House & Home The Vege Garden Thread 2022

Kinda excited as have organised my first local "Crop Swap", to be held at the community garden this weekend ... the vege garden has caught me by surprise, by what 10cu/m of mushroom compost additive would produce.

Photos:

1. the tomatoes have already been savagely pruned back once already! Yes, that is sweet corn and a plum tree in the middle of the mess
2. a normal daily harvest (sooooo many cucumbers. I've been pickling and relishing my freckle off)
3. looking forward to the dwarf watermelon as this is just a small selection
4. nugget pumpkins are going insane, and still flowering with more. Thinking around 40-50 this harvest

 

Our winter citrus have set on the trees - countless blood oranges at golf ball size, a few lemonades, handful of lemons & mandies. Just keep feeding them. Killing a few stink bugs as well.

We bought 2 cherry tomato plants from the nursery, one is over 8' tall, the other 8 or more plants are ex-compost self-seeders. They've starting to put out a few coloured ones this week. Two self-seeders are single round ones, have picked a couple now as well.

We also have 2 (mystery prize) watermelons going ballistic, have now spotted a 4" ball & a couple of smaller ones growing.

The green beans yielded a handful only Likewise, the basil failed superbly, potatoes didn't do much either.

Rocket is starting to kick on. Sage & oregano are growing wild, rosemary is so easy with about a dozen plants kicking on.

I picked my 2 garlic bulbs on NYD, a little bigger than a golf ball. First year that they did anything more than 20mm.

On the non-edibles - the upside down orchids put on one helluva show, found a spot for the dendrobium kingianum's in the 100mm gap between the path & the fence, we struck several new gardenias from cuttings, somehow have got a few Viberniums to self-seed & successfully repotted. I've even got a miniscule lavender going (needs a magnifying glass to see it).

 

@Lizzie - End result is amazing! How do you deal with all bugs and insects?

@Scott No Mates: I'm having endless fight with those citrus smelly bugs too.

I had chill plants and few other herbs. Last year, we got two bunnies. They demolished them all! I have moved all my strawberries to a pot and placed them on balcony. They are doing fine. Once a week everyone gets one small fruit.. but the satisfaction we get is priceless.
After looking at the price of ginger, I planted few ginger shoots. They are about 15cm tall plants now. I'm not sure when to harvest though.

 

I put a few in each year as well. They've been pretty slow growing this year. Last year, one of the plants flowered as well. Ginger is ready to pick when the leaves all die and turn brown - mid to late autumn.

Neighbour's kids had a bunny too - it became fox dinner a few years back.

 

Upside down orchid (they flower through the bottom of the hanging wire basket & have a strong vanilla scent).



Who ever said that you can't grow orchids in a small space (these get morning sunshine only and enjoy a shaded position - they flower in spring).






From this...



To this....Well, I assume that's a watermelon. (Looking at it again after I posted, we're getting to a consensus that it is actually a Jap Pumpkin because watermelon generaly don't have seeds )



The two garlics back in Nov/Dec with the tomatoes behind them.



Hopefully the blood orange will hold it's fruit - it has been dropping a few of late.

 

The coffee has about 2 kilos that will be ready to pick in about 2 weeks..

 

@willair - did you grow the coffee plants from seed (I have a few seeds from a tree nearby which I was looking at planting). The tree was prolific but has recently died, so I picked a handful.

There are some street tree plantings of coffee near my coffee supplier - they have a few roasting/teaching days but not sure if they use the beans that they buy in or the ones from the street trees.

 

I bought those coffee plants from the mark down section of a organic nursery in Brisbane..
There are 2 tress that survived from the 4 I purchased .
Last year I gave away over 5 kilos to the 2 male doctor,s that live next door..
They package the beans up and give them too their mates,everybody wins.
With coffee,dynamic lifter plus sugar cane mulch plus a little bit of lime in the QLD climate they grow excellent..
But I'm mainly into herbs,I'll try and post of.photo on the herb garden .

 

Out of interest, how many cups of coffee would one coffee tree give you. After a year of love and tender care

 

I'm not sure as I don't drink coffee ..
But between 3-5 kilos per plants, I think 2 trees would put you in position to never buy coffee again and know the end product is safe and organic..

 

How big did the tree get? I've got one in a very large pot in my front garden, but am considering I might have to (gasp) find it some room in the ground to get a decent crop

Took a while but my passionfruit vines and seedless white grapes are finally starting to show some growth interest (planted this spring and took a while to work out where they were) - they will be fab next year.

Herbs? So many herbs going nuts atm - lemon grass, sage, oregano, basil, parsley, chili, chives - I'll be giving some away at the crop swap on Saturday (which is a great idea for the local area) ... and the sweet potato has taken over the 2x7m garden bed underneath the apple trees

 

So Wilair's 2 trees would see you right for around 8 months

 

Lizzie,I would say if you planted 4 all different varieties then I think you would have more then one needs..
From my experience it's a fine line when picking the beans just as the red changes colour and the beans put out a smell at night.
The only problem I have at the moment is Rambo the local scrub Turkey moved in the front yard ,his three girlfriends are long gone and he's working 24/7 guarding the nest..