The Diggers Blog

The weather bureau has just reported that we have witnessed our hottest January ever. The average maximum temperature for the whole month of January was 36.92°C across the whole continent, some 2.28°C above the previous more...

When you think of scent in the garden, the first smells that come to mind are honeysuckle, violets gardenia, and perhaps the exquisite Michelia champaca. This week at Heronswood the two scents, or rather smells, more...

I have tried not to even mention the weather for this entry, but it’s a bit impossible as the extremely hot and dry weather has dictated nearly all our work in the gardens these last more...

The last few months have been hugely significant for our environment in terms of progressing a number of seemingly intractable issues. We have seen the proclamation of the largest network of Marine Reserves in the world followed by the agreement of protection for Tasmanian native forests. The all-important Murray- more...

Well, I came inside to avoid the chill and the rain and start on this blog.  Low and behold I venture out and it’s a bright early summer day.  I know Melbourne is the home more...

Along with avoiding chemicals and seeking better taste and nutrition, one of the top five reasons people choose to buy organic products is because it is one of the only sure ways of avoiding the untested genetically modified (GM) organisms that are slowly and silently creeping into our food more...

Supermarket grown potatoes have more pesticides sprayed on them than almost any other vegetable. It took the death of 3 million Irish during the potato famine to show us how susceptible the tubers are to more...

The box warehouse is today as ubiquitous as a McDonalds or Kentucky chicken store.  But have you ever thought about how "ungreen" these warehouses are? You drive in to a bitumen carpark, usually devoid of more...

Those dutchy's keep telling us to buy bulbs that are really only suitable for cut flowers. Tulips, for example, flower for just 3 weeks at best, leaving 49 weeks of gaps in the garden which more...

We can admire English gardens for all the right reasons but sourcing our vegetables and fruit seeds from their damp, cool climate is absurd. English gardeners cannot grow tomatoes, capsicums, pumpkins and melons, let alone more...