Category 32

Seasonal garden guides for Australian climates. What to plant in Winter including May, June, July, August. As seen in our kitchen garden calendar.

Moon planting

The moon’s phases and its associated gravitational pull has a significant effect on the behaviour of tidal oceans, so it’s easy to understand how the moon can have a similar effect on the moisture in our soils and plants. By planning what you sow to coincide with the phases of the moon best suited to the type of vegetable and how you’re planting, you’ll give yourself a higher chance of success as well as increase your yields.

We love seeing what kids are growing with their families in their gardens, so snap and email us an image of what you’re harvesting at the moment. Send the photo to editorial@pipmagazine.com.au to win a copy of Harriet’s Hungry Worms by Samantha Smith and Melissa Johns. This issue’s winner is Gracie Jarman from Rosebud, Victoria.

The books, films & podcasts inspiring you to make a difference

BOOKS

CREATIVE FIRST AID

THE SCIENCE & JOY OF CREATIVITY FOR MENTAL HEALTH

BY CAITLIN MARSHALL & LIZZIE ROSE (MURDOCH BOOKS 2024)

Being creative is good for us: it lowers our stress hormones, calms our nervous system and can get us into a flow state. Our innate creativity is part of being human, but it’s easy to forget, especially since many of us have been told that we are ‘no good’ at art.

Where we use and review products that nourish us and the planet

Felco
SECATEURS

Review by Julie Bennett

As someone who’s worked in vineyards, orchards and market gardens, I have a healthy appreciation for high- quality secateurs. I’ve used a lot of different brands over the years and have settled on Swiss brand Felco as my preferred pruners.

They’re not cheap, but they’re well made, ergonomically designed, have some clever features and there’s a big range of spare parts available, meaning there’s no reason why they won’t last for many years.

Pip partners with brands that align with its values. Ethical companies producing good- quality products that don’t harm the planet, instead aiming to improve it. Browse more ethical companies you can choose to supportat www.pipmagazine.com.au

Witnessing firsthand the benefits of eating healthy organic food set Ken Henderson on a path that saw Nature’s Cuppa launch in 1984.

It was the transformation he saw in a friend that convinced Ken Henderson to quit his job in radio and get involved in the health-food scene.

‘He was one of these people who was just always sick,’ Ken recalls. ‘When he and his wife made a decision to eat a healthy diet, it changed him enormously.’

Welcome to our winter issue of Pip. For me winter means the lighting of the fire in the evening, the smell of woodsmoke, growing winter vegies, exhilarating surfs in ice-cold water, knitting, fermenting and trying to find some time to rest.

As Nat Mendham explains in her article on ‘radical rest’ (p68), we too ‘can accept permission to rest, hibernate and go dormant in winter like we witness nature doing all around us’. Nat reminds us that sometimes the most productive thing we can do is to rest and restore our finite energy.