Leesa's Little Farm

18/12/2025

Rest for my Soil and Soul 🥰
It's been a while since I've been in the social media space - it's been intentional and necessary.
But as this year ends very shortly, I thought I'd step back into it and wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and holiday, creating wonderful memories with those you love.

A little back story of my absence...
As I seek to live with the rhythms of nature, I was encouraged to take a break from my usual routines and activities in October.
Having a short overseas holiday and having no produce to offer helped make this happen.
As a one-person operation, squeezing a time consuming microbusiness into an already busy life, it can become a little overwhelming, and ultimately not as enjoyable as it should be.
As we all know, we can't do everything - even if we think we can! If we try to do it all, other areas in life slowly but surely become neglected.

I needed this seasonal break to reflect, reassess, reprioritise and refocus on a more sustainable direction and rhythm for the new year. It's been refreshing, renewing (sorry, lots of R words I know!) and life giving. Time spent being still, meditating, reading and chatting to people wiser than myself is guiding me through this process. As I discern and re-orientate myself towards a more sustainable lifestyle I can't help but see a similar process unfolding in nature, in my vegetable garden, as green manure crops fill up spaces - providing a seasonal summer rest for the soil ('green manure' are certain plants grown to be cut down and then fed back to the soil) whilst simultaneously renewing the biology and structure. We can learn so much from our beautiful world around us.

So, my question to you is simply this, "What do you need to do to care for your body, mind and soul, to maintain your wellness, particularly at this busy time of year, and after a busy year?"
A few words to help you reflect - Stop. Slow down. Be still. Breathe. Rest. Reflect. Joy. Life-giving.
I hope you feel refreshed and ready to embrace a new year filled with enthusiasm and energy.
x Leesa

04/11/2025

I’ve finally got around to chopping and dropping the oat mulch for my young blueberries. I had brought in soil to raise this bed for drainage, but it was more like dead dirt than alive living soil. I’ve grown oats in this garden for a couple of years to improve and help build the soil ecosystem. Laying the cut leaves on the top provides a nice layer of mulch which will slowly feed the soil. The roots and plant base is left intact to slowly decompose and as worms love hanging around the root zone. It was quite messy before but after a crew cut it’s now looking a lot tidier.

03/11/2025

Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of joining in with community members to assemble a new local community garden’s first wicking beds, with the amazingly generous Paul Jones 🙏🏼 leading the way.
Although it was very hot and humid - the icy poles helped 😅 - a great bunch of people worked together, learning and doing, to complete two IBC wicking beds for the Freshwater Community Garden.
The wicking system will ensure successful growing from the outset, and I’m confident, will be indicative of the whole gardens impact upon the community - a place to connect, learn and grow together 🥰

31/10/2025

When asked to pick some cherry tomatoes for dinner and you come in with half a box
🍅😂🍅😂🍅

30/10/2025

We use the fresh green leaves and roots for different dishes in the cooler months, then leave the delicate white flowers for all the pollinators and then finally remove the dead plant to harvest the seeds for future planting and for spice in cooking.

Can you guess what it is? 🧐

16/10/2025

Come along to learn about the amazing water and time saving system of wicking beds at Freshwater Community Garden!
At this FREE event, you will learn AND do💪
We will recap from our first workshop and discuss wicking bed soil requirements. Bring a friend, hat, gloves and water bottle as we learn together and build the first veggie beds for this brand-new garden👏woohoo🎉

17/09/2025

I am soooo excited to share this with you!! 🎉

Work has begun in earnest on the Freshwater Community Garden 🌱 and it is FABULOUS 🤩

Come along and celebrate with the
Freshwater Community Garden team
with a free workshop exploring the
Wonderful World of Wicking Water beds 💦

Learn how to grow successfully with this water wise, environmentally conscious system as well as this new community garden.

Join us on Sunday 5th October @ 1pm and be inspired as this new community hub in Deception Bay begins the next stage of its journey 😁

27/07/2025

If you’re dropping by the farm stall over the next few weeks please let me know what you’d like to see available in Spring 🌻🌱🌸

23/07/2025

The Chinese don’t do anything by halves😳 The size of the area, the brilliant simplicity of their regeneration strategy and the slow and steady hands on approach is inspiring. Would be great to see the outcome of this project in a few years🧐

21/07/2025

My attempt of floristry 💐
A green bouquet 😋

19/07/2025

We are still learning so much about the interactions which occur in nature. Every new little discovery is so amazing in and of itself and feels me with awe contemplating the complexity and intricacies of the interconnections between everything 🤯
We are nature and part of this web of life too😮

A groundbreaking study from Tel Aviv University, published in eLife on July 15, 2025, reveals that tomato plants emit ultrasonic sounds when under stress—specifically when dehydrated—and that these sounds can alter insect behavior.

These sounds, which are inaudible to the human ear, are detected by certain insects such as female Spodoptera littoralis moths.

In a controlled lab environment, researchers found that these moths actively avoided laying eggs on dehydrated plants that emitted ultrasonic clicks.

Remarkably, when researchers played these distress sounds through speakers near healthy plants, moths still avoided them, indicating they rely on sound rather than visual or olfactory cues to assess plant health.

When the moths' auditory abilities were blocked, they showed no preference between the healthy and stressed plants, further confirming that their behavior was sound-driven.

This research provides the first documented evidence that plant-generated sounds can directly influence insect decisions, revealing a new channel of plant-animal interaction.

The discovery challenges the traditional belief that plants communicate only through chemicals or visual cues. Scientists are optimistic that this could lead to the development of new, non-chemical pest deterrents by mimicking or amplifying stress sounds to protect crops.

Furthermore, the study opens avenues for exploring whether other animals—like bats or rodents—can also interpret plant distress acoustics in natural settings.

Overall, this research uncovers a hidden layer of ecological communication, demonstrating that plants do "talk," and that insects "listen"—an insight that could reshape both ecological theory and agricultural practices.