Yearly Archives: 2014



Good bugs and bad bugs in the garden
Recently, I wrote a blog post on the large number of whitefly currently plaguing gardens across Melbourne. While their numbers are still quite high, I’ve noticed a huge increase in predatory insects over the last fortnight. We’ve had plenty of ladybugs, spiders, praying mantis, hover flies and lacewings in our […]

Whitefly Predators





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Are you finding that every time you move in the garden you’re being greeted with a cloud of little white or green insects rising up from your precious plants? Don’t be worried, you’re not the only gardener with this problem. Gardens across Melbourne are currently teeming with whitefly. Whitefly are […]

Whitefly control methods






















Our parsely pesto was so tasty, and such a vibrant green
With all the warm, sunny, spring weather lately, you might have noticed that your herbs have started growing a lot more vigorously. If you don’t cut them back regularly during this flush of growth, they’re going to go to seed. Going to seed spells the beginning of the end for […]

Parsley Pesto Recipe



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White oil is among the safest and most effective organic ways of controlling many sap sucking and leaf chewing pests in the garden. Gardeners have been using white oils for centuries, so they’ve been thoroughly tested. The best thing about white oil is that you can make it yourself! White […]

How to Make White Oil


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Rose Creek Estate in East Keilor held their annual Open Day on the last Sunday in August. Leaf, Root & Fruit took the opportunity to visit this impressive family garden. Without the queue of visitors, the house on the corner of Craig Street would look just like any other in […]

Rose Creek Estate Open Day 2014




Win a $100 Diggers Club Voucher with our free Zucchini Tromboncino Seeds 40
Zucchini Tromboncino is a heirloom vegetable common throughout Italy. Valued for its abundant, tasty harvests. It was developed in Liguria, in northern Italy. The fruit has a very pale green skin and can have varied faint white stripes like some zucchini varieties as well.  The really nice thing about this […]

How to Grow Zucchini Tromboncino


We may think we are nurturing our garden - Jenny Uglow
There have been some really inspiring gardening quotes and sayings from over the years. We regularly share quotes such as these on our Facebook Page. Here’s a compilation of some of our favourite ones for you to enjoy. Do you have a great gardening quote that we’ve missed out on? […]

Gardening Quotes and Sayings


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It’s citrus time! Lemon, Orange, Lime, Mandarin and Cumquat trees all over Melbourne are heavily laden with ripe fruit. We’ve got heaps of lemons on our tree that need using. Last week we asked our Facebook Fans for some recipes to help use up our glut of lemons. Here’s what […]

Lemon Recipes





This post is a little old now… please head over to our spring planting guide for a much more comprehensive wrap up of all the veggies you can plant in spring and how to go about it! Spring Planting Guide It’s August already… doesn’t time fly! In gardens all across […]

What to plant in August



The cauliflowers at Leaf, Root & Fruit Headquarters are nearly ready to be picked. Back at the start of Autumn, we were a bit enthusiastic when we sowed our cauliflower seeds. Now we have more cauliflower heads than we really need. Fortunately, all this wintery weather and Cauliflower and Leek […]

Cauliflower and Leek Soup


Growing Giant Pumpkins in Melbourne 16
The biggest pumpkins come from the variety called ‘ATLANTIC GIANT’. The current world record for an Atlantic Giant pumpkin is held by Beni Meier from Switzerland, with a 2,323 pound Pumpkin, which is a whopping 1054 kg! The current Australian Record is held by Dale Oliver, with an impressive 743kg […]

Growing Giant Pumpkins in Melbourne




Fruit Tree Pruning Kyneton 47
Fruit trees don’t need to be pruned to produce fruit. However, if they do need pruning, then selecting an optimal time will ensure the tree remains healthy, productive and resilient. Neglecting to prune your fruit trees won’t stop production of fruit. However, it can help to establish a strong framework […]

When to Prune Fruit Trees


Recently Duncan and Caryn from Leaf, Root & Fruit took some down-time and had a quick holiday traveling to the UK and Europe. Here’s a few horticultural highlights from the trip: Hanover School Towpath Garden Regent’s Canal, London, England   The pupils, staff and parents of Hanover School created a […]

Leaf, Root & Fruit’s recent tour of Europe


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These newspaper pots are so easy to make. There’s no messing around with staples or sticky tape. They’re great for the environment because you’re re-using old newspaper. Best of all though, you’re not using pots made out of plastic. Once your seedlings are ready for transplanting, you can plant the […]

Making newspaper pots



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Next time that you are cooking with eggs, don’t throw the eggshells away. Did you know that eggshells are a great gardening resource? Let the eggshells dry out for a day and then you can crush them up and sprinkle them as a barrier around seedlings. Slugs and snails hate […]

Using Eggshells in the Garden


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Thanks to a fellow gardener, Laura for providing us with this delicious quiche recipe. She prepared the quiche using Winter greens she’d grown herself in half wine barrels and pots. You can substitute the Baby Kale, Sorrel and Silver Beet for any other leafy greens. Great comfort food for a […]

Winter Veggie Quiche Recipe


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Aphids hate the cold. At the moment, with the unusually warm weather they are thriving in protected micro-climates in gardens all over Melbourne. Today, when I was out pottering in the garden, I noticed that all of my parsley and coriander plants were covered in aphids. The plants have been […]

Attack of the Aphids!



Strawberry runners on a apllet planter box 8
This blog post is specifically about planting strawberry runners. Why not check out our guide on How to Grow Strawberries as well? Strawberries can “reproduce” either through seeds or from runners. Strawberry runners are horizontal stems that run above the ground and produce new “baby” clone plants at the end […]

How to Plant Strawberry Runners



Gardening With Soul is a documentary split into four parts, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. It follows the daily life of Sister Loyola Galvin as she oversees the gardens and grounds of the Home of Compassion in Wellington, New Zealand. It’s as far removed from a Hollywood blockbuster as you […]

Movie Review: Gardening With Soul



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It’s Peanut Sunday here at LRF Head Quarters in Hawthorn East! Earlier in the year we planted out an experimental crop of peanuts and today we harvested them. As you can see, our crop was a huge success. It was so exciting to uproot the withering plants and finding masses […]

Peanut Sunday


Autumn planting guide onion
Our garlic is leaping up out of the ground at the moment and it’s not too late to get yours in. As long as you’ve got a sunny spot for it, growing garlic is very easy. It loves moist (but not waterlogged), friable soil with plenty of organic matter and […]

Garlic