Fair Trade

This is my coffee mug for today, it's from OXFAM and it says 'its only fair'. I like the mug for several reasons - it's meaningful, it's pretty, it's big, and it's part of making the world a better place. I have fair trade coffee in it too. My partner and I are committed to supporting Fair Trade through a range of different ways. It's easy to do this, and it's important. Oxfam says Most of the world's coffee beans are produced by small-scale farmers in developing countries. Because they have little bargaining power in an industry dominated by a few large and powerful international coffee companies, they are forced to put up with low and unstable prices for their beans. Look for opportunities to buy fair trade, they're more plentiful these days, and see just how easy it is to make a difference. See my Thyme for the Earth corner for references to other things you can buy fair trade and ethically.

Garden Updates

It's a gorgeous Summer's Saturday and my bougainvillea is looking stunning in the sunlight. I thought I would give a bit of a garden update today. I am pretty happy with how the gardens growing, although I have a furry caterpillar plague on my Rhubarb.. any hints??

• This weeks producers include celery, carrots, snow peas, zuccini, basil, parsley, last crop of lettuce.
• This weeks plantings include beetroot, lettuce, snow peas, and raddishes
• This weeks progress includes beans, bok choy, brocoli and cucumbers
• Fruit - I have 3 multigrafted citrus trees. This means they can produce different varieties. This will be the first year we've got more than one fruit on the trees - in total about 9 fruit. I dont know what they are yet?? but I've put all the fruit into protection bags because we're prone to fruit fly here. I got my bags from Green Harvest.
• Banana - the hand of banana's is still hanging, doesn't look much different since the last photo, but at least its still there.
• Old lemon tree - My partner decided it was time to prune the old dear. She still produces fruit plentiful for us and friends, although she's rotting through at the base. We dont know how long she'l stay standing.

Garden tip of the week: dont forget when you plant a grafted tree or vine, watch it for new growth under the graft. Cut this off as it will grow stronger than the variety you paid for. New growth above the graft is good news. We just planted a grafted passionfruit and Im nipping the buds below the graft each week.