February – Permaculture Food Gardening in Subtropical Australia

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February – Permaculture Food Gardening in Subtropical Australia by Ewa Bekiesch, Permaculture designer, educator, self-sufficient and sustainable living consultant, and healthy food advocate. February is one of the hottest months in our subtropical parts of Australia. Hot and humid! We are thankful for every single drop of rain and appreciate the food we are harvesting at this time of the year, and there is plenty to harvest! We are not running out of jobs in the garden, however, we are limiting the work to the early morning and very late afternoon hours. Additional to the summer gardening jobs described in my post here, February is the month when I prune… Read More

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Fish Mint Plant, Fish Leave – Houttuynia cordata

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Fish Mint Plant, Fish Leave – Houttuynia cordata Fish mint is one of the perennial edibles I don’t want to miss in my garden. I have it growing as a ground cover in the green house between capsicum, eggplant and tomatoe plants. It also grows in my pond as it is considered as a water loving plant but even though my greenhouse doesn’t sit in water, the Fish mint feels like it belongs there! The plant comes from China and North-West India and it is used there as a culinary and medicinal plant. The Pharmacogn Rev. (Kumar at al., 2014) ‘describes therapeutic efficacy of the whole plant and its extracts,… Read More

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Poor Man’s Bean – The Forgotten Bean

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This is the article I wrote for our local magazine The Beacon issue #12 Poor Man’s Bean – The Forgotten Bean by Ewa Bekiesch, Permaculture Consultant, Designer and Educator Poor Man’s Bean – also known as Old man beans, Hyacinth beans, Dolichos, Lablab beans, Rongai bean, Fuji mame I just love easy to grow vegetables and the Poor Man’s Bean is one of them. It is a short-lived perennial and according to a lovely lady I got the seeds from, it has been grown in Australia for a very long time. It has beautiful dark green leaves, the flowers are deep pink and purple and the young pods are pale… Read More

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Grow It! Eat It! Use It! The Sponge Gourd – Luffa aegyptiaca, Egyptian cucumber, Vietnamese luffa

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This is the article I wrote for our local Fraser Coast magazine The Beacon: Sustainable Living Choices On The Fraser CoastGrow It! Eat It! Use It! The Sponge Gourd – Scientific name: Luffa aegyptiaca Other names: Egyptian cucumber, or Vietnamese luffa The Sponge Gourd or simply Luffa is one of the plants I wouldn’t like to miss in our food forest. It has many uses, it loves our hot Summer days and the bees love it, too 🙂 It has been well known and used since the time of the Late Roman Empire. The young fruits and leaves are used as a vegetable and can be cooked in many ways or eaten… Read More

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The Black Elderberry, European Elderberry – Sambucus Nigra

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This is the article I wrote for our local magazine “The Beacon” in the 7th edition Story and images by Ewa Bekiesch – Permaculture Designer and Educator, Gardener, Healthy Food Lover Mythical… Magical… Medicinal… Beautiful… Delicious… And it loves to grow in our backyards all over Australia! The Black Elderberry, The European Elderberry – Sambucus nigra I don’t see many of them growing around and that is why I love to share with you some information about this beautiful and useful plant. It is very pretty, frost resistant, bees love it, chickens love it and you can use it in so many ways! According to Wolf-Dieter Storl (trained professional anthropologist)… Read More

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