Ooooby Blog

How to deal with pests in your garden (and life)

You’ve been inspired to grow your own food, started your first garden and get hit with your first obstacle.

Pests.

What do you do? Are there organic alternatives to chemical sprays?

In this article I’ll cover a natural approach to managing insects and pests in your garden that is effective for all types of invaders.

In my experience, this method can also be applied beyond gardening to improving our lives, businesses and relationships.

Let me explain.

What’s the best type of garden bed to grow your own food?

You might be wondering what kind of garden bed you should make to grow food at home.

Do I need to build or buy a raised bed?

Will a simple plot on the ground work?

What’s the best?

As a permaculturist, busy parent and working professional, I have a few favourites that are easy to setup, cheap and low maintenance.

Let’s have a look.

How to make compost at home (the easy way)

If you are going to grow your own food, you need to grow your own soil.

If you are going to do so without sprays and fertilisers, then you need to know how to make compost yourself.

Good compost.

Compost with worms and microbes that your plants will love.

The quality of your compost will be the quality of the food you grow.

It’s that simple.

But so many people get it wrong and struggle or give up entirely.

I’m telling you it’s easy and I’m going to show you how.

I’ve even put together an explainer video for you made right here on our off-grid permaculture farm.

Let’s have a look.

NZ ‘Fart Tax’: Here’s why the government’s plans are full of hot air

Today farmers are protesting across New Zealand.

The NZ government is pushing forward with its unpopular plans to tax farmers for livestock “emissions”.

Farmers are already struggling as the costs of agricultural inputs, labour and energy go through the roof. Forcing them to pay more tax would be a knockout punch.

Food prices will certainly increase – possibly quite dramatically.

The government claims it is doing this because they say they need to prevent the next global emergency: climate change.

They admit it will cause a “reduction in quality of living” and “increased stress and mental health issues” (Section 4.4).

As co-CEO of Ooooby, a certified permaculture teacher and someone who lives on a sustainable farm, I can confidently say this:

It will be a disaster.

Step 3: How to mulch your garden (and why you should)

I gotta be honest.

This isn’t step three. It’s supposed to be done at the same time as step one.

But you need to have your sh!t together to do that.

My wife and I have young kids, businesses and interests other than gardening.

I do this in separate steps because some weekends I just rather go to the beach with the fam and hit that Taranaki surf.

I suspect if you are reading this that you, like me, don’t have time to spend all weekend every weekend in the garden either.

That’s cool. This method works just fine too.

How to grow your own food, Step 2: De-compact the soil

This is series of guides is to help you grow your own food.

This article is for you as busy parents and professionals who want the benefit and security of having food grow at the place you live and eat.

It’s actually pretty easy if you start with the basics and get nature working for you.

Ooooby and Masterchef Tim Read host intimate dinner to chew over mental health

There is something magical about people sharing good food together.

Interesting and meaningful conversations flow naturally.

An intimate setting inspires conversations that are real, honest and personal.

Over three evenings in July this year Ooooby had the pleasure of collaborating with 2015 MasterChef winner Tim Read to bring people together around a dinner table of wholesome, healthy and finely prepared food.

It’s called Table-Talk.

Its purpose is to create an intimate setting that encourages conversation around nutrition, wellness and mental health.

Total strangers. Personal questions. Zero alcohol.

Here’s what happened…

Growing your own food is easier than you think. Here’s step 1.

We love food Out Of Our Own BackYards.

It’s literally our name and the reason for so many damn O’s!

Lol.

Even better would be to grow food out of YOUR own backyard.

Ooyoby?

Maybe not.

But seriously. With looming food shortages in NZ and the cost of food going up everywhere, it would make sense to grow at least some food yourself.

I am here to tell you that it’s easier than you think.

And how…

Bullshit: UK Media claim that organic farming is “the most dangerous”. Here’s why.

An article in The Guardian claims that organic and pasture-fed beef and lamb are “the most damaging farm products” and “arguably the most destructive industry on Earth”.

We find this notion absurd.

At best it demonstrates a shallow understanding of regenerative and organic farming practices. At worst, it’s a direct attack on organic and regenerative farming and shameless promotion for a billion dollar fake meat industry.

7 scientific studies that prove organic foods keep you healthy

Science is finally catching up with common sense.

In recent years a number of important studies have been published that show how eating organic food:

Keeps you healthier
Makes you less likely to develop diseases such as cancer, parkinson’s and autism.
And that conventional food does the opposite

You’ve probably already known this for years.

Maybe you’ve had to learn this through painful personal experience.

I have.

It was painful, and frustrating.