House & Home The Vege Garden Thread

PS: Any thing flower and fruit generally love Potash, you get better yield and nicer flower if you fertilize it with this stuff.

and if you want your tomatoes going crazy and has more fruit than you can eat mix with this stuff when you water every 2 weeks

Manutec 1kg Epsom Salt

 

Great thread guys.

Cabbage and Cauli

Garlic

Broadbeans
Beetroot

Snowpeas

I am waiting for beans and silverbeet to shoot, don't think its going to happen anytime soon due to Melbourne winter

 

Oh my goodness - I have tomatoes! This little batch are hiding at the back of the plant.



The 2 plants are going nuts. I'm going to have to reinforce the truss thing I have as it's bending under the weight of just the plants alone. Can't use bamboo or wooden stakes as I have a 4 legged furry pest who likes to pull out the stakes and chew on them. The plants are collateral damage.

 

Saw today that Bunnings has 'White's’ heavy duty plastic-covered metal stake tomato 'cages'. 1.6m high for about $10. Larger version is $19.00 I think.

Comes unassembled and you could put the stakes in first and then thread through the stake 'connectors' even after the plant has grown, I think.

 

My wife as usual can't leave Bunnings without buying something for the fruit / vege gardens.

After just having cleaned out our strawberry path and reduced its size she comes home with two new varieties of strawberries. We like to grow unusual stuff. One strawberry plant produces white fruit with a strawberry / pineapple flavour. The other variety produces fruit and flavour like a strawberry / Rasberry cross.

 

I have those white strawberries too, unfortunately blackbirds got them last summer before we were able to harvest; this year I've put bird-netting above them so hopefully they'll survive.

 

When I realized I could buy my entire seasons vege crop for about 5 euro from the verduraria downstairs I didn't bother anymore. The only things I grow now are different types of chillies, trees, flowers and the occasional "pot" plant (legal here).

 

Thanks Joy, will have to have a look next time I'm in bunnings.

 

Do you have some sort of overhead frame on your garden bed? you can do some cool stuff with these clips, it cheap as chips on eBay and you can use it to support any plant. I use them to support my tomatoes and veggies that need supporting



Garden Plant Clips / Fasteners - Reusable, Muti-Purpose - Tomato - 25mm diameter | eBay

 

I don't even have a garden bed!

This is the plants in question:


I really hope I have the determinate type.... I spun the pot around and tied the trellis onto the back fence to stop it from falling over but I'm going to have to come up with a better solution. Perhaps some kind of external cage of sorts.

 

Phew, some work in the garden today setting up a 9 metre long by 1.8 metre high trellis for tomatoes and climbing vegetables. We used 1.8m star pickets and 6m x 2.4m concrete Reo mesh we cut to size. The wife is a very happy person to finally have a strong trellis setup. I'm in the good books for a change today. A curved garden on a slope to match existing rock retaining wall always presents challenges. This garden is supposed to be temporary until the planned beds are set up down the back. But it will also remain as a permanent bed now for produce picked frequently as it is close to the house. Here a few photos:

 

Latest harvest.

From this single home made wicking drum (well half drum):


Came this pile of ginger:


Wife found out today that fresh ginger will keep for up to 12 months if you cover it with fine clean playground sand in a bucket or other container. Better than drying or preserving it which results in loss of nutrients and flavour.

Oops just noticed my ugly toe in the photo. How to ruin a good photo.

 

My Little avocado tree looks sick , leaves seem to be turning yellow. Does get bugs chewing on it so just started some eco oil spray, not sure what else I can do, any ideas?

I have left the flowers as I thought I would damage the plant too much removing them. Read 99% will just drop anyway and I can just pick off the couple of fruit.

It's a bacon avocado (which just sounds appropriate), my Hass avocado nearby looks fine.

 

Out in the garden this morning so thought I'd take a photo of our latest small project:

Have nearly completed a large (11 x 3 x 3 m) Hoop Tunnel (2 sections) to net over some fruit trees which are multi planted: Peaches (2 x 2 varieties), plums (2 varieties), apples (3 varieties). There's a small netted strawberry garden and DIY wicking drums in the foreground. Here's a picture:


Here's a better picture of the vege / herb garden close to the house. The wife was away for awhile so the garden's pretty bare but now back it's been tidied up since the photo was taken and new plantings gone in. I would have weeded it whilst she was away but I didn't know which were weeds vs herbs etc:


The yard's still a work in progress as we've only been here a few years with most newer gardens, shrubs and trees only a couple of years old.

And here's Missy who is always first to greet me thinking I might be in possession of some food:

 

IMG_20170929_122433 by Ben Chifley posted 30th Sep, 2017 at 12:22 PM

I found these potatoes growing at the back of my veggie garden under some compost yesterday, didn't even know they were growing there. We roasted them last night with some rosemary and salt and they were delicious, very creamy - I know they would have been only $3 or so from the supermarket but there's something about your own veggies that's special.

 

Picked a few Mulberries this afternoon and ate a heap whilst picking. Purple fingers, lips and tongue tell the story:



And a few varieties of tomatoes for lunch:

 

I must admit when my wife started growing potatoes I questioned whether it was worth it given how cheap they are to buy. That was until I tasted them. The flavour was so much better, wonderfully fresh with a more earthy flavour.

We use the "no dig" method of growing potatoes. Here's a Picture (not ours) to give you an idea. As the potatoes grow just keep adding more sugar cane mulch on top to keep the actual potatoes covered.

 

guys watch garden of eden.

nice layer of chook made compost and six inches of woodchip mulch. and you never have to water your garden again

Also a flock of hens makes the best compost.

@PandS : epsom salts just magnesium sulphate, soil must be pretty deficient to need to add that.

 

Loving the contributions to the thread

Our vege garden is coming along and we've decide to plant some extras to up the varity this year.

Violet Queen Beans
BEAN VIOLET QUEEN | The Diggers Club

Purple King Climbing beans
BEAN PURPLE KING CLIMBING | The Diggers Club


Apline Strawberries
Alpine strawberry

Sunrise Bumble Bee Tomatoes
TOMATO SUNRISE BUMBLE BEE | The Diggers Club

San Mazarno Tomatoes
http://www.madaboutberries.com/tomatoes/san-marzano-tomatoes.html

Sorrel
http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/herb-to-know-sorrel-rumex-scutatus-r-acetosa

Most of those guys are still in their seed trays until bigger.