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depends on where you live - around here, four days wouldn't be too bad (cos we'd almost be guaranteed rain in there somewhere) - but elsewhere not so much! we're about to dig in a watering system in the next few weeks - when that's done, i'll buy a timer tap so it does it all automatically
silly question - what month is it best to plant edible thingies, if planting from seeds?
and what if planting from baby plants?
and what if planting from old veggies?
it really depends on what edible things you're planting - i'll come back tonight when i have more time and can find it - there is a planting guide about what to plant in what month. seeds are generally better planted and grown on a window sill or hot house for a little while for some vegies, direct in the ground for others - so it's really about knowing what you want to plant. what sort of things are you interested in PN?
Things that DSs can see grow ... I'm thinking beans, snow peas, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries ... maybe also carrots and potatoes (I recall those two being easy to grow ...?).
We're up quite high and so get a lot of rain - but we're not right up near the top, so we also have a lot of drainage through us ... ie: we have to mow the lawns every other week to keep them reasonable - not short, just reasonable!
But we're not very good gardeners, so nothing too tricky (no matter how yummy) and we do get quite a number of possums and birds, so we'll probably need wire around them, I'm guessing ....?
And when I say we're bad gardeners I'm not being modest. My mint died.
We have all of that in the garden now, so any time. Avoid growing spud though. It kills your soil for ages. You have to rehabilitate it and it takes a lot of work.
PN, this planting calendar is set for Vic, so should give you an idea of what to plant and when - it might also give you an idea of what other things you might grow that you'd be interested in. we also found a planting guide you could just tear off a pad in bunnings if you happen to be in there at all - was near the seed packets. same thing, just all drawn up on one piece of paper lol
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/b.../calendar?open
ETA - i also have a couple of other links if you're not happy with that one - they are commercial sites though, so i'd have to pm you - just let me know
BG why does spud kill the soil?
question girls
how long did it take till you seeds sprouted?
i have 4 different types of tomatoes, eggplants and zuchini seeds in for nearly 2 weeks and not a single sprout out of the 80 seeds i planted!!!
how much longer do you think i should wait until i call it a day with these seeds
btw i have them growing in seed raising mix, in a strawberry container to protect them, and in a egg type carton- and then in a sheltered half greenhouse
i also have been spray watering them every 24-36 hours and by the time i water them, they are dry by not dusty
HELP!!!
Not sure about the others but zuch's are usually 14 days. So don't panic yet!
We got sprouts for some things within a week, others took 2. Most packages say germination within 10-14 days from memory.
Spuds take a lot of nutrients from the soil that needs to be replaced through green mulches. Hard to explain from phone though. Basically everything you grow takes nutrients from the soil that you need to replace. By rotating your "crop" you can replace most of it season by season but spuds take a lot more out and harder to replace.
Thanks!!
Ah ok. Gotcha. Thanks!
you're welcome!
i've been doing a lot of reading about crop rotation - you shouldn't plant the same "family" in the same place two seasons in a row - it makes it more likely that you will get problems with the plant, and the soil doesn't recover. the ABC gardening australia website has a basic explanation of crop rotation and what happens. if you rotate crops (that sounds like you're planting massive amounts but you can break down your garden bed into small sections), what one takes out, the next puts back in, and makes for a healthier soil (and less added fertiliser needed etc)
Found a caterpillar eating my snow pea today!! :-(
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Thought I might venture in and ask some questions...
We dont have anywhere to really start a vegie patch in our back yard but as my parents are landords they have given us permission to grow in the front yard. But the soil is dry and rock hard because its just covered in bark
So we were thinking of getting some old tyres from a tyre place and using 4-5 to grow individual vegies in each tyre. Do you think that would work with some nice fresh soil from bunnings?
Obviously I will need vegies that grow above ground rather then under so was thinking cherry tom, peas, broc etc...
what do you think?
I think that would work. Would look cute too!!
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Not sure, but a friend grows herbs and capsicum in a sawn down barrel above ground :)
Sounds fine to me
My gf grows alot of her veg in tyres and things like that & she does well, so it is doable.
just a quick question. what happens after herbs have flowered? i didnt even know that herbs flower. does that mean they are no longer any good to use? is there something i should do with the flowers, cut them off or somethjing? its happened to my basil, my thyme, and rosemary.
Basil will then die off. I just let ours go to seed (some) and they just self sow. Same as coriander and parsley.
Thyme & rosemary keeps going.
awww, didnt use my basil that much. will have to use it before it dies! thanks for the info! :-)
I always just pick off the flowers on my herbs... I've somehow managed to keep them alive for about 1.5 years now (that's the original plants)
Can I just say . . . BG you're my hero!!!!! The go to girl for all things vegies ;-)
I'm very excited to be starting our vegie garden. A couple of raised garden beds were supposed to be my birthday present but never got around to buying them so last weekend I got one from Masters to try out. Also got seeds for lettuce, cucumber, beetroot, carrots, basil and something else that I can't remember - hven't planted yet. I also have a weeping mulberry, lemon, lime and two double graft apple trees already that I haven't managed to kill yet. Will be adding to the fruit trees with oranges, mandarins, blueberries and will get some more strawberry plants - they were very popular with the girls last year.
BG - how much room do you need for corn? I have tons of room - we have 1.25 acres - but I wanted to keep everything in raised beds if I can because the kikuyu grass gets into EVERYTHING. Also, do you think watermelons and rockmelons could hold their own in the grass?
I would really love some chooks but DH is adamant that we're not having them, so I'll have to keep working on him. Not sure what his problem is - says its because it makes it too difficult to go away, but given that we have a cat and a dog its not like we just flit around anyway.
corn doesn't take up a lot of room. you're best to plant it in blocks though, rather than rows - it makes for better cross pollination. ideally, for the varieties you can buy locally, they need to be about 9 inches apart - we tend to plant a row, offset the next row (so they are only about 5 inches apart) and then plant the next row the same as the first. never had a problem with them
with watermelon, rock melon, pumpkin and cucumber, we plant them on the edge of a raised garden bed, and as they grow, encourage them into the grass. that way, the root system is protected, and it's only the actual plant that has to spread out. it should be ok to let it take off. DH won't let me have any melons this year though - says DD is too young to understand if she loses part of her yard to fruit plants that are creeping, given it's not a huge yard like we used to have. i REALLY want to plant pumpkin too, but he said no. tempted to just get a pumpkin seed and stick it in a pot, and if it takes off, so be it - i'm sure she'd learn to live without that bit of room lol
Oooh, I never thought of letting things like pumpkin grow out of the garden bed! We have a tiny backyard (after alfresco we have 3m to the fence - part of which is paved. Do u think something growing out of a garden bed would object to growing on pavers???
DH said he's done it before and it was fine - the only thing you have to be wary of is how much heat radiates back up from the pavers, cooking the leaves and "feelers". pumpkin (in his experience) will grow up and over fences
this has given me ideas - he is not happy with my ideas! will have to see if there is a variety of pumpkin we can grow upward instead of outward! investigation taking off now...
Oooh! Up is a good idea! If you (or anyone else) has good ideas for things I can grow upwards, please let me know!
You can train tomato to grow up instead of out. Peas and beans having climbing varieties...
DH built our raised bed on the weekend :) So happy! He did it from scratch and it looks awesome :) The dirt is in and next weekend we are PLANTING! So SO excited! DD had an awesome time helping him - she is such a cool kid :)
How are all your gardens going ladies?
Ours is looking fantastic. We've got flowers and the beginnings of veggies on so many things. Lettuces are ready for harvest as we need them, with seedlings ready to go in the garden bed tomorrow. Dd and I have shared strawberries every day this week. Fruit is forming on 8 of the ten fruit trees. Have picked a few pea pods. Snow peas will be ready soon. Kiwi fruit is taking off. Passion fruit not so much. Sun flowers didn't get planted til two weeks back. Waited til what we thought the worst of the cold weather was over. Has such bub ish weather the weekend after we planted them, we expected a cruddy germination rate but to our surprise it looks to be greater than 90% have taken! Each hole had two seeds in it so another fortnight and we will have to thin to the strongest seedlings. Will probably full any gala with the ones we pull out and may plant the others elsewhere. If we can find somewhere to plant them lol.
Wow! Your garden sounds great!
Mine doesn't seem to be doing much.....Nothing is dying but I don't feel like the plants are getting much bigger or producing anything.... I'm hoping it'll change soon. It's a little disheartening...
It can take a while for everything to take off. Last year we had a shocker. This year has been better but still nothing like the success we had at our old house. I actually said to dh today I'd be interested to see if we can top the gardens up with a mix of ash and red soil next year as that's what we used at the old place. Might be harder to get seeing we have no way to burn wood and stuff cleanly here, and the red soil was a fluke given he was driving a tipper at the time and got it from prime spud country for some reason. I can hope though, right??
On the downside, we've never had problems growing beans. Ever. And none of them are doing any good this year!! We have four varieties in! Not happy!!
Well I'm a bit disappointed. Fit about 4 snow peas then the plant died. Lots of zuccini flowers but no zucchinis. Actually one did start to grow but then shriveled and died. Shallots have not gotten very big. Strawberries were the best. Got a few tomatoes growing and ripening. Cos lettuce was good too. I'm a bit over it now. Lol
My zucchini seem to have grown well, mind you only leaves. No flowers or vegies. Same with corn and carrots. Capsicums have been nibbled, and now seem dead. Tomatoes have started to sprout from seeds so will be able to transfer them shortly. As well as a few cucumbers. Parsley is doing well too. Still a way off producing anything edible yet, but looking forward to it. Not too bad for a first timer.
I'm very excited - DP and I have finally decided on and priced materials for building 4 raised beds over the one little patch of lawn in our garden. 400x400mm concrete slabs, standing upright around the edges, with angle iron frames holding them together and silicon joins between them. We've paid for the slabs, second-hand, and will buy the angle iron new. Hopefully we'll put them together in the next week! Then to get a delivery of soil to go in them, and finally I'll get the area of vegie gaden i've been hoping for, and won't have to squash everything up really tightly like I have been so far.
When I said that not much is happening veggie wise above, I forgot to say my herbs are going nuts! I'm constantly on the look out for new ways to use them.
Ours too chody! Dh even has parsley that self seeded in the concrete grooves near the garage door lol
We have strawberries daily. Lettuces is amazing. Snow peas and peas that aren't making it inside cos I snack while I walk around. Flowers in everything. It's awesome!
My lettuce has barely grown. I thought I'd grow some from seed (DD loved planting the seeds) but they aren't growing fast! The bean seeds we planted have grown well though and I'm just about to plant them into the proper garden. I have a measley 2 cherry tomatoes growing and nothing on our regular tomato plant. The various veggie plants seem to be flowering quite a bit but nothing is resulting in veggies - any tips?
sorry, have just seen this - do you have bees in the garden? some plants may need manual polination if you don't have bees visiting. we have flowers (roses, marigolds) to attract bees to the garden as well as the fruit and vegie flowers. some need to be cross polinated - you may need to google the plants you are growing to see if they self pollinate or need some help:
ours garden is going great guns. we've had a rush of lettuce (which has been heavenly - can't believe the added flavour!), brocolli will have to be harvested soon, and probably replant some. peas and snow peas have been going great guns. so delish! strawberries going crazy. think we may have to harvest and freeze for smoothies... mmm nom nom nom. too many to keep up with! fruit trees - all the citrus trees have fruit starting to grow. one of the apples (or maybe it's the nashi pear - we've lost the tag oops!) has a HEAP of fruit on it. sunflowers going great guns and about to head out and thin the crop so they have room to grow properly.
our owls are working brilliantly - no birds nicking our food! yay!