Edible garden chatter

new garden bed is in and lots of planting done. a heap of cardboard for base layer, a bail of hay, 3 trailer loads of fine grade mulch, a metre of good top soil after we started, it's done!

friday last week we borrowed a trailer and went hard - got it all in, then planted it all on saturday. we put pavers through the bed so that we can walk through it without having fear of stepping on plants - and have one section, probably about 2.5 sq metres, that hasn't been planted with anything yet - DH said he will likely fill it with pea and carrot seeds - who knows - we're still in discussions about what we need!!

so now we have in, over the two gardens:
corn (about 2 dozen plants)
tomato (34 plants)
lettuce (16 iceberg)
beetroot (about 2 dozen from memory)
beans - dwarf (10)
beans - climbing (8 - 8 more to be grabbed today to go in)
beans - bonaparte (2 dozen)
snow peas (20 from memory)
peas (about 2 dozen)
capsicum (17 plants)
carrot (no idea how many seeds are in!)
zucchini (5 plants)
cucumber (9 plants)
cabbage (6)
brocolli (6)
cauliflower (6)
garlic (about a dozen almost ready to harvest, maybe more - 30+ to go in today)
chilli (one plant and a bunch of seeds - but not seeing much life from the seeds!)
coriander (one punnet)
basil
mint
chives (2 varieties, plus seeds)
parsley (3 varieties)
oregano (i think that's the other herb!)
mandarin
lime
lemon
two orange trees
blood orange
two apples (dwarf pink lady and granny smith)
nashi or pear (DH can't remember which one we brought from the old place - and it needs some more time to develop in the pot before it will fruit)
dwarf nectarine
dwarf peach
strawberries (lots!)

we've half built the next garden bed as well - the one that runs between the two vegie patches and will have the sunflowers and other "pretties" - hippeastrums, maybe some clivias, and the flowers mum got for DD that probably need to go in the garden rather than the pots they are in - we may move the bearded irises soon too - not sure. it took a hell of a lot of work yesterday to get this garden bed cleared - had to move all the rose pots and fruit trees off the fence line, onto the other fence - and then, being that i like symmetry and organisation, we had to move all the other pots around too. although that bit me on the backside cos DH had me dragging the trolley around with the pots on it, and he was moving the bricks they sit on - i definitely got the harder work!!

very sore today, but the other bit of the garden needs to be finished today so we can work out how much more mulch/soil we need to back fill it - then probably borrow the trailer again on wednesday and get it all done. was hoping to be finished by now so i can actually rest for part of my leave - but it's not looking possible at this stage! wish my bros ute was available during the week, cos we only need a ute load but we can't get that during the week - why did our ute die a month before we could afford for it to die??

holy dooley, sounds like your setting up a farmers market at your place!! :-)

i'm a bit excited, i have a bright orange zuccini flower today, three ripe strawberries and some flowers on my snow peas!! ended up getting rid of all the carrots. try them again next year i think!

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holy dooley, sounds like your setting up a farmers market at your place!! :-)

i'm a bit excited, i have a bright orange zuccini flower today, three ripe strawberries and some flowers on my snow peas!! ended up getting rid of all the carrots. try them again next year i think!

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Not a farmers market but definitely a family market. We grow extra stuff knowing my parents and aunt as well as a couple of friends, will take stuff. And buy seeds/seedlings to replace them

I forgot to add the passion fruit and kiwi fruit plants too! Have out in two passion fruit to intertwine along one corner fence line, and a "mr and Mrs kiwi" in the opposite garden. Was better value to buy the male and female plant on one grafted (and reasonably established) plant than to buy two seperate plants. We have potted them so we can take them if we move out. The seasonal stuff we can leave but the plants that will keep producing year after year we want to be able to take. Even if they need a big haircut to move them lol. The passionfruit were bargains ao we will leave them in the ground. If we move we may dig them up. If they don't survive so be it.

I don't have plans to move in a hurry so we don't need to think too much about it








Eta: yay for flowers and fruit on your plants!

added more carrots, peas and beans (seeds directly sewn into the garden bed) and planted about 45 garlic cloves (they take 7-9 months to mature so we should have a whole lot of them next year lol
planted capsicum, corn and lettuce seeds in seedling trays and put them in the greenhouse for the time being - they should be ready to plant in a couple of weeks - we'll also add more peas and beans around then as well, so we always have fresh ones coming in - not that they don't re-shoot, but given my (i mean DD's) penchant for stealing from the plant and just snacking all the time, it's a safe bet that we'll need extra plants!! not to mention mum does the same thing! can't wait to have fresh beans to snack on - mmmm snow peas and fresh beans for work snacks. nom nom nom

my grandad used to think his bean plants (in particular) were dodgy every summer while school holidays were on - we'd be at their place every couple of days and raid the plants every single time. poor grandad never got to see them when they hit maturity lol

hehe, thats cute. poor ol grandad! :-)
we used to pinch carrots out of the neighbours garden, he wasnt too happy about that! whoopsy!
whats the deal with garlic? does it grow under the ground? i wouldnt mind trying that.
i must say i am enjoing picking cos lettuce leaves for my sandwhiches etc as i need them. :-)

yup garlic just grows under ground - well, you put the clove in that has started to grow (if you have some) and let it go - it grows up about a foot, maybe a bit higher, with green leaves - you leave it a good 7-9 months (just keep an eye on it and when it forms the normal bulbs, did it up and let it dry out

The caulis are getting heads!!!

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The caulis are getting heads!!!

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Yay!!!

Woot ausgirl!

BG we have hippeastrums too! Inherited with the house. Is it you that has the strawberry bath? Cos we're doing bathroom renos right now, and our strawberries are growing brilliantly, plus we now have an unused bath! Might borrow that idea.

No news in our garden. Got a teeny bit of rain today, first time in 11 weeks or something crazy. Barely 2mm, but enough to freshen things up.

yes, we have strawberries in a bath! it makes it "E safe" - we put a mesh stuff over the top, anchored at all points, so she can't thieve them before they are ready - we have the hope that one day some will make it inside, although generally they make it to the tap for a quick rinse, and straight into her mouth. we have some old pickets we are going to make a frame with (one day) just so it doesn't look like a dirty old bath in the backyard lol DH has only ever grown berries in a bath or old laundry trough so when we moved, the bath was always coming with us

yay for rain! we're celebrating sun the way you're celebrating rain lol

Before I do my post - does anyone mind that I don't HAVE an edible garden yet, I'm building a garden? I totally don't mind starting another thread if you'd prefer to keep it just growing foods :)

It all overlaps babe. Ours has only just been planted out recently. I started this thread for sharing all things related to edible gardens. Including construction questions/chatter/advice!

Alrighty then :)

Well, this morning Professor and I finished digging out a garden bed, except for a stump that's in there. It's pretty rotten, we've just gotta let it rot some more before we can take it out. Took out all the roots from that hideous creeper, and found approximately 12 million juicy earthworms! I was very surprised the soil was so healthy :) I was going to set up garden bed worm tubes, but I think now I'll just set up with tubes and allow the existing worms to do their thing, I don't think I need to buy anymore worms. We'll see.

Professor also spoke to the coffee truck that visits his work about their coffee grounds. They don't use them anymore, so they're going to save them up for us and give them to him every Friday, so us to do stuff with on Saturday. AWESOME! So we dug them into the newly cleared bed this morning. I wanted to do more, but I have a cold and was starting to get lightheaded.

Sounds like its all coming along we'll Hun. Hate when stumps get stuck in the way. Drives me nuts! C too. He's a stubborn sod though (and has the tools to make it easier) so will just persist.

We added a chocolate mint to the herb garden. More beans in the garden. Have also planted some lettuce, corn and capsicum seeds and growing them up in the greenhouse for now

Need to get us some more stakes soon, and run the wires for climbing things on. All the old bboo stakes have given up the ghost after several years of being recycled. So we're going for new hardwood ones and hoping for more longevity. Have to grab some each week. If we bought all we needed at once, the old bank account might not be happy!

Own to an area about 2sq m of the veggie patch that isn't planted out now. Will e next week before we can out the soil in the other garden bed building off a couple more weeks will be good though I think. More warmth for planting sunflowers. They reckon it takes 10-12 weeks to flower so if we plant early next month we should get flowers around Christmas or new year.

Can I join in the chatter?

I've just finished planting our veggie garden, very new to all of this :)

Can I ask how big your areas are? So far I have two boxes, both 2 metres long by 1 metre wide. We just filled them with organic loam and planted. Is there anything else I should do?

Thanks for your help :)

our vegie patch is very big (you could essentially say our garden is for us, my folks, mum's sister, and a friend - so a decent size)

doing a quick think back to last week when we measured it, the first one is 5.4m square, with a 2.7m square cut out of it (it is an l shape with outer edge 5.4m long on each side, inner edge 2.7m long). the other is 4.1x5.4m with a section 2.2x2.4 missing) - i hope that makes sense - it's really hard to explain!! basically L shaped, wrapping around the corners of the fence (i think there is a pic on one of the earlier pages which shows the shape of one garden, the other is a mirror of that)

the garden that is going in for the sunflowers (and other pretties this year - and will likely become a normal garden for vegies next year if the sun flowers are a flop lol) is 8mx1.2m

We live in an apartment so have an edible balcony lol. Different herbs and then tomatoes and strawberries for now. Will hopefully be extending it quite substantially when we move into a place with a yard at the end of the year (have a yard here but it is communal so can't modify it).

Our tomatoes and strawberries are beginning to flower and fruit. So amazing for the girls to watch :)

DH found a pot hanger thing that my nan gave us ages ago - he'd packed it away, cos she'd had fake greenery wrapped around it - so he's cleaned the fake stuff off, and found some pots to fit it, and is now going to create a hanger with more strawberries

we're always up for experimenting with which way is the best for growing something lol

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Can I join in the chatter?

I've just finished planting our veggie garden, very new to all of this :)

Can I ask how big your areas are? So far I have two boxes, both 2 metres long by 1 metre wide. We just filled them with organic loam and planted. Is there anything else I should do?

Thanks for your help :)

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Exactly what we have! Plus a few other shrubby type things around the place.

Well, DH went to start prepping the garden yesterday only to discover a heap of plastic under a very thin layer of dirt. And a heaps of builders rubbish.... So it's going to take more work. We knew we needed to buy dirt to top up but this is a little disheartening. Hopefully we can get out there next weekend and work on it

We've just finished building ours, its 3x3.5m. And I planted my carrots, corn, cucumbers and parsley that had started growing in my seedlings pots. And I got some zucchini and thyme yesterday. So have to plant them in my seeding pots next. Still waiting on the tomatoes, rosemary and a few of the cucumbers to sprout so that I can transfer them. Looking forward to trying my first ever homegrown vegies.

What do you use to deter snails, that won't be enticing to cats or kids?

whats the best way to tie tomato and snow pea stems to stakes? i used those garden twisty tie things but they seem to have damaged my plants? also, is there a special part of the plant that should be tied to the stake or just the longest part iykwim?
how do you know when snow peas are ready to pick? i have a few smallish ones at the moment.

Grrr we are in recovery mode after one of the kids forgot to shut the chook pen....they ate every single one of DS' precious carrots, lots of coriander and a good portion of the cucumbers and pumpkin sprouts.

Mine is a mobile garden in a little raised bed and mostly pots. I have plenty of yard but we rent and live in the desert. It's easier to manage pots. Our strawberries are in hanging planters, to protect them both from kids and chooks. Going to trial some of the cherry tomatoes in another one once they're bigger so they can grow down and I don't have to stake them.

2CMs something soft and stretchy is what we use. Old stockings/tights or strips of old t-shirts. I have no idea though on the rules of staking. I just use where I feel is the strongest and where I can get to.

Thanks will try something softer and stretchier. Good idea about putting the tomatoes in a hanging pot. Might try that next time. I am bummed that my tomatoes aren't doing anything. I have flowers but they just shrivel and die and don't produce fruit. Same with my zucchinis.


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With veggie peelings, can I dig them straight into a garden bed? Or do I need to let them sit for a few days and rot?

i would let it rot down first hun - you don't want to dig something in and find out it doesn't rot down properly and messes with your garden kwim?

don't dig in spud peel at all - spuds can grow from any eyes on the peel. and spuds can take over your garden (and ruin your soil for growing anything else for a while)

onion wont' rot down very well either (from what i can gather)

I knew about the onion and citrus, but thanks for the spud, didn't know that! I'll save it for the chooks then :)

if you've got chooks, i'd just give them everything and then dig in the chook poo - get double the benefit then!!

you can also dig in crushed up egg shell for the worms - apparently it helps change the acidity of the soil as they process it.

was planning on buying a worm farm this week - but realised we have run out of so many essential pantry items all at once, that i really need to do some proper shopping. i'm most unimpressed with this idea lol

Not to be a killjoy, but I don't think you're supposed to give raw potato anything to chooks. It's a night shade vegie and is really not good for them. OK if they're cooked though.Can vouch for the chook poo benefit though.

i dont' keep chooks, so wasn't sure about what you could or couldn't feed them sorry

sil's folks used to give the chooks the egg shells finely ground up - said it made for stronger shells or something. i thought it all kinds of weird lol

I know I agree....but it really does do the trick....think placenta encapsulation lol.

We will give the egg shells to the worms. I can handle that thought lol

hi everyone, hope you don't,mind me joining.

I have been reading with interest and was inspired to try a few things. we're renting and don't have alot of garden but I've planted a tomato in a pot and I have some cucumber seeds growing in little pots. I have been thinking about a raised garden bed but they seem to vary greatly in price - does anyone have any suggestions or tips? I don't have much to spare but I woulda like to plant a couple more things.

I'm,quite nervous because I am THE WORST gardener, I've never had any success but I'm determined to have a crack this year :)

if you want to keep it really cheap, go into your local supermarket and ask the produce people if they have any of the foam boxes the vegies are transported in - they are a great way to start, and not so big as to be immovable weight wise - so you can experiment with places to put them etc. i was also in the local hardware store the other day and they had what looked like a garden in a wheelbarrow - although the base of the barrow part was made of a mesh instead of plastic - and the herbs and things they had growing in there were going great guns.

i wouldn't be able to advise on what type of garden bed to use, but if you're planning on putting it on a grassed area, get landlord approval and then go a cheapish option (timber is cheaper than the metal ones from what i've seen) - maybe see if you can get the materials on freecycle... if you're going to put it on a concrete area, make sure you put in a lot of good quality compost/fertiliser as it will have to be self sufficient. and make sure you have access to something to clean any staining off the concrete when we move out and take it with you (high pressure washer makes the job easy)

I would never have thought of the foam boxes, that's a great idea. Thank you :)

I did see a wooden raised bed in the aldi catalogue but had no idea whether they're any good.

Can i pop my head in too... we have wanted to start a veggie patch for ages and haven't gotten around to it but at the moment the girls have some rainbow capsicums growing in little seed trays on our bedroom window (11 have sprouted) and some lettuce growing in a pot on the deck.

I'm going to have to get a bigger pot for the lettuce as we have 6 in this long thin one and it's not going to work.

The capsicums i will transplant into a big round tub once they start getting their second lot of leaves through and put them outside and hope they continue to thrive.

I really need to sort out a place for a proper veggie garden and get it setup so we can plant the lettuce and capsicums in there and then strat growing a few more things.

Peas in a pod, carrots, capsicum, baby spinach would be great.

We have fruit trees lining down the hill of our second drive way - orange, mandarin, lemons, apples & pears but they still have a way to go.
We have an apple tree in the paddock (established and beautiful fruit) aswell as i think plums and i'm not 100% on the tree in the front yard but it hasn't had fruit in the 2yrs we've been here so i cleared out the middle branches and cut off some dead wood and will see how we go now.

Welcome ZF and sloane. Good luck with your vegie patches. Might be able to hook you up with some railway sleepers for your edging if you're interested ZF.

so glad I found this thread!

Dp has gone a little overboard this year, bought a green house, put it up on sleepers, dug out half of the ground inside and mixed it up with improved stuff (lol, I'm not much of a gardener) we have 12 tomato plants growing in there, (cherry sweet bite, father toms, romas, theres more too but cant remember) we also have penny royal and another insect deterrent plant in there.
We have rosemary cuttings that are just rooting, also about 20 chillis, onions, spring onions...
Have just sowed the carrot seeds, lettuce seeds etc, but dp actually went and bought some hydro lettuces and just planted them in pots, theyre growing really well!

My little input is the herbs, I have sage, parsley ,thyme.. we have garlic chives and peppermint that grow wild in the back yard (they will not stop growing, despite repeated mowing etc..!!)
We also have a peach tree that is just now in flower (late fruiting around end of March) grape vine that is just starting to grow back, fig tree that is just laden with baby figs at the moment also an avocado tree that is flowering again and still has about 20 massive avos on it. (I think theyre Reed?)

DS and I have a strawberry pot with 5 different types of strawbs growing, so many flowers and fruit coming now, ds is so excited, have to keep explaining to him that he cant pick the flowers and cant eat them until they look like the ones in the picture!! lol

I would really like to get more fruit trees, but this is my father in laws house so DP wants to wait until we get our own :( I figure we can just get big pots or dwarf varieties...oh well.

DP has a set up that is taking over our spare room, he has made his own little light boxes for his seedlings that have sprouted from seed, we are going to have to give so many away, he has hundreds!! (tomato and chilli)

oh and we also have in the cupboard in the spare room a mushroom box, from bunnings, we have already had a few decent crops of mushies :)

I just found some little green tomatoes growing!! So so so excited, I thought they wouldn't fruit!!


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We are going away for 4 days thus week. Is there any sort of self watering contraption I can set up so my babies don't dry out and die? Or do you think they will survive that long without being watered?


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