Vegetable garden

[arminius]

gday all,

coming into spring id just like to see if anyone else grows some vegies of their own.
its hard to explain how good it feels to walk down to the garden in the morning or arvo and see them thriving.
last christmas all the salads served up to the family were 30 mins out of the ground.

so find a patch of dirt, chuck some topsoil and chook poo on, whack up a fence of sorts and plant seeds. just like investing on the market...foresight, patience, reward.

 

[explod]

What a good idea Arminus.

Last year we had the best tomatoes in the district for some strange reason, but could have been the following. Every other year we purchased carefully selected seedings and our harvests were poor. Last year in preparing our patch we emptied the contents of our compost bin over it and tomatoe seedlings came up everywhere. My wife merely thined those out from the wrong spots and these self sown tomatoes were the best we ever had.

Spuds, well after reading of a bloke in Tassie who to break in poor ground literally threw seed potatoes over the ground and just covered them with straw paper and other assorted rubbish with great success. I do similar but place them in rows on the unturned ground, then gutter between them placing that soil over the seed potatoes, adding straw and manure to increase the pile and the depth. The furrows were then allowed to flood from downpipe redirection from the roof so that even the small showers and dew at night watered them fairly well to a good crop in the end.

The best bit when harvesting, found a huge tiger frog had made his home there. Had not seen one in years.

Just shows how simple things can give pleasure and a break from the computor screen

 

[theasxgorilla]

Spuds, well after reading of a bloke in Tassie who to break in poor ground literally threw seed potatoes over the ground and just covered them with straw paper and other assorted rubbish with great success.

Its amazing how resilient spuds can be...I found them growing on the beach in Denmark! It's like, WTF is that, a weed? Nope, not-so-small potato plants

 

[Sprinter79]

I remember growing our own vegies when I was a kid. I'd LOVE to get it happening again. We used to grow carrots, tomatoes, corn, beans, peas, and some other stuff I think.

It is pretty good to be able to enjoy the fruits (or vegies) of your labours :

 

[INORE]

well i started my first veg patch in june, its about a 9m2 plot and followed that dude peter cundall from gardening australia....have heaps of stuff growing now...trying fully organic so the bugs are having a treat now....got three boys and we just started plucking some early honey pea's and they love 'em. eat the pods and all straight of the bush...now that most of perth is fished out it seems to be the next best thing to trying to be a little self sufficient from nature...its interesting learning about companion planting and crop rotation, it even amazed me how i had no idea about all the veg i eat and not having a clue about what they looked like on/as they are growing...still so much to learn...it's amazing how pre-packed and ready to microwave a life in a big city is...it's almost shocking that most people woudln't know how to grow a decent crop of veg to survive. Sounds stupid but i think some of these basics should be taught at schools.

 

[Ageo]

My dad grows Tomatoes, Eggplant, Lettuce and a few other veges.

He also has chilli, lemon and olive tree's.

At my place atm there is only a mandarin tree and the herbs i use to cook

* Basil
* Parsley
* Rosemary
* Oregano

Makes a big difference indeed to the taste.

 

[arminius]

yep, its weird eh. i threw compost on some dirt at the back of the house and two tomato plants shot up, going bezerk, just getting fruit now. and yesty i said to my beautiful lady, 'i think those are different types, maybe a roma or something'.
trying to get snow peas to grow up between them. planted lettuce day before yesty.
i found a half frozen young blue tongue the other day in the rain. i moved him into a hollow log next to the garden, hopefully to feed on grubs n bugs. (he'd be happy to know i wont be increasing his rent or mortgage).

 

[Julia]

I notice that most of the comments are from the southern states.
We grew wonderful vegetables (and flowers) in New Zealand, but since moving to Qld I've found it's a real struggle. Prepared the ground as others have described, put in the seedlings,and they grow quite well until they are about half mature. Then all the bugs and diseases discover them and have a **** field day. I've even relinquished my ideals of growing organically and used poisons but it makes little difference. I can grow herbs and tomatoes but have given up on other vegetables. Such a shame.
Two things could drive me back to NZ: the plentiful water supply and the wonderful gardening.

Great to hear of others' success.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

My dad grows Tomatoes, Eggplant, Lettuce and a few other veges.

He also has chilli, lemon and olive tree's.

At my place atm there is only a mandarin tree and the herbs i use to cook

* Basil
* Parsley
* Rosemary
* Oregano

Makes a big difference indeed to the taste.

We are in Townsville,

Apart from bugs getting my mustard salad, our pak choi, oregano, parsley, thyme, mint, basil, coriander, lemon grass, lettuce, eggplant, tomatoes, oranges, pawpaw and lemons are all doing well. Hoping our chili will start producing again soon.

Garpal

 

[Smurf1976]

Don't have anything apart from passion fruit (got way too many of those) at the moment but plan to do something about it next year.

Potatoes are really easy - you don't even have to plant them properly for them to grow. It does work to break up clay too.

 

[wayneL]

Have always had an organic veggie patch, but here in Geraldton where I live on the beach it's been a disaster.

Tatsoi and Jerusalem artichokes went well, all else was terrible. Got silverbeet going OK, but tasted like ****.

Everything else totally bombed.

 

[arminius]

hey gumnut, whats your secret with coriander. ive tried a few times but they are all stalk no leaf and always die a slow horrible death. other herbs go fine.
julia, have you tried putting flowers amongst them to attract birds? i also physically pick the grubs off the underside of the leaves of a morning.
we must be lucky here in Newcastle but i havent used a drop of chemical yet.

dont give up!

this must sound corny, but despite all thats happening in the world and how tough things get, its exhilarating to have everything growing..the kids (2yrs and 12 weeks), the share portfolio (bloody yanks), and the vegies and herbs. every day is better than the last.

 

[Julia]

Don't have anything apart from passion fruit (got way too many of those) at the moment but plan to do something about it next year.

Potatoes are really easy - you don't even have to plant them properly for them to grow. It does work to break up clay too.

Smurf,

How interesting that you can so easily grow passionfruit in Tassie. I would have thought it was too cold. Which variety do you have? The black "Nelly Kelly"? Would the Panama Gold and Panama Red's grow down there?

Wayne,

Aren't you moving to the UK soon? At least you'll be able to grow some good vegies there in the summer.

 

[Moneybags]

Well living on the North Coast you may be surprised to learn that some of us up here grow vegies and not that other stuff the area is famous for. We are on rich volcanic soil and usually have good rainfall.

Our vegie patch has tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, Boc Choi, rhubarb (yuk), capsicums (just finished), beans, snow peas, peas and plenty of weeds.

We haven't had many problems with pests apart from fruit fly in the tomatoes but we have now learnt to grow the bigger fruiting types in Winter when the fly is not active and grow Romas and cherry toms in Summer as they seem to be resilient to fruit fly.

We have chooks too which free range in the afternoons cleaning up bugs and things and it's always great to feed them the scaps from our meals. There poo helps in keeping the vegies going and the straw from there chookhouse is great mulch too.

We also have plenty of fruit trees such as Mandarin, Orange, Tropical apples, Custard apples, Lychee, Avacado, Fig, Mango and Nectarines. We do battle fruit fly on the Nectarines but try to bag the fruit and never use spays. All good fun and I certainly have noticed a reduction in our food bill each week since we began growing our own ( vegies that is ).

MB

 

[Rafa]

Awesome thread.... Been thinking about starting up a veggie patch for the last 6 months but i have to do a fair bit of preparatory work first to get a good patch of vacant land.

I live in old market garden area near the banks of the river torrens in adelaide.

Whats a managable size to start of with?
What about shade... The area i am looking at has a big gum tree to the north so the south side is shaded to varying degrees in summer and winter?
What about compost? I've only just started emptying food scraps, etc into a heap at the back, haven't got a bin yet... So far been just emptying and then covering with soil, and so on...
Does the veggie patch need to be raised? Should i put sleepers down to form a raised bed?
How often do you tend to the veggie patch? Is once a week ok, or is this an every day job?


Thanks .

 

[Happy]

hey gumnut, whats your secret with coriander. ive tried a few times but they are all stalk no leaf and always die a slow horrible death. other herbs go fine.

Excuse budding in.
I do not grow or like coriander, but I heard that this is plant that lasts up to couple of months and goes to seed and dies out.

Successive sowing is recommended for continuous supply, also regulating exposure to sun can make them little bit more delicate.

Nitrogen rich fertilizer promotes leaf growth too, potash rich promote better flowering.

 

[INORE]

Awesome thread.... Been thinking about starting up a veggie patch for the last 6 months but i have to do a fair bit of preparatory work first to get a good patch of vacant land.

I live in old market garden area near the banks of the river torrens in adelaide.

Whats a managable size to start of with?
What about shade... The area i am looking at has a big gum tree to the north so the south side is shaded to varying degrees in summer and winter?
What about compost? I've only just started emptying food scraps, etc into a heap at the back, haven't got a bin yet... So far been just emptying and then covering with soil, and so on...
Does the veggie patch need to be raised? Should i put sleepers down to form a raised bed?
How often do you tend to the veggie patch? Is once a week ok, or is this an every day job?


Thanks .

try these sites i found for help in starting up...just pick the eyes out of the info...

http://www.global-garden.com.au/gardenbegin_veg1.htm

http://www.homesite.com.au/outdoors/landscaping/projects-diy/how-to-plant-a-vegetable-garden

good to have full sun and wind protection...if possible....i raised my bed with sleepers...chucked down some newspaper....ordered a heap of vegie patch soil mix as a 300mm base...added sheep ****e and adjusted PH with lime and stuff...u can buy a cheap ph tester from hardware shop...divided the plot into 4 areas...sowed a combo of seeds and planted out seedlings following peter cundalls gardening australia book which is pure gold....i tend to the patch daily when i can...theres allways something to do like seasoling, weeding, debugging....

also planted fruit trees before i saw these things...

http://www.fruitsaladtrees.com/

has anyone else used/using these fruit salads????


Hope some of these links helped.

 

[Happy]

Good answer above, I would like to add some lazyman's thoughts.

What’s a manageable size to start of with?

Start with small lot even as small as 1 by 2 or 3 metres, and the reason is, without experience you might be overwhelmed by the task.

What about shade... The area I am looking at has a big gum tree to the north so the south side is shaded to varying degrees in summer and winter?

Some shade might be a blessing, but any humangous tree as a veggie patch neighbour spells a disaster to me.
Large trees have established roots system and are on a lookout for nutrients and moisture and can sap up all you put in.
It might even warrant to have raised bed with physical barrier from underlying soil, like pond liner, but this is bit complicated.

What about compost? I've only just started emptying food scraps, etc into a heap at the back, haven't got a bin yet... So far been just emptying and then covering with soil, and so on...

What you do here is not that bad at all, probably horror for purists, but very time consuming what they suggest.

I am so lazy, that allowed I would only use so called sheet composting, which is nice name for laying scraps on top of soil slightly covering it.
Similar method might be collecting food and veggie scraps into bucket and digging it in a patch. All you have to do is remember to dig in next lot in different place.

There are perfect proportions of Nitrogen to Carbon and to moisture, but often close enough is good enough. Generally food scraps will make soil acidic, so handful of lime per 5 litre bucket of scrap should do. As to carbon, shredded paper could take care of that about ¼ of the bucket.

Some kind of soil PH tester at some stage can help to keep soil PH between 5.5 and 7.5

Does the veggie patch need to be raised? Should I put sleepers down to form a raised bed?

Clay soil would be the criteria for raising beds, as it can get too heavy and water logged.
Too sandy soil actually warrants to mix in some clay, so balance again.

How often do you tend to the veggie patch? Is once a week ok, or is this an every day job?

In hot weather even few times daily visit might mean the difference between life and death of plants.
But labour itself actually would comprise of mostly controlling and regulating moisture, plus removing weeds mainly.

Then things like pests control – snails and slugs can be poisoned with pellets, picked up by hand at night, lured to moist traps or even traps with stale beer.
Support of taller plants and fastening them to something as they grow.
Some kind of protection from wind and too strong sun and later from birds.

As somebody said, it can be heart breaking, as there are so many free loaders out there: ants with aphids, earwigs, nematodes, mealybugs, various caterpillars, fruit fly, cut worms, even slaters.

 

[Rafa]

thanks for the advice happy, inore...
greatly appreciated...

sounds like a bit of hard work, but the rewards certainly are worth it

still have to think about what to do with the gum tree...
the way it is now, half the veggie patch will get shade, half will get sun...

might start off with a 3m x 1m area, tho have enough room to expand to 6 x 3. Not sure if i have the time for that yet.

looks like pH balance and clay/sand balance need to be right...

gonna continue with the compost with layering, tho will add paper / lime as suggested... Does this heap need to be in the sun or shade?

 

[INORE]

i've got a two stage composting system in a shaded (behind the shed) area and so far seems ok...i expect that keeping it moist will be easier in summer as well as its not in the sun. I actually tried using black plastic over my compost heap and that didnt work as there wasnt enough moisture from rain getting in so now i will try newspaper layers....i heard that hay does the trick too but i have alot more access to newspaper...composting scraps and lawn clippings is economical but i'm finding it fairly time consuming for what i get out of it....maybe as the weather warms up the compost heap will grow quicker(from lawn clippings) and break-down quicker with the heat.

Happy, i think u said u add lime...does that also help break down the compost?