House & Home The Vege Garden Thread

Corn growing like mad:


A wee bit of chocolate mint which is going crazy for the morning smoothie:

 

South Sydney about 500m-1km back from the water, so no frost or even really cold mornings.

Chill hours become more complex the more you read into them. There are basic formula's such as hours temp is below 10 degrees, however a really hot day in the middle of winter will reduce chill hours accumulated somehow so it isn't so simple, I gave up reading more around that point. Stick to lower chill varieties and you should do OK in Sydney from my understanding and brief experience.

Fuji's are a lower chill variety here's a linky to a dwarf one, currently sold out and waiting list only.

Dwarf Apple Red Fuji Tree -

Most (?all) apples need cross pollination with another variety.

 

Love your photo's @austing. Think the wife might kill me if I try to plant much more in our limited space, trying to win arguments on sour and sweet cherry's and plum, just not sure where they will go . Herb garden is next in line @Propagate those self watering herb tubs seem like a fantastic idea.

Some of my friends had dwarf trees with around 1m spacing and have really good crops, we have a rock shelf so the soil isn't deep so I don't think I should plant so tightly. Recommended spacing seems to be closer to 3m. Any comments?

 

In regard to low chill apples we have “multi-planted” these three varieties Anna, Golden Dorset and Tropic Sweet in the one hole.

@Hodor if space is limited that’s where multi planting fruit trees is fantastic.

 

That’s nice to know as I sometimes wonder if others might find them boring, overkill or think I’m trying to show off.

We have all “full sized dwarf” (not super dwarf) fruit trees. There’s four different multi plantings in the large netted tunnel. Can’t remember the spacing but will check later. I think it was a bit less than three metres. However the trees are already touching each other only 2.5 years after being planted.



Sounds like you’ve got the “productive garden” bug. Keep adding to those LICs then one day you will be able to play with the garden as long as you want.

 

@Hodor we also use productive things such as herbs etc as decorative plants in the general gardens.

Leading to front door in the garden is rosemary, white lavender, white curry herb bush at back and scented geranium at left etc. my wife would rather the smelly curry plant (used in cooking) wasn’t there but that’s my favourite:


And at front beside the strairs leading from the driveway here’s a hedge of minitature Bay trees that only grow to about 1.8 x 0.9 m. Easily hedged to be much lower than that. At the back right some aloe Vera found it’s way into the garden. In the pots at right is recently pruned lavander. You can get a better look at the white curry plant at back left. I think it’s quite decorative and lasts for many years if not indefinately. Pretty much the entire garden approaching the front door can be used for something productive.

 

We have the dreaded fruit fly up here. So the fine netting only covers the fruit trees after the bees have done their job and fruit is starting to set. The tunnel is divided into three sections for timing of different fruit trees setting fruit.

 

Phew just been working in the gardens. On a roll today in the garden thread also.

A couple of my favourite things which tend to be best used with Asian cooking.

On the right my all time favourite herb Vietnamese Mint. Some here are likely familiar with it. Tastes nothing like mint but more like a super refreshing, uplifting taste / scent a bit like coriander but with a little heat.

On the left is a kaffir lime leaf. Famous for use in Thai food. We’ve multi planted a dwarf Kaffir lime and Tahitian lime tree in the one hole.

At the back is my favourite quality non alcoholic beer for when it’s too early to drink the real stuff. Hits the spot at lunch time after some hard work at in the garden:

 

Nice work @austing sounds like you've had an enjoyable day so far.

I'm BUSTING to knock off and get home to crack on with my Wicked Tubs (thanks for the rename @geoffw )

 

Please keep the photos and gardening tips coming austing. This thread is very informative.
Also, your spread (land and surrounds) looks amazing!

 

Our Dwarf Beans are nearly ready to harvest


And the first tomatoes of the season will soon arrive too

 

418 mm of rain and next to no sun for the past week hasn’t been kind to some of the Boss’s seedlings and a number of veges. The aphids are happy though.

Over a week ago there were quite a number of locals with no water due to a very dry cool season. A three to five week wait for the water trucks. Desperate times. Fortunately we have a bore in addition to tank water. A week later now everyone wants to rain gone.

 

And in Sydney too! Did you start/grow to decent size in a glasshouse? We tried this for the last 2 years but it didn't appear to accelerate to tomatoes developing.

Great stuff!

 

I've got baby tomatoes too!

 

Phew, busy busy weekend but managed to complete two of the Wicked Tub pallet beds and fully plant them out.

I pulled apart the two first ones and replaced the plastic weed matt with geo tech fabric. The geo stuff looks like it will work much better but interestingly, the plastic weed matt tubs had wicked up a treat overnight anyway! I almost let them be.

Instagram post by Numbnuts • Oct 21, 2017 at 12:24pm UTC

I found a bunch of old fence pickets that have been laying out back for 7 years since we first moved in and replaced a section of fence, they, along with some tatty old bits of rope I found in the garage (this is why I never throw stuff away!) provided a great support frame for the pest netting.

As usual - clicky the little arrow to scroll through the pics:-

Instagram post by Numbnuts • Oct 22, 2017 at 8:23am UTC

Planted out with:-

2x tubs of strawberries
2x tubs of two varieties of eggplant
1x tub raddish
3x tub misture of chillies & capsicums
2x tubs kale
1x tub spring onions (seeds)
1x tub mixed beetroot

The last pallet bank of 6 will likely get 3x raspberry and 3x strawberry

The chillies and capsicums seedlings were rescued from the garden bed as it was drying out too much and not quite enough sun, plus hard to keep the possums off them. In their places have gone 4x rhubarb crowns.

In the last few photos of the last link you can just about see the two black buckets against the vertical pallet wall screens. They only took 5 minutes to knock up, same principle, overflow hole, scoria, feed pipe, geo tech then compost. One has a couple of zucchini plants in and the other has a couple of butternut squash. They'll be trained up the pallet wall as they grow. Those pallets get sun all day pretty much.

Happy Days! Looking forward to seeing what does well, and what can be scrapped out for something else.

 

Mighty effort, looks fantastic. Well done.

 

Thanks @austing back at work now for a rest! Somehow I also squeezed in a 22k half marathon trail run and a hilly MTB ride this weekend on top of building those. Time for a cuppa and a few hours sit down I reckon.

 

If you call our sunroom a glass house then yes
See pics at the beginning of this thread for the baby pics

 

The tomato seedlings that I bought are about a foot high. I always get a good volume of self sown tomatoes but they come up quite late in the season. They are only a couple of cm tall at the moment. I really need to propagate indoors this season!!!