House & Home The Vege Garden Thread

Yeah, I was thinking before I might just go treated and paint the inside and also apply the builders plastic

 

Wow, didn't think water would get up the bricks and in those holes to the fabric. Good work and thanks for the share

 

I can’t find a photo on the web that shows exactly what we’ve done but the following might help. We put an old garden pot with holes drilled in the sides in the middle of the bottom of the wicking barrel. The picture below has two pots by the look of it. You can use whatever to create the water resevoir void below the geotech fabric. We use old plastic garden pots with side holes drilled placed upside down. Very light and allows for a lot more water holding capacity compared to using rocks / gravel / etc.

Geotech fabric lines the inside of the centre pot. It’s then filled with sand which wicks the water up to the soil sitting on top of the sand. Works extremely well.



From earlier a couple of our pots with mint in them:

 

Great work on the Wicked Tubs @geoffw They work so well! Will be interested to see how yours go with the gravel ones v's brick ones.

I'll take some photo's of ours again this weekend, stuff is flying. I have not watered them once since build (but we have had a good bit of rain). Seeded spring onions sprouted in about 10 days and the stuff I planted as seedlings is going gangbusters. One of the Kale plants has bolted to seed already so I'll yank it, that batch of Kale is all a bit weird and stunted but it's the stuff that's been replanted twice already and was rescued from certain death by the possums so it didn't get a great start at life.

The strawberries, radish and beets have gone nuts.

 

I've been reading up on the wicking tubs (FYI don't google 'wicked pot' as you will not find what you're looking for....) and am now thinking that may be the better way to go to begin with.

I see all the designs have the pipe that leads down to the reservoir for watering purposes but wouldn't just watering the soil so then it trickles down to the reservoir be just as effective?

 

I think that way though you'd end up drenching the soil to get enough water down in to the reservoir so your plants may rot.

When the soil wicks up it does it at an almost perfect moisture rate so your plants are getting water but not sat in saturated soil.

I was about to post to suggest you look at making your beds wicking, especially if you are lining them with builders poly anyway as you're already half way there then, just need your ballast and geo fabric over and your good to go.

 

Yeah, rightio, makes sense.

I was thinking along the same lines too but not sure how well I'd go at making the big bed one enclosed system easily. The builders plastic was more to stop soil from falling out and getting on the concrete.

Might use my training wheels with a few wicked tubs and once I graduate move to making the big bed.

 

Well, the Wicked Tubs are proving a success so far.

I've only filled the reservoirs once since their initial fill.

Scroll right for the main tub photos, that's the radish and beetroot tubs!!

Instagram post by Numbnuts • Nov 16, 2017 at 8:34am UTC

 

For those truly interested in gardening and growing crops i would suggest reading Steve solomons work based off of what William Albrechts research.

Gardening When It Counts | New Society Publishers

William Albrecht - Wikipedia

 

the vege patch is coming along nicely. The TommyToe's are 2 metres high now and are not far off for vine ripend fruit.

The Purple King bean ahs produced the first handfull of yummy beans

 

We also put in an irigation system since the soaker hose had perished and we wanted better control over the watering.

We got keen and cleaned up some of the fence line and planted a new vege garden along the fence too




We put some of our latest seedlings of beens and tomatoes in here plus added in Wee Pumpkin, Zuchini, Tromboncino and a Tayberry we transplated from elsewhere.

There's a bunch of capsicum in there too.

 

A note on Tomato care..
When growing tomatoes there is a couple of things you can do to have then stay strong and produce more fruit.

1. Cut out the lower branches to allow for more air flow. This helps keep disease to a minimum.

2. Cut the "suckers" out of the branches as they grow. The sucker is the middle branch that starts a while after the two main branches have grown a bit. See pic below.







Your tomatoes will thank you for it

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention our other experiment! - In the black bucket in the mini patch is Tumeric. It will take a while to see if we're succesful with that.

 

We’ve got a patch of Tumeric. Very easy to grow up here. It seems to look after itself in the ground. Beautiful flowers on the plants.

 

A few weeks and it's been brilliant so far except for cucumbers. 5 out of 6 died, looked like some bacteria issue... otherwise,been eating lettuce and spinach for over two weeks now and they are still going hard!
Tomatoes are doing really well and removed the suckers yesterday (Cheers @TadhgMor for the reminder... )so hoping for a good outcome soon!

 

A nice harvest today of Silverbeet, Beetroot leaves, Oregano, Tommytoes, King Beans and a couple of Dwarf Beans, plus a bowl with Basil, Mint and other herbs