We all want to garden safely, but no one wants to tolerate insects and diseases. Surely gardeners had effective pesticides before there were chemicals.

The biggest thing I’ve learnt in the last year is that the key to organic gardening is keeping a healthy balance in your garden. Prevent problems, rather than treating for them after the fact. Healthy plants are better able to withstand pests than stressed…

I went into my local hardware store the other day, needing to buy a couple of vegetable seedlings to fill some gaps in my garden.  As is always the case, while I was there I wandered around a bit and ended up with a few more items in my grocery trolley.  I had been looking for a desk lamp for my office so I found a nice unobtrusive one, and was about to go on my way when I was approached by the shop assistant who asked whether I wanted a light bulb for it.

I’m fussy when it comes to…

Stop wasting Food: Best Before and Use By Dates on Food – what they really mean

As a qualified chef (one of my many talents) one of my pet peeves is food wastage. It’s bad enough that we all buy to excess, cook to excess and don’t always eat everything we buy/cook so that we throw away far too much food. But on top of this we also throw away far too much food that is actually perfectly fine to eat/use because people get paranoid about the best before/use by and other ‘dates’ printed…

In New Zealand, we throw away around 6 million plastic toothbrushes each year.  6 million! That is a lot of plastic sitting in the landfills waiting for our children (or perhaps our children’s children) to figure out what to do with it all!  Because, unfortunately, as far as we can tell, plastic lasts forever in the natural environment. It may break down into smaller pieces, but it never actually goes away.   It leaves behind a legacy of toxins & particles that are…