House & Home The Vege Garden Thread

Thanks

One of the best things we did was join the Diggers Gardening Club Plants Online And Seeds Online - Vegetables, Herbs, Flowers, Trees | The Diggers Club

There is a staggering amount of information available from them specific to growing anything in the various places in Australia. The're also big on organic and permaculture and go to great lenghts to preserve and propogate heirloom varieties of many plants.

We've bought the best tasting tomatoes we've ever grown from them and some interesting plants like multicoloured silver beet.

Check em out

 

I love mint and put a heap in my breakfast smoothie. Chocolate mint works very well. Soy milk, whey protein, Super greens powder, agave, large handful of fresh chocolate mint, frozen banana & blueberries and ice cubes blended in a high power blender. Tastes fantastic.

Given mint can get out of control and take over we tend to grow it in large barrel wicking beds.

Mint is so versatile, it works with do many different types of food including asian food. Garden mint in scrambled eggs is Devine.

Although not a true mint one of my absolute favourite herbs is Vietnamese Mint. I grow it in a large pot submerged in water.

We have a large Excalibar food dehydrator in which we also dry the mint for tea leaves etc.

We love our herbs and grow lots of different varieties. Also looking to grow a lot more medicinal herbs.

 

Thank you.

We have 1.25 acres. There's only the two of us and we grow way too much for our needs but can't help ourselves. Most veges we grow are heirloom varieties. Green Harvest a well known mail order seed supplier is only 10 minutes drive away from us. My wife saves seeds and is forever ordering seeds over the net from heirloom seed suppliers. We love growing stuff that's impossible to buy from supermarket and green grocers.

 

As mentioned earlier we love growing varieties that you would never see in retail green grocers.

Most people think that the varieties of veges you see in the supermarket is all there is. There's a whole other world of veges out there. It's always exciting growing things you never tried before. Some do well, some don't. Those that do well the seeds are saved with each successive planting doing better and better as they adapt to our own specific micro climate.

Speaking of colour my wife is growing 4 different varieties of carrots being white, purple, yellow and orange.

I'm not sure where my wife buys her seeds from now as she has a number of suppliers.

Green Harvest is one located nearby:
Green Harvest Organic Gardening Supplies

I think she likes the better suppliers on Gumtree as the seeds are cheaper.

 

Your 'breakfast smoothie' mate, this is a 'breakfast smoothie',

 

Totally agree about Diggers. Worth a visit to their Heronswood garden if anyone is in Melbourne.

I got my garlic from there (really easy to grow) as well as a kiwi berry plant.

Lovely grounds and ocean views. They have a brilliant harvest festival with tomato tasting. Actually they have an amazing variety of tomatoes including Granny's Throwing Tomato!

 

Totally agree! The difference in taste between home grown and store bought is astounding as is the varieties available. The only time we've ever seen odd varieties, not in the Super Market are in the Farmers Markets we frequent.

Also we've recently recieved the Diggers Seed Catalog and we're awe struck by the varieties available. So much we want to grown and no land to grow it on. Acreage can't come quick enough for us!

I'm sure when we get there we'll be feeding the neighbours or having our own stand at the Markets to sell our surplus.

 

LOL.

Come to think of it I have tried that combination as a smoothie, it didn't seem to taste quite right.

I have the green thing some mornings to counter the effect of too much home brew the night before. I must admit your breakfast suggestion looks much more appealing.

 

Oh and here's the rest of our family. We don't free range them as too many predators. Also they're pets so if anything happened to them we'd be devastated. This is their day run. The night enclosure is extremely predator / rat / mice proof etc.

 

Nice collection of chooks - what breeds are they ?
Did you build the movable run or is it a commercial job ?

Do you or did you watch River Cottage Australia ? an awe inspiring show that's given us lots of ideas too.

 

Agree with you on The Diggers Club, visited Heronswood and when I saw their Kale crop my reaction was 'what am I doing wrong?' but of course I knew the reason, I was working with pure clay.

 

That looks awesome.
We plant veggies in season and it's different for summer and winter.

My entire extended family are gardeners so we love the original heirloom plants like huge tomatoes that fold over each other. My uncles direct the gardens and what should be planted every year - we just take orders lol

 

All heritage breeds australorp, silver lace Wyandot and ISA Brown. The heritage breeds live a lot longer than most commercial breeds. Some up to 14 or more years.

Mobile chicken run:
2.3 x 2.3 x 1.2 m with cover $239. Very solid. Added wheels from Bunnings then filled the gap underneath with sections of galmesh:
4 Sizes Large Pet Dog Enclosure Run Kennel Chain Link Fence Outdoor Metal Cage


Modified to this, note wheels and galmesh ($20 for sheet) at base of sides:


Since the photo of our cage was taken we've added more weather protection to half the sides, a laying box and roosts etc.

The ready made mobile chicken runs are very expensive and terrible in terms of protecting the chooks from harsh weather conditions. So we found the dog enclosure works well and is cheap. But it's a DAY RUN only.

Yeah have watched all the TV shows including River Cottage (UK and local). After awhile there's less and less of value. YouTube has a hell of a lot more excellent material.

This YouTube channel is quite good and he's in similar climate to us:
Rob Bob's Backyard Farm & Aquaponics

My wife knows most of the good ones.

 

I could so eat that for dinner. Some of the best food I ever ate was in Dublin all washed down with Guinness

 

Stuff waiting till dinner time I agree with @IrishDigger, I'd happily go it for breakfast.

Yep we did a 10 day driving tour in Ireland staying in B&Bs. Very generous breakfasts and wonderful hospitality.

Each afternoon we'd look for a B&B then head down to the pub for dinner. I'd drink too many beers then come back and crash. Wife wasn't impressed as she'd always be left to plan the trip for the next day. I couldn't understand what the fuss was about.

 

Thanks for the info, definitely want chooks and keep hearing good things about the Australorp.

 

Their gardens are amazing. The Wife and I took a couple of weeks off to drive down to Victoria and visit all their gardens. Also went to the Botanical & Australia Gardens too. Picked up some interesting plants at Cloud Hill to try.

 

Every house I had, I planted a large vege garden - or series of gardens - and put in a lemon tree (plus others if room) ... but we always moved before I'd ever harvest a single lemon.

Had 40 ton (yeap 40 big smackers) of composted green waste dropped this week - to go with the 80 ton earlier in the year. A bit earthy in smell, so apologies to the neighbours

... and yes ... planted yet another lemon, lime, fig and orange ... and 15 finger limes ... need to plant some apples, apricots and pomegranet