been discarded by gardeners...

    18 Sep,13
  • Planting a Bare-rooted Fruit Tree

    It’s winter! It’s time to plant an orchard!  You can do this at any time of the year but in...

    06 Jun,13
  • Warheads v. Radishes!

    Why will kids turn up their noses at radishes but they’ll eat Warhead candies?  Or they refuse to eat Brussels...

    03 May,13
  • Room to Move

    I get a bit peeved when I watch some gardening shows or read gardening books that tell people that they...

    26 Apr,13
  • Veg Out!

    Veg out!  Don’t you just love vegging out?  Sitting on the sofa doing absolutely nothing except watching a bit of...

    08 Feb,13
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