Edible garden chatter

[Cass72]

I have a veggie patch, which I made a 'cover' thingy for this year to keep the cabbage moths at bay without chemicals! Looks like this:004.jpg
I currently am waiting for the winter crop to finish which is cabbage, caulis, spinach and potatoes. When they are done Iwill put in corn, tomatoes and zuchini, possibly snow peas.

OOh, that's clever! I'm printing it off so DH can build one on the weekend!

[Cass72]

We have our "winter" crop in: cabbage, cauliflower, silverbeet, brussel sprouts. We've had some really heavy frosts so are waiting another couple of weeks before we put in our new seedings. I want to actually design our "summer" garden so it looks pretty as well as functional.

I'm also putting lots of herbs into big pots so I can move them around - also we are renting so can take them with us.

Roll on summer.... I long for the taste of homegrown, vine-ripened tomatoes, warmed by the sun that pop when you bite into them and dribble down your chin.... oooh, sounds a little naughty doesn't it?!

[Rivlas]

We plant peas, all sorts, beans and carrots for the boys to pick and eat. They are hardy so great for children. For a novelty plant rolly polly carrots. They don't go very deep so good soil that isn't in great shape.

For ourselves we grow zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, corn - it needs alot of water, onions, strawberries, spuds and lettuce. If you grow lettuce, the ones like cos are great for picking as you need. Let one go to seed, collect the seed and you can plant it nearly all year. We have it on the deck near the back door so it's handy. This yea we want to try sweet potatoes

If you find holes in your veggies and cannot see snails look for green grubs. They can be hard to see and do alot of damage.

In the ground we have grafted apple trees, nectarine, mandarin, peach, lemon and rhubarb. I am also trying a pomegranate in a self watering pot.

If you grow veggies in a pot make sure the saucer to a size or two larger than the pot as this seems to help stop them quickly drying out. Another thing we do is after planting the seedlings and watering them is place a thick layer of straw, we use sugar cane mulch. this keeps the snails away and keeps moisture in

[Mother Goose]

oooo thanks BG and ausgirl! I might have to get some of those seeds!

BG - I desperately want to grow watermelon too - but DH says no because of the room factor

[briggsy's girl]

I didn't find they took up too much room really. Not in comparison to pumpkin anyway! I'm
Contemplating giving them a go again. Will just train them along edge of garden (I hope!!) lol

[Dansta]

Oo this is a good thread!

We have a veggie patch - it was going grate guns until a boar pump died and it was eather veggies or drinking water!

that said i have celery that i thought died - spring back up (so im seeing if i can do a pick as you go with it, seeing as it hasnt died yet, LOL) also some onions and suppriseingly leeks - they died but came back right under the tank over flow - so it floods in that spot when ever it rains! also just planted some spinitch and fond some galic that the chooks didnt manage to dig up. Im waiting to see if any tommartos spring up as i had to let them die last year and im wondering if any managed to self sew.

In the next few weeks we'll be extending the patch out - and covering it with some netting so the chooks cant get in as well as the little native ones.

Saw dust will work with snails - it drys them out and they often die in. but with my chooks we dont seem to have many of them. im hopeing to try and get an old bath tub or alike so that i can grow some water veggies EG water chest nuts. with out worrying about the boys getting in - and moving some gold fish into it so keep mossies at bay.

I have 3 types of mit growing (yes, it'll take over but i want a 'herb' corner) as well as rosemary and chives. hopefully soon some parsly and i'm going to plant some strawberrys too.
Out front we have 1 cherry tree (another two out the back) plus two apple trees (again another two out the back) plus peach, plum, orange, manarine, lemmon aaaaaaaaaaaaand something else that i cant remember what it is. but they where all here when we moved and last year we had curly leaf run riot though.

[briggsy's girl]

went to bunnings today to get the chilli plant DH messed up last week (grabbed capsicum instead of the chilli - doofus!) - anyway, as always happens, we got side tracked - by the time we found the sweet chilli we went for, we'd also grabbed some other stuff - same thing happened in bigw and in woolies when we went for groceries! doh!

woolies have cute little kids planting kits in a paper bag - has the seedling trays, seeds, soil and instructions. DD was given the option of what planter kit she wanted (she was at mums', so i was on the phone) - she tossed up between capsicum and corn so much that we got both... there was also rainbow spinach, tomato and pea kits.

this evening we moved some of the plants around so that we had everything kinda how we want it pot wise until the garden bed goes in - re-potted 5 capsicums (one is a gorgeous purple - hope it matures nicely!), a zucchini, some oregano, thyme, more mint, cucumbers. have more beetroot to go in, and some marigolds will be planted between the pavers in the garden (which are in between the tomato plants - hoping to use companion planting ideas there)

i may have also found two more breeds of sunflower... can't wait to get teh garden beds in and get them growing!

[~Kim~]

oh der...never occurred to me that sunflowers could be called an edible plant

done a bit of research on companion plants and sunflowers, nasturtiums, petunias and marigolds seem to be most beneficial to what we have planted. Might toddle off to the nursery this weekend.

love the natural insecticide too.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

We're getting some chickens! I want eggs mainly, but I figure they're also gonna improve the soil and get it ready for planting. A friend owns a business, so I can trust the breeder