Edible garden chatter

**Pholi** · January 9th, 2013, 08:58 AM

Nickle, gardening is great when most of the 'work' is harvesting! Have a look at Dipel for your caterpillars - it contains a naturally ovcurring bacteria that kills ONLY caterpillars, which means all of the good bugs in your garden are not affected. It will not kill anything that eats the affected caterpillars, either.

We had a 'garden salad' last night - cucumber, capsicum, beetroot, basil and oregano and carrot, all from our garden, with just a few shop bought leaves thrown in. It's really hard to grow salad leaves in Perth in summer. my zucchini is very slow to take off this year. last year we were harvesting heaps by Christmas, this year it's still just a large seedling.

**nickle730** · January 9th, 2013, 09:28 AM

Thanks Pholi, that looks like exactly the product I need. Had a look on the Bunnings and Mitre 10 websites and neither seem to stock it, any idea where I can buy it? Ta.

**Pholi** · January 9th, 2013, 10:40 AM

Phone your local Bunnings or other garden centre - it's pretty common, it's a Yates product - but from my experience the Bunnings website lists a fraction of the items they have in stock, so you're much better off phoning them.

**peanutter** · January 9th, 2013, 07:46 PM

we gave our lemon tree a decent hair cut, and let DH loose peeing on the trunk and it came back in a big way...

Thanks.

Let's see if my DH's pee works too, before I ask for you to send yours around.

**Jaycee** · January 10th, 2013, 08:52 AM

So this morning I have planted sweet corn, parsnips, turnips, swedes and carrots. I have also started in seedling trays broccoli and cauliflower, and I'm also trying my luck at growing gerberas and poppies from seed as well. Productive morning for me, lets hope they all take off

**Astrid** · January 10th, 2013, 10:24 AM

DH is finally putting a decent watering system which should make things easier. So thankful for having bore water on the property.

**2CheekyMonkeys** · January 14th, 2013, 04:52 PM

I have a couple quick qns. Our tomato plant has grown about 2 feet high and produced 3 tomatoes. Then the tops started dying off however the bottom of the plant has started to grow healthily. Is that normal? Will it grow tomatoes again? Should I cut off the dead top leaves? ( stalks at top look ok).

Also, I bought some red onion seedlings and planted them as I got them from bunnings ( so there were 6 compartments in the tray with a bunch of sprouts in each compartment). Did I make the same mistake as I did with the carrots, planting them in 6 bunches? Should I have separated them out?

**RhiChiChi** · January 14th, 2013, 06:01 PM

We thin our tomato plants out from the top as this seems to promote growth and more flowers. as for the onions I am jot sure.
We harvested some beetroot today. Will try them grated raw in a salad and then I'll cook some and see what they taste like.

Cucumbers are growing.

**RhiChiChi** · January 14th, 2013, 06:01 PM

We thin our tomato plants out from the top as this seems to promote growth and more flowers. as for the onions I am jot sure.
We harvested some beetroot today. Will try them grated raw in a salad and then I'll cook some and see what they taste like.

Cucumbers are growing.

**Jaycee** · January 14th, 2013, 06:29 PM

Not sure on the tomatoes sorry, mine don't seem to want to ripen.

My naughty dog has dug up half of the stuff I planted the other day I'm do angry!

On a positive note my mandarin tree has tiny mandarins on it

**2CheekyMonkeys** · January 14th, 2013, 06:35 PM

My dog did that a little while ago too!!

**Pholi** · January 14th, 2013, 08:22 PM

2Cheeky Monkeys, Yes, you should have separated them. Each plant needs enough space around it to get it's own water and nutrient supply, and to gro a bulb. It frustrates me that seedlings like onions and leeks are sold like this and the label doesn't make this clear. If they were only planted in the last few days, you could lift out the little bunches, and gently tease the seedlings apart, untangling their roots as you go, and plant them out separately. I plant them about 15cm apart, i'm not sure what spacing they are meant to be, though.

**2CheekyMonkeys** · January 14th, 2013, 08:30 PM

Thanks pholi, your right it is frustrating! The labels didn't say anything about separating them. I planted them about 3 weeks ago so maybe too late to try and dig them up now. Will they just not grow properly? When I did the same thing with the carrots they twisted and deformed!! What a waste of money!!

**briggsy's girl** · January 22nd, 2013, 07:49 PM

image.jpg
Hoping this works. Pic of today's harvest

**peanutter** · January 22nd, 2013, 08:22 PM

nice!

**chody47** · January 23rd, 2013, 05:03 AM

Wow! 😳

**Mum2twoBoys** · January 23rd, 2013, 06:19 AM

What a great harvest, I just have zucchinis coming out my ears lol. Tomatoes have started growing, and corn is almost ready to pick.

I planted beetroot, it started sprouting, but now its totally gone. Any ideas? Has something eaten it?