Soil Searching Diaries
Plants, recipes, ideas, thoughts, musings, questions

4 min read

Compost in Battery Park City and remembering 9/11

After reading about Battery Park City Authority's dog waste composting program, I was very interested to find out more. It was amazing to...

4 min read

Regenerative ancient agriculture: the chimpanas of Xochimilcho, Mexico City

Mexico City was founded by the Aztecs in 1325 AD and was built on a vast lake and a series of wetlands. This ancient culture created an...

4 min read

Composting in New York by bike

What a perfect introduction to community composting in New York City – a Compost Bike Tour organised by the Lower East Side Ecology...

4 min read

Digging into the soil of Los Angeles

I wanted to get down and dirty in the City of Angels - beneath the glitz and glamour, the theme parks, the highways - deep down and...

1 min read

Street art travels

One of the great things about walking rather than driving is being able to take the time to stop and fully appreciate the local street...

2 min read

Garlic chives and society garlic- delicious and attractive

Easy to grow, tasty and healthy these flat leaved chives keep giving. Garlic chives and society garlic are very similar in appearance -...

1 min read

Makrut (aka kaffir lime leaf)

Providing a distinctive South-East Asian flavour to cooking, Makrut trees are an important feature in a sub-tropical garden. The leaves...

3 min read

Choko - an international favourite

Chokos have a bad reputation in Australia. People remember them from their childhood being served up boiled to within an inch of their...

4 min read

A garden for pregnancy, breastfeeding and babies

Spending time in the garden is a great way to get exercise and soak up a bit of vitamin D from the sunshine. In addition it's an...

1 min read

Leunig on leaves

The work of Michael Leunig, the Australian cartoonist, writer, painter, philosopher and poet, is so whimsically accurate in his comments...

2 min read

The art of tea

Drinking tea is meditative, relaxing, healing and deeply cultural. From Japanese tea ceremonies to dainty English afternoon teas, a cup...

2 min read

Curry leaf tree

The curry leaf tree, murraya koenigii, also known as kadi patta, is part of the citrus family and very commonly used in Indian and Sri...

2 min read

Sub-tropical garden curry

This curry contains the flavours of a South East Asian curry and is very versatile as any vegetables or meats can be used depending what...