Onyx; I didn't realise vertical gardens could be so productive. It will be good to keep in mind. I would , if possible, have to make sure the walls are facing a certain direction. Like North, so the plants get the sun they need? A property I am keen to know more about would have more than enough space for a 'traditional flat garden'.
BG; From your replies, I may give the old spuds a miss. Again, I had no idea about what growing potatoes does to soil. At least I got the chook-thing right, lol. I think I might come up with a chook yard once we have a place. I will look at some permaculture blogs, thank you for directing me that way. Again, wouldn't have known where to start looking. I will also try to note down, I guess, how much of what vegetables we go through. I totally understand what you mean about what suits your family won't suit mine. I forgot what else I was going to say, but thank you very much for taking the time to write such detailed (and numerous!) replies. I really appreciate it.
You need to rotate most things around to reduce the risk of plant and soil diseases. Have a search for vegetable crop rotations to get some ideas. Plants like broad beans and other legumes are fantastic plants for putting nitrogen back into the soil - on their roots they develop nodules which look like little lumps along all the roots and if you can get this to happen, then you're doing it right and they will put essential nitrogen back into the ground without you having to add it yourself artificially.
Most of all you really need to have a think about what types of vegies your family eats - not much point in growing something that you wont eat. Plus you may get a bumper crop of something (Like we did with our broad beans and peas this year - I didn't buy peas for nearly 2 months and I still have several kilo's of broad beans) and you may need to look into preserving it so 1 it doesn't get wasted and 2 so you can eat it out of season. Some of those things are really hard to grow well - like carrots and garlic. Garlic takes a long time to mature so it's not something you're going to get a reward off straight away. And carrots are just soooo hard. We try them every year and we have problems with them every time, from either being eaten by bugs or them just not growing big enough etc. We only have a small vege patch set up atm, it's probably only 6-8mts sq, but it's more of a hobby for DS than anything else. But we have plans to set up a much larger one when we have the funds to extend the watering system
Thank you Trillian. I will be sure to plant some broad beans or similar for the potassium returned to the soil. However, I think I could be the only person who eats broad beans. I used to eat them as a kid. And gosh, I remember peeling them too, Mum used to grow them. Maybe peeled and with butter the family might eat them. If not, I'll find something to do with them. Aside from those, I'm not planning on planting foods we are not going to eat or make use of. I am anticipating having to do preserving, would love to be able to enjoy our own produce out of season, where possible.
I also didn't know carrots were difficult to grow. I remember growing those when I was little, in a little patch just for carrots, and I am sure they grew well.
my next door neighbour grows his between his fruit trees. but he has no chickens to munch on his efforts.
Chooks can dig stuff up or eat seedlings (mine did ) but how ever big you want. it depends too on if you do that co-planting thing and what your family eat too. i know very soon we'll be extending ours so we can grow more, but im not very Planned" in mine i go "yep that can go there, cus it spreads that can go there becuase its climbs that can go there because...well i think i can step over it" hopefully next year i'll grow pumkins and zukini in the chook run its self and maybe cucumbers as well (all runners and the chooks can peck between the vines)
I have a book some here 1squer meater or something and explains how much you can grow in that space and crop rotation ect.
Garlic definitely takes ages. About 10 months from planting to maturity from memory. We plant it for the double benefit (we plant under roses and fruit trees to keep aphids at bay). We had some old knuckles of garlic from when we bought some at market. The guy said if it started to sprout to chuck it in the garden. So we have. I haven't seen aphids in the yard in forever. And we have fresh garlic over winter from the previous springs plantings.
We compaion plant where we can (things like marigolds near the tomatoes) and avoid any chemicals to keep bugs etc at bay. But we have a snail problem so we do use snail bait around the outside of the garden. And we fertilise with chook poo and Charlie carp. Haven't been able to afford the set up for a worm farm yet. When we can do that we should be able to eliminate the Charlie carp. Chooks are a no go here though. Would love to be able to get them picking through the garden as it is dug up! Save a lot of work prepping soil lol
Last edited by briggsy's girl; November 15th, 2012 at 06:28 AM.
Netix, DH bought a black plastic soakwell from Bunnings. We use it for our spuds. Put in a layer of dirt to cover them, when they sprout, put in more, they sprout, we put in more dirt...etc., until they reach the top, flower and die off. Then we knock the soakwell over and harvest our potatoes. The good thing is that we can put it anywhere in the yard and doesn't look quite as daggy as a stack of tyres. I usually have it hidden.
With regards to "how many" of each plant. We had a seed fundraiser at childcare and the backs of the packets of each that I bought (except for the herbs) would give an idea of how many you should plant, for example, the capsicum said 1-2 plants would yield enough for an average family of four. Cucumbers was the same. Cant remember the others but the packets give you a guide.
Netix, it doesn't have to be broad beans - any type of legume plant will do the same thing and it's only of benefit if your soil is deficient in nitrogen anyway. It would probably be a good idea to buy yourself a little soil PH test kit before you start planting anything so you know what acidity your soil it and you know what to plant that will suit it or what you need to do to fix it because some will prefer acid soil, some alkaline and others neutral.
there are a few "green" crops you can plant in the off season (winter ish) that help to rebalance your soil - can't for the life of me remember what they are now though. DH had his cancer treatment over this winter, so we let the garden do it's own thing and we're now fighting a battle with weeds sigh. definitely options for ways to rehabilitate with edible things though
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) but how ever big you want. it depends too on if you do that co-planting thing and what your family eat too. i know very soon we'll be extending ours so we can grow more, but im not very Planned" in mine i go "yep that can go there, cus it spreads that can go there becuase its climbs that can go there because...well i think i can step over it" hopefully next year i'll grow pumkins and zukini in the chook run its self and maybe cucumbers as well (all runners and the chooks can peck between the vines) 
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