The garden at Thistlebrook has gone to the dogs. Weeds have taken hold. The lawns need mowing. Seedlings sit in the greenhouse waiting to be planted. The neglect is plain to see, but there’s a good reason. For the last month or so I’ve been holed up in my office putting the finishing touches on a brand new project designed specifically for home food growers.

The Radish, a blog about edible gardening from roots to fruits, is now live! We’ll be updating a few times per week with articles and growing fruit, vegies and herbs, ideas for using your produce in the kitchen, and for the adventurous, some of my deeper thoughts (I do have them occasionally!) on “the good life” and agrarianism.

We think the new site is going to be a blast, and while I’ll still be posting my weekly updates here at thistlebrook.com.au, I’d really encourage you to subscribe to The Radish. Subscriptions are free, and all you need to do is click on the appropriate links at the top of the site, or better still, skip straight to the subscription links by clicking here to subscribe by email or by RSS feed. In return you’ll get lots of helpful and thought provoking articles delivered straight to your inbox or feed reader.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the site, so please let us know what you think. And get involved, if you can. The comments section below each post is the ideal place to ask questions, answer questions and share your own tips with fellow home growers.

That’s it for now, other than to say, head over and check out The Radish.

Happy gardening,

Justin

p.s. If you’re wondering how we came up with the name for The Radish have a read of our About page.

As winter gradually draws to a close and the new season makes its presence felt, Thistlebrook’s 2011 fruit tree season is also coming to an end. It’s been a funny old season, this one – up and down and all over the shop like a punch drunk All Ordinaries index. As a consequence, we still have good stocks of many varieties available for immediate purchase and delivery.

Pop over to our catalogue page, and check out what’s still in stock. They’re quality trees, handled with care, backed by knowledgable service and representing excellent value for money. I’d much rather see them in the ground in your gardens than sitting around in the nursery until next winter, so give me a call or send an email if you’d like to place an order.

Okay, hard sell over, and onto other topics. First, our gardening workshops. Many of you will know that we’ve been running our workshops sporadically over the last couple of years, and some of you will even have attended. If you did come to a workshop, thanks for attending, and I hope it proved helpful. As a passionate home grower, I’m keen to share my enthusiasm for edible gardening with whoever will listen. But we also need to make some sort of a living, which at times requires a hard-nosed decision or two. In this case, after lots of long discussions weighing up the pros and cons Kylie and I have decided to abandon the workshop concept for the forseeable future. We simply weren’t able to generate enough interest to make them viable from a financial point of view, and have no immediate plans to put workshops back on the agenda.

All is not lost, however. I’m still keen to share my aforementioned enthusiasm for growing food, and if you’re keen to be inspired, you may well be interested in a very exciting new project we’ve been incubating over winter. Without giving too much away just yet, I can say that it’s about edible gardening, it’s got a community focus, is a tad philosophical, and just a tiny bit radical (in the truest sense of the word). Best of all, this new project is set to launch at the start of October! Keep your eyes, and your radishes, peeled!

Happy gardening,

Justin

It’s roughly halfway through Thistlebrook Nursery’s 2011 bare root season, and I’m keen to give you an update of how the season’s gone so far, and what we still have to offer for the next few months. Thanks to all of you who’ve ordered trees so far, our sales are up compared to this time last year despite a slow, flood-hungover start to the season. The trees are now safely in our holding beds, stored in moist sawdust, and I have to say that this year’s stock is exceptionally strong and healthy. Mail orders will start shipping ealry next week, and local collections will begin this weekend.

We’ve sold out of a number of varieties, particularly some of our rarer heritage apples and the ever popular berries, but the goood news is that we still have plenty of trees in stock to help you create a productive garden or backyard orchard. To give you a rough idea, we have plenty of plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, common apples, persimmons, mulberries, medlars (make delicious preserves – foodies take note!) and chestnuts available.

For those who haven’t purchased from us before, the process for a mail order/local collection nursery like ours goes like this: you place an order with accompanying payment, and recive an acknowledgement via email; we reserve your selected varieties so that no-one else is able to purchase them; mail orders are shipped progressively until the middle of September; local customers are welcome to drop in and collect orders at their earliest convenience  (and pick my gardening brain while you’re here).

So if you’ve never given bare root trees a go, please do. They’re better value for money than potted trees (about half the price), and establish well with a minimum of care. In our catalogue, we have varieties suited to cold, high chill areas, and warmer low chill areas, and we mail order at reasonable rates to Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and South Australia. We use Australia Post, and get lots of positive feedback about the quality of our packing and the excellent condition of the trees upon arrival.

Orders are welcome right through until the first week of September, and if you have any questions about specifiic varieties or need advice about planning your orchard, I really encourage you to ask. I’m a passionate fruit gardener too, and love nothing more than chatting with fellow enthusiasts, whether experienced or starting out, about the sheer pleasure (and occasional frustrations) of growing your own fruit.

Thanks for supporting our nursery and best wishes for your winter garden.

Grow well,

Justin

Our village’s annual extravaganza, the Hampton Food and Arts Festival, is on this weekend and we couldn’t be more excited!

Kicking things off on Friday night, the annual Hampton Art Exhibition opening will feature works from artists across the Toowoomba region and the Brisbane Valley. On Saturday, a series of botanical and culinary workshops is being held. We’re hosting a Grow Your Own Food workshop at Thistlebrook, so it’s all systems go getting the garden back in shape after a busy couple of months.

Saturday Night features the Hampton Hop, a 1950′s themed dance with Brisbane band the Sugar Shakers sure to get the crowd jumping and jiving with a mix of rock and roll classics and orginal songs. For those who love to dance (not me unfortunately, though the music should be good) it promises to be a fun night out. Food and licenced bar will be running, and tickets can be purchased at the door for $25 a pop.

Sunday is the main event. Some of the delights on offer include cooking demos with guest chefs Alistair McLeod and Dominique Rizzo, market stalls selling a wide range of artisan food, just-picked produce grown locally in the Hampton district, and a plethora of local restaurants, wineries and cafes. The art exhibition will be open all day, and resident artists will be demonstrating their skills. There’ll be a dedicated music stage featuring the likes of acclaimed songwriters Andrew Morris and Innes Campbell (fronting Present Company), and a creative kids space will keep the littlies engaged.