How is your vege garden going atm?

what do you guys use to tie your plants, when you need to stake something? We use to use stockings, but didn't have any when DH went to stake the tomtoes and a capsicum plant the other day, so we tore up a bedsheet into strips.. Going shopping either tomorrow or Thursday and am looking for some ideas

Nic

Nic - we use reusable plastic staking ties you can find in BigW and bunnings. initially we talked about using stockings, but given i don't wear them, there are none to recycle like that! we looked around for options that would be best given we have a couple of hundred roses as well as the vegies, and found these to be the best option. they do up kinda like electrical ties but they don't lock at one point so you can adjust and move them as the plant grows. the come in a couple of types - one is like a green chain and you just feed one end through a loop and twist so it locks in place, the other type is more like the electrical ties but easily undone. we managed to get them cheap (i think maybe $2 for about 20 of them) - have been able to reuse them heaps though. they're strong enough to hold up climbing roses, but haven't done any damage to the tomato plants at all!

if you need more info (that's a really woeful description) let me know - i know where to drag a packet of them out so might be able to get more info!

We just use a big ball of sting which cost me $1.We cut it off and tie as we need to

Thanks BG and D :) I might have to go to our pitiful little hardware and see if I can find something similiar to what you described BG. Then when we are near Bunnings next, I can go have a look then. I don't wear stockings either, so wasn't really looking forward to having to purchase some just for this purpose. :)

Nic

:clap: my spinach is thriving atm.
every thing else is slowly coming along(broc,cabbage,beans,cauli,lettuce)
hopefully well be eating the spinach in a couple of weeks :redface: omg im so proud first thing ive grown thats edible and i didnt kill it (spelling lol)..
i need to do some weeding when it finally stops raining
oh and yeh i forgot i put chives in at the same time as every thing else and gee there slow ..is this normal ?there all up thats for sure but just very slow growers ??

:rolleyes:all my vegies are getting eaten by little greean grubs,i think the white butterflys are leaving them there ??i have hundreds of them and holes all on my plants :lol: im going to google and try and kill em...do you have any tips

Can't help out with any tips sorry Smithy? I have had a couple of caterpillars (or something similiar) on our lemon tree, but I just keep pulling the little buggers off and squash them!

Not much happening here, I have just about killed all the strawberries. :( Not sure what we did there. Have moved them out of the sun a bit and what is left looks ok.

Tomatoes are looking awesome, as are our capsicums. Still haven't been able to do another garden bed or two yet, DH is busy helping everyone else out!

smithy, pop down to bunnings or similar and grab some "derris dust". you just sprinkle it on every few days, cover all the leaves, and no more buggers, and no more holes!

smithy - it sounds like you may have cabbage moth larvae - so look for solutions to that in your googling - there may be natural alternatives - not sure though. i tend to find that companion planting works well - so find a herb that they like MORE than your normal plants (google will be your friend) and then plant that - they attack the herb (which will thrive anyway) and your vegies are left in peace!

btw, derris dust is organic and natural

:D thank you girls will get some.
did look on net and dh made a batch of=
sml drop dishwashing liquid
garlic clove cut up finely
500ml water
and 1 x tsp cooking oil
and shake.
hehehehe so well see what happens between the dust and dh mix i think it will be good bye suckers lol..

i just planted some seeds in a tray. my first time! im scared lol

:clap:yay danni.lol..good luk what did you plant ?
as for our special mix YEH..DIDNT WORK :D oh well heaps of moths again today dh was chasing them round the back yard ..oh boy:rolleyes:
so off tomorrow to get the dust .

lol the dust will work in no time. if you get heavy rain, just reapply it. otherwise i put it on every few days

I planted some broccoli and wombok

Danni, DH started our capsicums and tomatoes off, from seeds. He put them in some seedling trays, then put the trays inside a plastic grocery bag with a few squirts of water for moisture, wet the trays as well, then tied the bag up and left it in a semi sunny position. It was kind of like a mini greenhouse. He got the idea from my dad, who starts a lot of seedlings in for his vegie gardens this way :) He also did some spring onions They are all transplanted into our garden now. He did loose a few seedlings, but i think that was more because he didn't get them out of the trays and into the ground as quickly as he should've

Nic

:oops: :doh: maybe thats why my chives are so slow ..silly me didnt know i had to grow the seeds first hahah i just put them straight in the ground ...oh ok....ddrrrrrrr.
so i should have grown them in trays first pmsl..ohhh thats why there not growing i am laughing so hard at myself RITE NOW WHAT A TWIT I AM

Nic, i am gunna try that!! The reject shop have 3 big trays of 12 punnets for $4 so thats so cheap.

So when i open the packet of seeds...do I put one seed in each punnet? or more? im so clueless with seeds

but they are so much cheaper than seedlings, so if i can get them to work it would be great!

we usually plant anything up to five seeds per space on a seedling tray - some will take, some won't - when they've taking, you can pluck the smaller, less healthy ones out, or you can simply split them like you do seedlings from bunnings. we get the trays for $2 from bunnings - they've got about 15 seedling spots on them from memory - about 30cm square. so easy to use. we have a proper little greenhouse cos DH wants to grow roses from cuttings - it's awesome and cost about $30 from bunnings. just a little portable one
we put all seeds and seedlings in there while we get to them - can't always go shopping and plant same day around here...

do u need to use a greenhouse?

Can you just not lay the seedling tray in the sun?

you want to keep the area moist and humid

at this time of year, the air is too crisp and likely to kill of your seedlings if there is a frost. the plastic bag or greenhouse will help them until they establish some strength

This will seem like a dumb question but "little miss no idea" here would love to start a veggie garden but has no idea how to begin, type of location etc. we don't eat much of a variety but our staples are corn, potato, beans, carrots and broccholi. We occasionally eat squash, pumpkin (roasts only) and zucchini. Fruits I like apples, manderines, cantelope, passionfruit, nectarines.

Are these easy enough for someone with no idea to grow? do they need anything special?

seems like a good place to ask the experts.

CHeers
Nae x

apart from spud (jst haven't gotten round to it) we've grown all those vegies nae - we basically blocked out a part of our yard (pretty much full sun) planted, and kept watering it every couple of days... success with all of them. easy! we have used soil from thorpy - not sure if your soil is the yummy red stuff up where you are - but it's fantastic for growing the vegies!

passionfruit you need to have two vines (male and female) and they are climbers so you have to accommodate that (fence or wall to grow on - pretty simple low maintenance). rockmelon/canteloupe we grew in our normal vegie patch - high water needs, and we just let them "climb" over the side of the vegie patch as they spread out heaps. letting them hang down over the edge of raised garden beds meant they had more room and the actual fruit weren't sitting in mud or anything

fruit trees are pretty low maintenancy. nectarines are self polinating and you pick up the plants in big w or bunnings, and most nurseries, during winter. apples - you need a plant to cross polinate with - so most apples need at least two varieties. you can get hybrid plants that have been created to have parts of both fruit on the one plant. these are good if you have space restrictions but if you'll eat or cook the apples two plants is better. you may need to net the fruit trees spring and summer til fruit comes out to keep the mongrel birds off!!! citrus plants are pretty straight forward - plant and forget!

not sure if you can get to any cheap nurseries, but the "hello hello" mob had all these fruit trees and more for less than $20 each last year...

Coolio, thanks heaps BG - we don't have the red soil at home but it seems to be rich in something we don't seem to have problems and we have a few locations with full sun close to the house. Apple trees we already have 3 old trees but they are cooking apples and not so tasty to eat so I am sure for pollination purposes they will do ? Looks like I will be starting my patch soon then I want to do raised beds which I think will be easier to maintain and mow around :D

we have an old green apple (granny smith) that we use as the pollination one - look at what variety of apple you want, and check what types they need to cross pollinate - the cooking apples might be enough, but you might find you need something else

granny smith cross pollinates with almost anything

being in the area you are, you should have pretty fertile soil - if it doesn't seem to do too much, dig it through with some horse manure and ash from the fire - will help a heap!

did the dust today and the green grubs didnt like it as soon as it hit the plants,i rekon the plants actually look prettey with all that white stuff on them ..lol..looks like snow.
thanks for the tip danni

haha suckers! they will be long gone now. Just make sure you keep reapplying though :)

Today I planted more broccoli, cabbage and spinach seedlings into the garden bed which the chooks have been playing in.

:clap: i cut my first lot of spinach yesterday ,all peas and been have now died and atm everything is drowning with the rain lol.

DANNI GOOD LUCK HUN WITH YOUR BIRTH ,HOPE IT ALL GOES PERFECT HUNNY.

Ohhh wtg smithy! How are the grubs? lol

I planted spinach seedlings but the chooks broke into the fenced off bit. arggh!! Hoping it can come back to life

Thank you so much hunny xx

We have discovered that possums like chilli plants. They have taken a bite out of nearly everyone on the bush. It has a 7 heat rating so hope it/they suffer.
DH was not impressed I can tell you as he was going to make sweet chilli sauce this weekend.
Not much happening here with the garden as we are to busy at the moment.
Can you Qlders send down some rain please for our gardens

yes, we definitely need some of this rain

:rolleyes: little bit over the gardening atm.