Gardening

[silverscope]

Does anyone do it?

I need some advice as i want to start a vegie patch.


The spot is facing SW and gets full afternoon (from about 2pm until sunset) sun during summer and i don't know what to grow.

I'm a noob when it comes to gardens but i want to grow vegies. I've been reading and i thought i could do some Tomatoes, Capsicum and Chilli to begin with... does that sound alright?


What other things could i grow that has a big ground cover?

Any help would be great!

Oh btw as i'm in Ballarat our Frost season ends at the start of November so whatever i want to grow has to either be able to handle frost or i do what i have done with tomatoes and have them in a pot currently and then will transfer to the ground later.

 

[Lach72]

You're in the wrong zone matey and your soil is completely different to here...you'd be quite heavy loam/clay?

But yeah what you're doing with tomatoes, capsicum is good.
I've got this in at the moment in my first garden bed: Silver beet, Cos Lettuce, Spring onions, garlic (a bit late but thought I'd give it a crack), carrots, beetroot, dill, salad onions, coriander, fennel, royal blue potatoes and corn.
I'm just north of Perth so it's quite warm now, and the frost seems to have passed.
I have damn rocky ground, so I've put the garden in a color bond bed on top of the ground and dumped a trailer full of good compost into it.
My next one is arriving this weekend and the tomatoes, chillies and zucchini are seeded and in pots, just getting to the right size for transplant.

I also use a heap of foam trays for things like baby lettuce, spinach, and radishes. Radish is really good cos you can turn them around quiclkly, and they're shallow rooted...just finish the crop and give the soil a quick rake and seed straight into it again.

 

[Lach72]

What other things could i grow that has a big ground cover?

Cucumbers, rockmelons (need to be warmer), pumpkins

 

[silverscope]

Actually the soil in that front garden bed is extremely good, very airy (is that even a word??) because last summer we had patuna's (sp?) but they died with the heat wave and i let the weeds grow until the weekend just past.

Suprisingly the soil is a tiny bit dry but overall it was almost as clump free and good as the fresh bag of potting mix i got.


Foam trays you mean like those stryophone (sp?) containers?

Will the fact that the sun doesn't hit the garden bed until about 2pm matter? The tomatoes will still get a good 5 hours sun when daylight savings start?

What's the right size for transplant in regards to tomatoes/chilli's/capsicum? Currently i haven't got the chilli or capsicum plants but my tomatoes are about 15cm tall?

 

[silverscope]

Cucumbers, rockmelons (need to be warmer), pumpkins

Someone else i was talking to suggested Pumpkins.... i might have to give them a go.


Should i start with seeds and go from scratch or is it easier/better to get an already growing plant, like my tomatoes were already growing?

 

[Lach72]

Ah, that helps... i know the soil around bacchus marsh/Werribee is clay-ish that sets hard

3 hours of sun is not helpful, that's for sure.
I'd be looking at transplanting those tomatoes now. If the frost is still severe, you can maybe surround them in a triangle of plastic.
The foamies I use are just ones I lift from a vege shop...over here they send broccoli packed in ice in them...grapes go in smaller ones in the summer. The advantage of these is you can pick them up and stick them in the sun, then when they're finished, dump the soil into a compost pile or something and refill

 

[Lach72]

Someone else i was talking to suggested Pumpkins.... i might have to give them a go.


Should i start with seeds and go from scratch or is it easier/better to get an already growing plant, like my tomatoes were already growing?

Pumpkins you can start from seed.although as it's cold, when the seed germinates, just cover it with a round take away Chinese container.

If you're still getting frosts, you can either do it two ways, I think.
Buy seedlings, which is easier, but slightly more expensive and you can't get the range that you can get in seeds, especially if you want to get heirloom varieties.
Or: grow from seed in small pots, and keep them in the sun, and even cover them with a small "greenhouse" to keep them warm. Even a chinese take away container over the top will keep the frost off until you get past the frost

 

[Kram]

Cherry tomatoes are the king of the home veggie patch, very easy to grow and at 3 bucks a punnet even in season it saves you some of money. I've even grown them in winter with the aid of a mini greenhouse. I also like growing snow peas, they haven't bared peas yet this year but I planted them quite late and have been lazy and not used any fertilizer. Broccoli is very easy also.

 

[Selggad]

Fresh herbs are really nice and some make a good ground cover e.g. thyme and oregano though they'll take a while to grow. Also help keep bugs away. Zucchini take up a bit of ground too.

You might be struggling with the amount of sunlight you're getting. Since the morning sun is not getting there it means the ground will stay cold for a longer time which will * the growth of things pretty significantly.

If you grow pumpkins you may have to pollinate them by hand. Just take the male flower and rub it on the female flower. The male flower has a long stamen with the pollen on it which the female flower is lacking.

 

[silverscope]

Thanks for all the advice.

I went to the local nusery today and asked for some advice (seeming as though they would know the climate here alot better than myself) and the guy i talked too said the afternoon sun that the garden bed will get should do it just fine.

As for the staying cold for longer, 6 hours of hot sun in summer (last time) fried the plants we had growing there.... over the black saturday weekend. I know that was extreme but trust me the sun that comes through to that garden bed and our lounge room should be hot enough, i think, to keep the soil warm.


So i planted Butternut pumpkin, Chilli, Capsicum, Tomoatoes, Baby Cos and mixed letteuce.

Funny that it was bucketing down when i planted them not 20mins ago.... now the sun's out... and i've finished.

 

[purple_heaven]

I just bought some seeds of cherry tomatoes, spring onion, carrots and parsley. i dont have any soil for a vegie patch so im gonna try and grow them in pots so i hope they grow, as i never done any gardening i dont have a clue what im doing..but cant be to hard can it?? its only vegies.

 

[Stronzo]

I've got strawberries, beans, carrots, mint, chives, chilli, rosemary and shitloads of parsley at the moment. I'm going to plant some tomatoes and Basil soon.

 

[silverscope]

I just bought some seeds of cherry tomatoes, spring onion, carrots and parsley. i dont have any soil for a vegie patch so im gonna try and grow them in pots so i hope they grow, as i never done any gardening i dont have a clue what im doing..but cant be to hard can it?? its only vegies.

Grow them in pots until they become seedlings (basically when the plant has grown from the soil) and then you can plant them out in a garden bed.

Not sure if any of those will grow fully in pots, maybe Lach can help you out there.




I noticed the other day.... my pumpkin leaves were being eaten.... Bloody snails!!! so i put some pellets out and the next morning there was about 12 dead snails on the vegie patch! and i thought HA!!! gotcha!

 

[Kram]

Just planted some red onion seedlings, they go pretty good but ages to grow., also a few corn seeds.

I noticed the other day.... my pumpkin leaves were being eaten.... Bloody snails!!! so i put some pellets out and the next morning there was about 12 dead snails on the vegie patch! and i thought HA!!! gotcha!

Never had any trouble with them in the garden but a couple of houses in Perth I lived they would bloody eat our mail! Anything left in the box for 3+ days would be riddled with holes.

 

[silverscope]

Just planted some red onion seedlings, they go pretty good but ages to grow., also a few corn seeds.



Never had any trouble with them in the garden but a couple of houses in Perth I lived they would bloody eat our mail! Anything left in the box for 3+ days would be riddled with holes.

Serves you right for leaving your mail in the box for 3+ days

 

[Kram]

Anyone know much about growing cucumber?

 

[Mundy]

Anyone know much about growing cucumber?

KY and good company.


Sorry.

 

[dugrene]

Anyone know much about growing cucumber?

Grew some last year can't remember which type. Light green skin. They were delicious. Didn't do anything special just put seeds in the ground and gave them water, compost, mulch and fertiliser.

Put in some tomatoes, beetroot, English spinach, beans and mild yellow chilli on the waxing moon recently.

Will wait until the next new moon to put in the cucumbers, rockmellon and honey mellons.

I'll be planting about 4 staggers of about 8 small garden beds between september and Dec on the new moons. Hopefully by spreading out the planting times over four months I dont get what i got last year which was copious amount of everything all at the same time.
I'm working on an easy to assemble inexpensive modular vegie garden border system. Will be trying a hexagon shape with a central single sprinkler. Getting water efficiently to the plants is a real problem Could be this time next year I'll be able to tell people about it.

I've got 6000 gallons of rainwater which I'm hoping gets topped up this summer. We had no rain last summer which meant using scheme water the last few weeks before the garden season stopped.

We have a compost bin a small mulcher and a set of timber enclosures to mix and match our material. We still have to buy the odd ute load of mushroom compost because our house cannot generate enough raw material for my missus garden and our vegie garden.

We have a 1/4 acre block. No lawn. Dont ask me about the moon thing because I dont know.

 

[Lach72]

Biodynamic? Where in the hills are you?

 

[Kram]

KY and good company.

haha

Will wait until the next new moon to put in the cucumbers, rockmellon and honey mellons.

How have you usually gone with the Rockmelons? I've just planted a few seedlings in for the first time, occasionally like to try something different and see how it goes.

 

[dugrene]

Biodynamic? Where in the hills are you?

Near Woolies Kalamunda. We had a slightly sloping block and had a retaining wall built on the boundry. This allowed us to backfill to wall as a result we filled the cavity with river sand. It's abit more complicated because of a leach drain, rocks, ballast and 75 mm gravel cover. Still you need only about 1 foot of tillable soil to get vegies growing.
With a small mulcher and a 'aerobin' composter (3 years) just about everthing green goes back into the garden. The composter doesn't work very good which is more to do with me than it. In summer it gets soldier fly larvae in it. Those little suckers destroy protein which means I can throw food scraps in. Great big maggots about 20mm long. They keep flys and roaches away when it (compost) goes anaerobic.

How have you usually gone with the Rockmelons? I've just planted a few seedlings in for the first time, occasionally like to try something different and see how it goes.

To tell the truth because I cant get the composter to work as it should the rockmelons are self seeded. I didn't know what they were until they matured. They were delicious though. I can't give any tips because last year was the first year I had a vegie garden growing.

This year I'll be trying putting my compost? into a specific bordered area then water the area and see what happens. The hardest thing is stopping the bloody pumkins and tomatos from taking over.

Identifying, honey melons , rockmeleons and water melons will be our new guessing game.

 

[Lach72]

Near Woolies Kalamunda. We had a slightly sloping block and had a retaining wall built on the boundry. This allowed us to backfill to wall as a result we filled the cavity with river sand. It's abit more complicated because of a leach drain, rocks, ballast and 75 mm gravel cover. Still you need only about 1 foot of tillable soil to get vegies growing.
With a small mulcher and a 'aerobin' composter (3 years) just about everthing green goes back into the garden. The composter doesn't work very good which is more to do with me than it. In summer it gets soldier fly larvae in it. Those little suckers destroy protein which means I can throw food scraps in. Great big maggots about 20mm long. They keep flys and roaches away when it (compost) goes anaerobic.




To tell the truth because I cant get the composter to work as it should the rockmelons are self seeded. I didn't know what they were until they matured. They were delicious though. I can't give any tips because last year was the first year I had a vegie garden growing.

This year I'll be trying putting my compost? into a specific bordered area then water the area and see what happens. The hardest thing is stopping the bloody pumkins and tomatos from taking over.

Identifying, honey melons , rockmeleons and water melons will be our new guessing game.

Ah, I know where you are, my wife was from Maida Vale.

Just started picking the silverbeet and spinach I planted a while ago...awesome stuff.
My compost bins are a little rank it must be said...I don't think I added enough dry material, too much kitchen waste...dolomite lime is helping a bit, though.
Carrots, Cos lettuce, dill, coriander and beetroot ready in the next fortnight. Corn coming on and have just transplanted, lebanese zucchini, roma and beef steak tomatoes and green basil. Have purple basil and more tomatoes ready to transplant in about a week, and will probably go and get my first 2-3 fruit trees this weekend.

 

[purple_heaven]

yay yay yay ive got seedlings ocming thru didnt know vegies could be so exciting... gonna plant some strawberries and cucumbers and lettuce soon all in pots.. save a fortune im hoping. vegies ive been buying lately are crap all turning rotten the day after purchase especially the strawberries at $3 a punnet. cant wait till mine grow the vegies on them

 

[dugrene]

Our passion fruit vine is into it's third year and looks like we will be getting a huge crop judging by the amount of flower buds forming. I'm sweating on pollination though. No pollination no fruit. We have normal honey bees as well as native bees in our garden but we also have paper wasps patrolling around the p/f vine.
I'm going to find out if the bees and wasps get on with each other or if the wasps keep the bees away.
Last year we got only 6 fruit with about 20 flowers. This year I reckon we'll get upwards of 150 flowers.

 

[The Matt]

I'm pretty happy with my herb garden. I've got the Scarborough Fair (he sings "parsley, sage ,rosemary and thyme") as well as chilli, ginger, shallots, thyme, mint, oregano, fennel and mint. I'm in renting in Como and have a tiny back yard. I'm thinking about potting some tomatoes. I like the idea of passion fruit but ,is it worth doing in a pot? Also any suggestions of other fresh veggies in pots would be hugely appreciated.