Rooting for You | Beginner Edible Gardening

S5E10 Tess and Alyce discuss integrating chickens - which basically means getting the chicks in and amongst your garden (not just living in the coup). We cover a whole bunch of benefits of having chickens in your garden before getting stuck into a few different options for actually how to integrate chickens into your garden. It’s an important discussion if you don’t want your chickens to completel...

S5E9 - Tess and Alyce chat all things growing peas (shelling peas, snow peas and sugar snap peas) - why you'd want to, the benefits to your soil, the advantages of growing throughout winter, varieties to look for (and ones to avoid!) and how to properly trellis them even on a shoestring budget. Cooking (and eating!) peas get some airtime in this episode, from frozen peas in a curry to fresh peas i...

S5E8 This is the third episode in the Rooting for You Chicken Series, all about chicken health, an absolutely essential topic! In this episode Alyce and Tess cover common chicken ailments, including keeping cool, lice, scaly leg mites, watching out for a pale comb or disheveled feathers, how to recognise good moulting compared to unusual moulting and finally a super important tip about chickens an...

S5E7 Looking for an interesting (and super easy!) Autumn crop?! We have the crop for you! In this week’s episode Tess and Alyce talk about growing mustards, but not just growing also cooking and eating. Plus a tangent into mustard seeds and how to make your own mustard at home.

S5E6 The second episode in our chicken series is all about what to feed your chickens to keep them healthy. In Part 1 of our Chicken Series we covered things to think about before you get chickens, now we’re getting stuck into the nitty gritty of caring for chickens, starting with everything you need to know about diet.

S5E5 Tess and Alyce talk about why you shouldn’t prune your raspberry bushes in Autumn, hold off until Winter! Plus, a how to guide for pruning when Winter is here. This topic can seem quite complicated, but it shouldn’t be, let us break it down for you! If you’re not growing raspberries yet, check out our ep, Season 2, Episode 3.

S5E4 Tess and Alyce chat about everything you need to think about before getting chickens at home. This is the first episode in our chicken series and in another episode we’ll cover everything from the benefits of owning chickens, to integration, housing and care! But first! Looking after a chicken is a commitment both with your time and money, you need to consider how you’ll protect your chickens...

S5E3 Alyce and Tess discuss cabbage moths and butterflies, different creatures but we can tackle them with the same methods. These garden pests (well, the babies or hungry caterpillars!) love your brassicas, broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage, mustards just as much as we do so in this episode we discuss what you need to watch out for and a bunch of different options for getting rid of them....

S5E2 Alyce walks us through planting her Winter garden - it’s a walk-through talk-through! In this episode we tie together a bunch of our previous topics to help you grow an edible garden over Winter, including what to do to get your garden ready and the best crops of beginner gardeners to plant.

S5E1 Tess and Alyce discuss Alyce's 7 top tips for Autumn gardening.  These are the 7 key things that you should be watching out for in the garden this Autumn, from protecting empty beds to watching out for viking-like yellow jackets! Of course there are a bunch of Autumn gardening activities to keep us busy but this is Alyce's list of the 7 most important.  

S4E9 This week we welcome as a guest to Rooting for You, Fabian Capomolla, also known as The Hungry Gardener.  Fabian was part of the team that co-founded the Little Veggie Patch Co in Melbourne but since 2014 has been working on his own projects. He now runs The Hungry Gardener website, is a garden consultant, has his own podcast and has just written his fourth book 'Growing Food the Italian Way'...

S4E8 Tess and Alyce debrief on the Summer season. Their successes, fails and things they’ve learned along the way. From Alyce’s blueberries to realisations about sunshine, the huge difference between Tess’ tomatoes last year and her monster plant this year and creating shade when you need it! Stay tuned for a fabulous suggestion from Alyce as to what to cook with excess zucchinis.

S4E6 Tess and Alyce chat about silverbeet, also known as swiss chard but whatever you want to call it, we'll give you all the tips to grow it! Silverbeet is a great crop for beginners, a little bit easier than spinach and just as versatile! Not sure how to eat or cook silverbeet? Alyce has a bunch of recommendations to tickle your tastebuds! 

S4E5 Tess and Alyce chat about what to grow in a shady spot during summer, but first! Is your patch full sun or part sun?  Alyce will let you know how to decide, how much sun and at what time of day.  This episode is packed with shady inspiration for you! 

S4E4 Tess and Alyce chat about corn. We’ve had quite a few requests for corn, so here it is! This episode covers two varieties of corn, sweet and grinding. Where to buy your seeds, where and when to grow your crop. Corn has a pretty fancy pollination technique, so planting this crop in the right formation is key. The biggest take away from Alyce, corn loves heat! So if you’re in the cooler parts o...

S4E3 Tess and Alyce chat about growing carrots. Did you know the original carrots were all purple, not the common orange we know today? Carrots are a great option if you're looking for something to plant in a less sunny spot in Summer.  In this episode, Alyce gives us all the tips and tricks to planting, caring for and harvesting carrots.  

S4E2 - Tess and Alyce chat about growing beans and an introduction into the two main varieties of bean plants - bush beans and climbing (or pole) beans. Don't know the difference? Listen along to find out more but here's the great news: the bush bean is perfect for anyone that has a little extra space this Summer.  We've focussed on the fresh-eating beans in this episode, perhaps we need anot...

S4E1 Tess and Alyce chat about all the activities that will be keeping us busy this season, from the fun stuff like crops we can still plant and everyone's favourite, harvesting! To the less fun activities like weeding, fertiliser and protecting our crops from the pesky possums and birds. PLUS Tess and Alyce do a re-cap on Spring, how they went and their successes and failures.  

S3E13 It’s coming into summer which means, for many of us, hot and dry weather is on the way! Maybe you’ve got plans to go away, or you’re just living your busy life, either way you might be thinking about watering systems for your garden! In this week’s episode, Tess and Alyce chat about all about watering systems. From the basic sprinkler options to the more sophisticated dripper systems PLUS a...

S3E12 Tess and Alyce chat about creating a bee-friendly garden. Bees are essential to helping our plants pollinate so that flowers are transformed to fruit or veggies. In this episode Alyce gives us her top tips for easy ways to attract bees, not only which flowers to plant (and some are better than others) but also edibles that bees love: herbs, edible flowers and fruiting plants PLUS other great...

S3E11 Tess and Alyce chat about growing annual edible flowers - nasturtiums, cornflowers, calendula, marigolds and pansies. Why edible flowers? They are the easiest way to jazz up a salad or dessert but its not just because they look pretty (which they do!) but edible flowers actually have a bunch of other benefits in the garden - let us tell you all about them! 

S3E10 Tess and Alyce chat about annual herbs, which is just a fancy gardening term for herbs that go hard and fast for a year and then they're done (unlike our stay in the ground all year round herbs, aka 'perennial herbs'). The four big hitters here are Basil, Coriander, Dill and Parsley (which is actually bi-annual, so you'll get a couple of seasons from it). They also chat about companion plant...

S3E9 Tess and Alyce chat about growing tomatoes! There are lots of ways to skin a cat but these are Alyce's top tips, from planting to watering to fertiliser. Listen out for Alyce's favourite tomato varieties plus a tangent into a gift from Alyce to Tess that went horribly wrong. 

S3E8 Tess and Alyce chat about growing passionfruit.  Not just a delicious fruit but also a beautiful vine, an excellent choice for beginner gardeners wanting to grow fruit. You'll need a sunny spot and something for the vine to grow up or over! Listen out for why Alyce is recommending a growing from a special Frankenstein plant!

S3E7 This week we're doing something different, our very first podcast guest! We're chatting with Paul from The Cheeky Gardener (@thecheekygardener on Instagram). The Cheeky Gardener has a weekly column in the WA Sunday Times. His columns are full of super practical tips, not just edibles but also lawns, hedges and camellias, a bit of landscaping and dog proofing your backyard!  In our chat we cov...