Making Rope from Corn Husks (and other plant material)
A walkthrough on turning corn husks and similar plant fibers into useful cordage — watch the full process in the video.
Blog
Stories, experiments, and garden notes from the Chaos in Green journey.
BioChar 101 - Why it is amazing
A practical starter on biochar, including what it is, why it helps, and where to use it in the garden.
My trusty gardening sidekick George
Meet George, the daily garden sidekick that keeps every working day in the soil interesting.
Latest from Instagram
Photos and reels from the garden and field — follow @chaos_in_green for day-to-day updates.
-
Using the seed stalks from Gahnia grandis (giant cuttings grass that has edible seeds) to stake up the sweet potato that sprouted out of season.... The sweet potato will be a house plant for the winter and give me edible green leaves to add to stir fries or anywhere you usually use spinach.
My description on flavour of sweet potato leaves.... Tastes like pea leaves... Or like a slice of potato. Non offensive flavour that could be good in a greens mix.
If you want a Gahnia grandis to grow it takes years to get to the point it seeds and to make the seed sprout it needs to sit in a tin of warm tin tomatoes to emulate having been eaten by a bird.... Or just wait for the parrots to spread it when they fly by next time.
I also gently use the cuttings grass leaves to make cord to tie up plants as needed. As then I don't feel bad for forgetting to collect the ties at the end of the season. -
Reel
I have previously made rope out of corn husks and daffodils, the corn ones ended up being chew toys for George!. I thought I would share with you how easy they are to make as they are handy to use around the garden too. -
Reel
Camillia sinensis (the one originating from China) is used as a garden hedge plant. But you can also harvest the fresh leaves to make tea. Just make sure you have identified the correct plant before consuming any plant. Safest way is to buy a Camillia from your local nursery.
Some will be labelled as for tea. Those ones are grown to have a growth habit that prefers the leaves growth over flower production. But any camillia sinensis can be used. Just be careful of any that have been sprayed with pesticides.
Heating the fresh young leaves after harvest for a short time will allow you to make 'green tea' leaves. Air drying makes it more of a 'black tea' flavour. I'm just experimenting with this so I am not the fountain of tea knowledge just yet.
Hopefully giving you ideas of things to look into further. -
George loves play dates while the puppy parents swap garden produce! Super grateful for the purple potatoes we got from @thomas_dylan_campbell_reid. -
George making the most of a warm afternoon! -
George. Leaf litter. Charcoal. Fire. And to top of the day camp fire with friends discussing how we want to shape this page and the cool information we want to get across. -
Reel
Worms in my compost bin. Bin is a bathtub with a lid that I fill with all my kitchen scraps. I mix in other things occasionally like pea straw, mushroom compost and horse manure when I have surplus. The bathtub drains through the hole into a bucket where I can use that solution as a compost tea concentrate. Reduces waste and lets me apply organic matter, soil life and a mix of nutrients to my plants as I need. -
Reel
Burning leaf litter to make charcoal for the garden. -
Reel
Making charcoal to be used to make biochar.
The end result of burning leaf little in a way that restricts the oxygen but putting the next handful on to burn just as ash starts to form.
Application rates of charcoal to a garden is a scoop worth for a square meter ish.... You can do more but start by incorporating it with your compost or soak it in the goodies you want in your soil. Never add it when it's dry.... It will steal the water from the soil if it's not already damp enough. Load it up with goodies and you will find your soil health improve. Helps with water retention, nutrient retention and soil drainage. -
George is now sleeping on me to make up for that he got sad when I told him he couldn't rip out my basil and sweet potato.
Some days he is so helpful. Others. Not so much.
Currently craving getting a heated bed for the hot house to avoid this issue going forward. -
Helping with the manure delivery to the garden. -
Reel
My mushroom compost bags that were still viable are fruiting in the shade of my lettuce that were let go to seed. A video of my raised garden bed at the end of summer. Maturing the seeds for next year's plants.