Inside The Backyard

Cold, wet winter months, walk outside, and guaranteed somewhere in your garden you’ll find sour sobs! As little kids, my brother and I would wander around the yard picking sour sobs, a few to give to mum to put in a vase, and a few for us snack on, we’d chew on the crunchy, sour stems. I can still hear Mum’s voice calling out from the back door, “Don’t eat those! They’re sour because the dogs pee on them!”

There are some things in life we can replace. A dead lawn, a failed crop, a broken fence, a struggling garden. But water? Clean, ancient underground water systems that have taken thousands upon thousands of years to form beneath our feet? Once they're damaged, contaminated, or depleted… there’s no quick fix for that. This is why so many people across the Limestone Coast are deeply concerned right now about the proposed lifting of the fracking moratorium in our region.

For generations, gardeners have used woodfire ash in the garden as a kind of free homemade fertiliser. Grandparents swore by it. Old orchard growers scattered it beneath fruit trees. Veggie gardeners sprinkled it around the tomatoes and roses. But does wood ash actually help the garden… or is it just another one of those old gardening myths that’s been passed down over time?

Big old trees cool our streets in summer.They soften harsh winds.They hold our fragile soils together during storms and heavy rain.They clean the air we breathe and provide shade on those blistering forty-degree afternoons when the garden — and we ourselves — are struggling. But beyond helping us… trees are also home. Entire ecosystems live within them...