House & Home The Vege Garden Thread

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by TadhgMor, 3rd Aug, 2017.

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  1. Ben Chifley

    Ben Chifley Well-Known Member

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    Great thread - very rewarding activity growing your own food. I'm fortunate enough to live in a fifties cream brick house with a huge separate veggie garden out the back; I also have the advantage of relatives with a horse farm so I have an endless supply of manure.

    Even in the depths of winter we manage to harvest heaps of cos lettuce and butter lettuce (they went to seed last year and now they're everywhere!) - we also have a huge kale bush and parsley hedge - all they require is occasional grooming to stop them going to seed. We had an avalanche of cherry and Roma tomatoes from Xmas through to Easter - had to give a lot away as we couldn't possibly eat them all. There's also a beautiful established navel orange tree with some wonderfully sweet fruit (currently in blossom).

    Overall I think I'm really blessed to have a space like that, very private and calming after a hard day as well as saving me $$$.
     
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  2. skater

    skater Well-Known Member

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    On my way out. This is salad Greens. It's limping along, but not really growing. There's more when I work out how to do it.
     
  3. skater

    skater Well-Known Member

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    Cauliflower. There were four of them. They died. This poor thing is still hanging on, but not getting any bigger.

    Tomato! No, we didn't grow it. We bought it from bunnings. Obviously it's not dead yet.

    Radishes! We haven't killed these, but according to the pack, they should be ready to harvest. They haven't grown since being put outside but there's a chance we could actually eat these eventually.

    Celery! The big one we bought at Bunnings. It looked nice & healthy, but now the outside shoots are yellowing. The microscopic shoot that you see in front is one we planted from seed. There were four of them germinated inside. Two were planted a couple of weeks ago & the other two are still in the house, getting bigger, while this one hasn't grown at all. The other one that was planted died.

    This is the whole plot. Not a lot in there at the moment.

    I have a couple of Bok Choi roots germinating inside at the moment as well. Hopefully they'll live & we can plant them.
     
    Last edited: 11th Sep, 2017
  4. TadhgMor

    TadhgMor Well-Known Member

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    Hi @Mac Fields here's a pic of the bird shields made from milk bottles they're basically the centre part of the bottle. Beans & Tomatoes in this pic.

    upload_2017-9-12_18-26-2.jpeg
     
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  5. TadhgMor

    TadhgMor Well-Known Member

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    @skater they look like they are nutriant deficient and dry.
    What soil are you planting them in ?
    Are you watering them every day ?
    Have you fed them, if so what have you fed them ?
     
  6. skater

    skater Well-Known Member

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    Yes, watering them every day. Hubby said I was drowning them. I'm not sure what the soil is. We asked what to buy at Bunnings & bought that. It's some kind of cheap soil at the bottom with a peat, I think at the top, mixed with manure.
     
  7. Hodor

    Hodor Well-Known Member

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    I'll have to get planting! Vege patch is green with a vast array of weeds so I'll need to get on top of that too.

    Last year I had trouble transferring seedlings from trays to the patch, seemed to stunt their growth or kill them, direct plants of same seeds planted after transfer caught up and over took them.

    Had some luck with beans, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots (usually too big or too small) and chilli. Lost most things while away on holidays for a week or so and had a heat wave.

    Not huge harvests, think I really need to add manure etc to build the soil. The patches were here when we bought the place two years back and had weeds and shredded plastic throughout which I removed.
     
  8. Nodrog

    Nodrog Well-Known Member

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    Nah leave it as is. Try this instead:

    Cooking with weeds | Green Lifestyle Magazine, the best of green

    :D
     
  9. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    When you plant from seeds, it can be difficult to determine which plants are weeds, and which are valuable garden plants.

    There's an easy test which can be applied. Pull up the plant. If it comes out easily, it was a valuable garden plants.
     
  10. Nodrog

    Nodrog Well-Known Member

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    Not sure about that. Took us ages to get strawberry plants out of very large wicking pots yesterday. Roots had even grown through the geotech.

    Reminds me of my SIL when she was young. Her father couldn't figure out why all his carrots were dying. Then one day by accident he saw young SIL pulling the carrots out of the ground then sticking them back in. He grumpily asked her why she was doing that. SIL innocently replies "to see if they're ripe":)
     
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  11. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    You haven't seen the weeds at my place ;-)
     
  12. Nodrog

    Nodrog Well-Known Member

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    Can you smoke them:cool:?
     
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  13. Hodor

    Hodor Well-Known Member

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    We have Kurnell curse/pennywort everywhere. Seems impossible to get rid of and difficult to control to a reasonable level, in all the neighbours gardens too...

    Not sure if anyone has had success getting rid of it?
     
  14. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    Hey, I thought that was obvious when I put weeds in a different category to valuable garden plants ;-)
     
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  15. sharon

    sharon Well-Known Member

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    My 5yo daughter does this at the moment. It's - kinda funny.
     
  16. TadhgMor

    TadhgMor Well-Known Member

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    Ok, a nice raised bed should drain quite rapidly so its more likely to go dry than drown your veges. If you have a clay base to it then it might fill up like a swimming pool!
    '
    Is it muddy 20mins afterwards or water pooling on top? if so, its not draining and you are drowning them.

    The soil looks rather brown, not the more black soil I'd be looking at for veges. It might not be right for them.

    You might like to get a Soil PH test Kit and measure the PH of your soil. It might be way off the mark.

    If it is the wrong PH then it needs fixing before things will grow properly.
     
  17. skater

    skater Well-Known Member

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    Sheesh! Now we're getting technical. Hubby keeps complaining that we keep spending money to get $2 of veggies.

    No, it's not pooling on top. It does feel dry after a good soak. The tomato plant has grown, so that's good. I've put a few more in now, as well as some capsicum and silver beet. The celery hasn't grown at all & the other seedlings are still looking not so great, but are somehow still alive. I've just bought a vertical garden & was thinking of putting strawberries in there.....I've got a few at one end of the vege patch, so I'll rip them out. Hubby's crabby pineapples that don't grow can be transplanted to the pool area. Once that's done I'll put in the beans & bok choi that I bought.
     
  18. PandS

    PandS Well-Known Member

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    If you live in a warm part of Australia without the frost no need to plant in seeding tray just plant directly where you want it to grow, Veggies and herb are easy in warm climate area.

    Get a trailer load of mushroom compost and mix in with your soil and thing will grow CRAZY.

    you can use it as top soil cover and it retains a lot of water and you don't need to water as often maybe 2-3 times a week with this layer on top
     
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  19. Hodor

    Hodor Well-Known Member

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    Coastal Sydney, so no frost. Good to know as the seed trays did hopeless last year, it would be handy to get started as I feel I could be a bit more organised and not question what is a veggie and what is a weed! I'll try again and see.

    Spent some time the last couple of days clearing the patch, adding fertiliser and home grown chicken pop.

    Hoping my nectarine and peach go well this year as they keep getting a disease or pest, going to head to a nursery and get some advice.

    Blueberry bushes are covered (gotta get nets on, birds are having a great time), figs have tiny fruit, Apricot is looking good too. Hopefully fruit isn't too off topic for the vege thread, doing better than many on PC!
     
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  20. PandS

    PandS Well-Known Member

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    Fruit tree love potash, get liquid potash and mix them with water and water your tree with it every 2 weeks during their flower and fruiting season, you get bigger and healthier fruit and hopefully no disease

    Manutec 450ml Liquid Potash Plus

    Chuck a bit of this into your plants every so often as well
    Richgro 2.5kg Mega Booster Nitrogen Organic Fertiliser
     
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