needing a little help/advice/tips

[Rainbow_Mumma]

Hi

I have a vege garden and also grow my own herbs. I have a bible called the Yates Garden/growing guide. You should be able to pick up a copy on Ebay cheap or a good bookstore. There is not heaps of pictures what it is full of is information. It covers everthing you need to know and more. It covers pretty well ALL vegetables/fruit grown in Australia.

Start making a mulch pile out of all your garden clippings and dig this through the soil when you first turn it for the garden. Get your hands on some good organic animal manure and dig this through also.

When it comes to choosing what to plant - this will be dictated a lot by the area that you live in and what time of year it is you are planting - a long comprehensive list is also included in the Yates guide. You will want a few different areas of garden so whilst one part is growing you are eating the returns from the other - especially day to day stuff such as lettuce/tomato etc.

In the end it is about having a go. Remember that you are not going to get perfect fruit/vegetables like in the shops as they have millions to sort through to only sell the best - but yours will TASTE sooooo much better - and be waaay cheaper.

I dont know about the citrus - could just need a good fertilising and decent watering when growing fruit? Maybe do a soil test before you start your garden also so you know whether it is acidic or alkaline soil. The book I told you about covers all this.

Hope this helps! Is there anything else you want to know - just ask!

thanks so much for that getting our own organic animal manure should be hard we have chickens and sheep

[Lulu]

Even some of the magazines at newsagents can be terrific sources of info. Most of them have 'zones' so you can see what grows best in your area at what times.

If you really want to do it right, learn to grow from seed. Google Diggers - they have all the best pre WW2 species, teach you how to save seeds, have a fanTAStic vegie growing guide and membership comes with 4 catalogues a year and it drives you nuts trying not to go overboard with your choices. Highly recommend Diggers.

hth

[Oorki Galoorki]

DIGGERS CLUB!!!!!

they have the books! they have the seeds they tell you what area your in and when you can plant it is AWESOME

[Lulu]

omg OK - and the COLOURS! My first year of membership I planted 13 different types of tomatoes lol

[Oorki Galoorki]

Lulu i have the heirloom pumpkins growing now!(everything in my patch is diggers except the stwaberry cos i killed the seedlings i grew!)

i love Diggers

[Rainbow_Mumma]

i had a look at the diggers club wow what a range of seeds!