Advice on Vege garden

[yvon]

Yeah, I was going to type some reply about "what do humans do but suck out all the resourses..." to go with your chicken tractor comment, but then on reflection I figured you were just drunk.

[xSUSPECTx]

good figuring, i had just watched a thing about traditional farming i.e. ploughing turning ove rteh earth so that all the biords ate all the bugs and over time stripped the land of its life.

[BanalityDUFF]

anyone got any advice on making good plant 'food'. would high appreciate it.

[dustbinflowers]

look up recipes with comfrey. Seaweed's good, as is fishy bits if you are that way inclined. Chuck it all in a 44 gallon drum for a few months with lots of water, then dilute it down and put it on your plants.

[yvon]

good figuring, i had just watched a thing about traditional farming i.e. ploughing turning over teh earth so that all the biords ate all the bugs and over time stripped the land of its life.

Was it that programme with the lady somewhere in england who is taking over her family farm and looking and going sustainable? Because I thought that was interesting. I assume I got that link from the "self sustainable vegan" thread somewhere.

[xSUSPECTx]

i believe that was the one, i have downloaded and distributed it to some enquiring minds, and got some pretty mean shit in return.

p.s. excuse the typing, i wrote that really fast and had to dash out the door in order to get a ride this morning.

[BanalityDUFF]

garlic day!

[xSUSPECTx]

ah, winter solstice already?

i just bought chia and amaranth seeds, probably gunna get purple, red and white carrots too and i dont even know, like 10 varieties of basil, im gunna have the mean garden next year.

theres all these fancy patterned tomatoes im looking at and other unusual shit

[BanalityDUFF]

garlic is cranking!

ripped up all the pak choy the other day, moved my strawberrys around and realised how much parsley is growing (heaps, stoked).

peas are going ohk, but i'm dubious if i'm going to get enough off them to make a meal, heh.

silver beets are finally coming along (after living in the shadow of the pak choy / generally being deprived of attention).

might throw up some pics later, although there isn't that much going on

[xSUSPECTx]

my garlic hasnt moved... maybe the ground has been too wet

[SupaScoopa]

Im guna tidy up my gardens this week and rip out all the weeds and a couple of brocolli plants that i had growing that just went straight to seed (?) Dont really know much about that.

Whats everyone planting/upto in their gardens now?

[clancy]

spuds - lots of different kinds.

and, strawberries.

still doing cabbage and broccoli, lettuce, spinach and my red onions are growing but really slowly.

I think Im gunna go next leve this spring - I just have to fix the in-laws rotary hoe.

[Any Day Now]

Arg so cool reading about peoples gardens, I haven't had one over winter as we are yet to find a perfect house to buy and I've been holding out til then, but I'm thinking about getting some lettuce planted soon......

[yvon]

I've got stuff in big pots under the eaves on the north side of the house, carrots, red onions, leeks. Garlic planted in a recycled polystyrene chiller/box. I'm hoping for baby leeks/carrots/onions, since the pots aren't that big. I planted about 25 cloves of garlic and only 6 have sprouted (but they did come up really fast!), so I might chuck some more in there and see what happens.
I had about 20 pea plants sprouted in the garden, but slugs got them, even with all the eggshells and coffee grounds I put around them! So much for that advice! Now I have about 5 plants left that are struggling. I'm starting some more in seed trays this time to give them a head start.
I've planted 3 kinds of potatos. Swift, Cliff Kidneys, and Ilam Hardy. I'm trying the tyre method. The Swifts are going for it, already had to mound them up once. The other 2 don't seem to have made any progress since I took them out of their cosy cardboard box and put them in the ground. Bit worried since the spot I had for them isn't getting that much sun yet.
I'd like some kind of small polyhouse to grow lettuce in next winter.... hmmm. I've got mesclun just sprouted in a seedtray on my dinner table, no idea where to put it now.

[BanalityDUFF]

when abouts is it good to start growing pumpkins? (cant be bothered looking up at the mo). keen to try some out this year.


my swan plant and chia seeds came yesterday. said they're to plant in spring so ive put them aside for now

[yvon]

I want a tree pumpkin!
I wonder if I could get one to grow up our naughty avocado tree?

[xSUSPECTx]

theres a tree punkin near my house, i always mean to take a pic but my cameraphone dont zoom and its over a swamp, i have a real digicam now tho, il go see if its still there.

[Andrew_TA]

Having a go at growing some plants on our little balcony.

Just using store bought potting mix.. any advice on fertilizers etc?


Strawberry, raspberry and tomatoes
are the tomatoes too crowded? and what is the best diy/cheap thing to use as a stake?


lettuce and misc herbs

[yvon]

Are there 4 tomatoes in that pot? If so, then yeah, they are probably a bit crowded.
I had 10 litre buckets (with holes drilled in the bottom) with one plant in each last year. I think even that was pushing it a bit, as they looked like they were trying to climb out and escape! I feed them liquid fish fertilzer about every 2 weeks when I remembered too. (I got it from Ecostore).
I'm thinking about planting them in cardboard boxes this year, (with string around them to help hold their shape,) with the idea that I could chuck the whole thing in a hole in the ground when they get too big, without disturbing the root system too much. Anyone think this will work?

[Andrew_TA]

What did you use as a tray on the bottom of the buckets?

[BanalityDUFF]

bought me some worm wee's from a childcare centre today, haha. not sure if its going to help and am a little bit scared of putting it on my plants @_@

anxiously awaiting something sprouting in my mini hot house. i forgot the amount of time i was looking at dirt. ugh.

[xSUSPECTx]

wormcastings?

how can you think it wouldnt be good?

[yvon]

What did you use as a tray on the bottom of the buckets?

I used some old saucers from large plastic pots, an old frypan, and one of those plastic trays from the $2 shop.

[dustbinflowers]

I'm thinking about planting them in cardboard boxes this year, (with string around them to help hold their shape,) with the idea that I could chuck the whole thing in a hole in the ground when they get too big, without disturbing the root system too much. Anyone think this will work?

My entire garden was in banana boxes last year. It worked well, but there's no way you'll be able to move them unless they are already on a little cart or something (that would be kind of cool!). They were too heavy with dirt, and dirt kind of shifted with movement, and the boxes started deboxing. Mine were dug into a 45 degree bank against a wall. The potatoes went really well- I just kept putting more compost in the box on top of them.

I'm putting in a vege bed in my new place in Chch at the mo- need more compost. MORE!! Its going to be nice gardening on the flat, not in a wind tunnel...

[BanalityDUFF]

tomato's have sprouted! yussss.

Chia is going a bit eager so may have to thin it's ranks / transplant it to more crates / swap storage placement.


Peas are also, finally, starting to crank out (haven't had the first batch yet, maybe next week).

[SupaScoopa]

Had courgette seeds in a propogator in the window sill for a week and nothing yet....

Going to plant beans, peas and tomatos this weekend, and sow some carrots & spring onions.


Inquired about getting hold of some edamame seeds but apparently you cant buy them from any sources in NZ yet...

[BanalityDUFF]

my chia are lookin' a tad floppy, do they need to be staked or do they sort out their business?


just got some tomatoes in to discover i need more stakes! (i bought a packet of seeds so have about 30 plants . . . )

also planted in my pumpkins, can't remember what variety those bad boys are though.


peas are finally coming to size.

pulled out a bunch of silverbeet to make space for the tomatoes, but still have heaps which is good.

parsley is going a bit too crazy. i took out a big arm full and diced/froze it last week but there is still way too much in the garden and its coverin' up my chives!


courgettes are just beginning to pop through the soil and have just received a space in my hothouse (since the pumpkin and tomatoes have moved out).

[dustbinflowers]

I've gone a bit crazy in my small front yard- it's going to be packed! Broad beans, rocket, mescalin mix, lettuce,peas and rainbow chard in one bed, with sweet peas and mexican marigolds around the edges. Another bed has: a raspberry cane, a boysenberry cane, violet sicilian cauliflowers (I bought them for their mafia sounding name) more rainbow chard, more peas, radishes, beetroot, scarlet runner beans (covered at the mo cos of the weather), some more mexican marigolds and sweet peas. There is a bed with strawberries and various pansies, lobelia, bulbs, and a bed with rosemary, lemon balm, and bits and pieces that were already there. I'm sprouting urenika potatoes and jerusalem artichokes for another bed, still under construction, and I will grow my tomatoes, chillis, capsicum and zucchini in containers on my deck.
I really have to get a hose, cos watering is going to be major!

[BanalityDUFF]

yeah i've gone a bit overboard, too. looking desperately for somewhere to plonk down the rest of my chia and i still have basil/courgettes comin' through.

gave away about 18 or so tomato plants yesterday (threw em on the curb side with a sign, heh).

currently overwhelmed with silverbeet but have being off loading bags to whoever visits

[dustbinflowers]

Yep, silverbeet and mint are the only productive veges in my garden at this stage, everything else is just getting established.
It's going to be cranking come February though...