We're due to move to nth queensland soon. I have been thinking for quite a few months now that we should grow our own vegies, we eat alot of them and it would be a fabulous learning experience for the kids. Its probably pointless to start right now with the move but as soon as we are settled up there we'll get right on it.
However, I have no idea how to go about it. Ive heard its a bit technical with seasons and planting and such. We eat alot of carrots, potatoes, pumpkin, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, lettuce - anyone grow these and can shed some light on what I should know before starting?
Buy the seeds for what I want to plant.
Go home.
Look at when seed packets tell me to plant.
...
Wait for the right month and chuck some seeds in the area of the veggie patch I've designated for those veggies.
...
Wait for plants to grow.
Harvest and eat.
We've grown tomatoes, carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, radishes and strawberries (and probably some other stuff) using this method and it has worked just fine.
We lived in nth qld (Charters Towers) for awhile and made our first attempt at the 'good life' Tomatoes grew like crazy but almost cooked on the vine with the heat. Pumpkins you can just chuck seeds anywhere and they grow. I can't remember what else we tried but I remember having lots of problems with lack of rain. We used to put big bins under our verandah corners to catch rain whenever it did rain.
We are growing veges now in the UK so I know lots about growing veg but not sure how I can relate that to growing in North QLD.
But here is a quick rundown
Potatoes - 1.Chit potatoes by letting some potatoes grow green shoots in a dark coolish place.
2. stick chitted potatoes in trenches and as soon as shoots appear cover them with the soil that was left piled up on the side of the trench when you dug it. Every time you see the potato plant emerging pile more soil on it so only bits of leaves are showing. The more it gets buried the bigger the potatoes.
3. Never grow in the same bed each year...in fact ideally you should have 3 years before using that same bed. Also don't grow potatoes where you had onions the year before.
Carrots - haven't done these yet (too nervous because they sound temperamental!) like really fine sandy soil.
Zucchinis - one plant gives tons so they recommend 3 plants for a family of 4. We always plant too many plants and end up trying to find 101 ways to use zucchinis! Tips for zucchinis would be they need tons of watering to get established. So in Australia I would mulch them to retain water and cut down on watering. We did this here in the UK because we didn't have good access to water and it worked.
pick them before they become marrows which are less tasty but we found we could still used marrows in recipes and they weren't too bad. Just not very zucchinish if that makes sense LOL!
Go to the Gardening Australia website, they will have all the info you need.
Also, if you can afford it, Diggers Club is great,you can buy all sorts of non GM and heirloom seeds from them (real, proper, old fashioned food) Other wise, the fastest easiest way is to go to bunnings and buy your seedlings, some liquid fertiliser (like Seasol) and some Neem oil or other non toxic bug spray. That would set you up nicely for less than $70 odd bucks.
My guess would be, that your optimal growing season up there will be Mar-Oct, the summer rains tend to split fruit and you get alot of fungal type diseases. I am in the Gold Coast, and even we have issues in the wet.
If you are digging over new ground, do yourself a favour and go and hire a rotary hoe from Kennards.Carrots in particular, need loose soil, or they end looking like oranges! If you can afford it, buy a load of compost soil and dig that through.
You will also need to pay attention to garden placement, morning to mid afternoon sun in summer and all day sun in winter is optimal, often this means smack in the middle of your yard!
Good planning and prep is key to sucess, good soil, the right sun, a bit of fertiliser and water and its really very easy, but you do need to "like gardening" because it does take some time and effort, I prob spend 2-3 hours per week watering, staking, tie-ing, weeding etc, but thats my zen time, so it works for me. If its not your thing, chances are it wont work for you.
If you can do it, and have a little room, a great investment is a couple of little bantam chooks too.
Good luck
Pumpkin and potatoes take up quite a lot of room, zucchinis do too but we find them a bit more manageable. I do not have a green thumb but I go to Bunnings, get seedlings and read the instructions and plant!!! Watering can be time consuming if it's hot where you are, plants like tomatoes need more than others. We plant around 6 tom plants, 4 zucchinis, basil, beans, peas, carrots although we always have warp problems with them! spring onion, chives. Good luck - just get some seedlings and go for it!
I have been wanting a proper veggie garden for months now - we are building a house next year and I'm already planning out the garden lol
My mum has a very impressive garden - she fertilises it with that seasol (sp?) which is seaweed fertiliser every few weeks as well as using those water crystals to save on them drying out on the warmer days.
We will have ours set up with a watering system probably - I just hate the idea of forgetting to water them and then all the hard work goes to nothing lol
I did have one but the wet season in Darwin has made it impossible to keep up with the weeds and grass and they've now taken over. The easiest thing I found to grow was zucchini, cucumber and cherry tomatoes.
I need tips for growing carrots - all ours are stumpy and grow two pronged even though we turned the soil over alot and dug deep - perhaps our soil is still too hard?
ATM we are growing: strawberries, tomatos, beans, various herbs (parsley, basil, corriander). We are trying brussel sprouts (no luck). Had huge success last year with tomatos, beans & zucchini
How I got started with my little vegie garden was find any types of containers I could get my hands on for free (styrofoam boxes, old pots people were giving away etc) as my yard is almost completely paved. I then bought some seeds, potting mix and a bag of cow manure, mixed each into all the containers and planted the seeds. I then started watering them every evening after dinner, with my bub on my back in the carrier while I water with the watering can, which helped to quieten him down for the day before bed. Things started sprouting, I kept watering and after a while I gave all my plants a water with liquid fertiliser which apparently I should be doing every two weeks as most of my vegies are in containers. They have all taken off, and it is such a great feeling to go outside to harvest ingredients for lunch or dinner. And my 14 month old has started to pretend to water plants too, he is learning about nature just by watching me
I have corn (planted in the ground in a narrow strip of dirt along the fence), tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots (not growing), capsicum, parsley, bok choy, beetroot, strawberries, peas, beans and sunflowers. This is my first attempt at gardening, and I never would have thought I could grow so much in my tiny paved space!
It's not hard, you just learn as you go. Seed packets have all the info you need about when to plant, anything else you can find out from google or from nursery/hardware shop staff.
We recently moved to acreage and the property already has four massive vegie beds (about 3-4m x 3-4m each) plus a huge raised planter for herbs and strawberries. The strawberries are producing so much sweet fruit (they were already established, the beds were full of weeds and not much else!). I love watching the kids go out and pick the strawberries and eat them straight from the garden.
We have planted corn, broccoli, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber, carrots, zucchini, squash, chili's, ummm... can't remember what else! Three of the beds are full, I have one left where I am going to plant root veges like potatoes and pumpkin. The herb garden has been planted and is growing like crazy, I can't wait to harvest!
The only problem we've had is snails eating our basil (although they leave all the other herbs alone!) and rabbits eating the broccoli and some corn. Any advice for keeping them away without the use of chemicals? I have put crushed egg shells and coffee grounds in the herb garden but apparently my snails don't mind a caffeine fix! I really don't want to build a rabbit proof fence because it will spoil the appearance of the garden!
Oh, around the border of the vegie garden we have planted these trees: oilve, pear, apple, cherry, plum, lemon, lime, orange... and I can't remember what else! I'm not usually much of a gardener... maybe I am now?! I'm loving it!
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How did YOU start your vegie garden?
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