FIMBY - food in my back yard

Books (and links) we like

Looking for a book to buy for a friend just getting started in gardening? Or something for yourself to read in the sun by the window? Here are some of our reviews of the books on the bedside table.

We will also be adding links to websites that inspire us, or provide useful info.

Scroll down or Click here to jump to the weblinks list.

The practical Australian Gardener. Seasonal tasks using sensible organic methods.

By Peter Cundall

Published and re-published for years, this book is a must-have guide for Tasmanian gardeners. Not just focussed on vegies, it also includes advice about fruit, berries and ornamentals. Its easy to read, full of great tips, and provides a very useful month by month guide to what can be done in the garden. Great as a book to regularly dip into. I reckon i've re-read every chapter 10 times over, and still refer to it constantly.

Growing Vegetables South of Australia. Year 'round Tasmanian food gardening.

By Steve Solomon

Another must have for Tasmanian vegie gardeners. Steve provides detailed and meticulously researched commentary on how to grow most vegies you'd want to grow. His detailed notes include a veg by veg guide, as well as informed and informative chapters on soil, water, seed and pests. Many gardeners use the recipe for his Complete Organic Fertiliser with great results.

The organic gardeners year

Compiled by Anne Heazlewood, The organic gardening and farming society of Tasmania Inc.

This is a beauty you might need to look out for in second hand shops. It also provides a month to month guide on what to plant, what to look out for, handy hints, tips and recipes. Its enjoyable reading, another book i've re-read many many times, and keep dipping into for reminders of what should be happening in the garden.

Kitchen garden cooking with kids

Stephanie Alexander

A totally inspiring book of recipes and stories from the kitchen garden program at Collingwood School. The recipes are excellent, all focussed around easily grown vegies, and have not been "dumbed down" for kids. I know this is a big thing to say, but if i had just one recipe book, i reckon it would be this one! But who can have just one?

The permaculture home garden

By Linda Woodrow

When i first read this book, i immediately went and started off a tray of seeds, ready to grow them on and plant in the garden. I grew a crop of sweet corn as a direct result of reading it, and ate all of them standing in the garden! A very inspiring book about a garden system using chook domes as tractors. Well worth reading to internalise the design principles, and its engagingly and delightfully written. I know several gardens set up this way in and around Hobart. All flourishing!

Community gardens

By Penny Woodward and Pam Vardy

Another inspiring read (they all are!). This book is a celebration of the people, the plants, recipes and stories from the community gardens of inner city Melbourne. Each personal story in the book is candid, moving and connects us to people from all over the world. The featured plants include ones that most of us have probably never heard of, and the recipes are such an expression of the culture of the person who provides them. Highly recommended reading to make you warm inside.

WEBLINKS

Grow your own food is the amazing website of Silke and Torsten Hartmann who live at Abel's Bay and have a large permaculture garden and poulty setup. Their site is loaded with info about growing vegies in Tasmania, based on their experience. Garden diary, photos, stuff about chooks and much more. Well worth a browse.

Your Backyard Farmer is a business in Portland, Oregon, USA which gave FIMBY great inspiration and guidance as we were setting up. Christina visited them while doing her TaKeTiNa training in the USA. We couldn't believe it when we found two women who have for the last three years been doing almost exactly what we had started to do.

Southern Harvest are a family run seed business based in Kingston, south of Hobart. You can find Sam and family at Salamanca Market every Saturday, selling a huge range of open pollinated, organic and interesting varieties, many grown by themselves on their land at Kingston.You can also order seeds from their website for delivery by post. We just sourced some very cool scarlet flowered and scarlet seeded broad beans from these guys!

Eat Well Tasmania have an information rich website, full of ideas, links and calendar notices about eating healthy local food. They also have great information about community and school gardens all around Tasmania.

TankTec is a family owned and operated business in Electrona, Tasmania, and they make steel water tanks and garden beds which are very popular. The beds are available in a range of colourbond colours, so check them out and give Melissa a call.

Foodscapes is a business in Hawaii, run by women, who do almost exactly what FIMBY does, but in the tropics. Amazing example of convergent evolution! We've been lucky enough to meet Shelley from Foodscapes while she was visiting friends in Hobart, and took the chance to swap stories and work together a bit.

Woodbridge Fruit Trees are a great southern Tasmanian business that sell fruit trees grafted onto dwarfing rootstock - mostly by mail order. These trees are excellent for espaliering, enabling you to have a mini orchard in an ordinary suburban backyard. Dwarfed fruit trees are very compatable with vegies too!

Dove Tail Timbers are a Tasmanian company that aim to add as much value to the timbers coming from Tasmania's forests as possible. They salvage timber following logging operations, and make European and Canadian styled log cabins from Celery Top Pine, Myrtle, Sassafras, Blackwood, Douglas Fir and Eucalyptus. They also make beautiful and durable garden beds from sleepers with dove tail joints. FIMBY are proud to offer DTT garden beds as part of our Raised Bed package options.

Journey to the Heart is the beautiful business of our dear friend Cindy. She offers one on one, heartful counselling and breathwork sessions to support you being more of your self. She also has a range of guided CDs to support your inner work by yourself (including relaxation, sleep support, wisdom and healing the pas) plus regular Women's Circle and mixed groups and retreats to work with others, to form community and learn from each other's journeys. CIndy is a great gardener and food lover and we're delighted and inspired to be connected with her and her powerful work.

Still Gardening is a non-profit community project based in Hobart and Glenorchy that supports older people, people with disabilities and their carers to remain in their homes.  The program focuses on assisting people to remain healthy, encouraging independent living and promoting social interaction through gardening. Volunteers work with clients in their gardens and also explore ways of making the garden easier to maintain.  The program is in its fourth year, has a high standard and is well respected by both volunteers and clients.

Growing Good is the Tasmanian distributer for GrowCover, which is tremendously useful in so many ways! Martine who is Growing Good in name and nature and activity can tell you all about it. Keeps off pesky cabbage moths, raises temperature for seedlings, stops frost melting your tender babies . .. check it out or email Martine on growing.good@bigpond.com or on facebook.com/grow.good

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