Food & Drink Growing fruit and veg

[Pweter]

If I had to guess, I'd suggest you need to heavily fertilize your soil, preferably with your own compost.

Cucumbers draw HEAPS of nutrients out of the soil, so often people will get real good growth the first year and not so much the next.

I fertilise with compost between every growing season. Getting the plants to flower isn't the problem, getting the flowers pollinated is.

Been doing some looking and I might invest in some French marigolds this summer and see what happens. Apparently they're attract bees but are also a great companion plant to tomatoes.

I also need to rig up a shade cloth type thing I can pull down in the peak hours of the heat wave days. They say tomatoes/cucumbers like full sun, but I don't think that was said with full sun in 40+ degree days for several days on end in mind. Pull the shade cloth down when I leave for work on these days, pull it up when I get home.

 

[Howard Moon]

its funny, we don't fertilise at all - we have pretty poor soil - I use straw to keep moisture in.. huge cucumber crops!

what we do have is many bees and wasps - i'm tipping it may be a pollination thing.. I have a jasmine bush over an arch that has bulk bees buzzing about

 

[AcuteWhistle]

Grew tomatoes, zucchini & cucumber this summer & always have a couple varieties of spinach plus my all time favourite - Rocket, which besides being that easy to grow even I have never ****ed it up, it's health benefits are underappreciated, grew it all through last winter picking it daily, just needs plenty of sun, struggles during the height of summer but is a goer all year round otherwise.

Started composting a few years ago, all our food scraps other than meat/bones/seeds get used (be amazed how much less household rubbish goes in the wheelie bin each week), use all our yard grass clippings, leaves, smaller bush & tree trimmings, have a couple of piles going at anytime, just keep them moist & mix in grass clippings to keep them cooking. The veggies I've grown using the stuff have been the best I've ever managed.

Anyway, I'm no expert but am addicted to the whole process, it's a hugely satisfying pursuit.

 

[TheBrightSide]

Great thread!
I’ve grown lots of stuff over the last 20 years. But I’ve found with limited space, a lot of things aren’t worth the effort because of low yields. (Broccoli, cauliflower, corn for example)

My pride and joy at the moment is my Jalapeno plant. It is in its second year, and is producing more than I could possibly eat. Normally the frost kills them over winter, but I would cover it up over cold nights (so they don’t get too chilly )

 

[Howard Moon]

for those Melbournians, i'm a religious watcher of vasilis garden to kitchen on channel 31 - mostly because the old wogs he visits remind me of my grandparents and they make me laugh, but you get so many good tips from the old guys every week - sometimes Vasili himself is even amazed at some of the tricks they use



heres a sample...

 

[AcuteWhistle]

for those Melbournians, i'm a religious watcher of vasilis garden to kitchen on channel 31 - mostly because the old wogs he visits remind me of my grandparents and they make me laugh, but you get so many good tips from the old guys every week - sometimes Vasili himself is even amazed at some of the tricks they use



heres a sample...

When i was getting into composting I'd watch a few youtube clips & think some of these guys & girls are a bit nuts, little did I know

 

[eth-dog]

We grow Rhubarb, Limes, Tomatoes, Crab Apple (Holy s**t home made Crab Apple jelly is so good), Mint, Oregano, Rosemary and there's a few more I'm forgetting.

Re: Mint Howard Moon we have it's own 100 x 30 x 40 cm rectangular box for it. Keeps it by itself.

 

[DERO]

Home grown tomatoes are the bomb.

 

[Pweter]

Fingers crossed I can put my winter veg in this weekend. Last weekend was lost ferrying my daughter all over Adelaide for the junior basketball state champs, prior to that the weekends and follow up weather have been too hot.

 

[Doss]

We have parsley growing on our deck, in a pot. We have precious little soil otherwise though, so our scope for growing much beyond herbs is probably going to be severely limited for the time being.

 

[jmoo wan]

Fingers crossed I can put my winter veg in this weekend. Last weekend was lost ferrying my daughter all over Adelaide for the junior basketball state champs, prior to that the weekends and follow up weather have been too hot.

what are good winter vegs? I usually just let my fields lay fallow over winter

 

[Pweter]

what are good winter vegs? I usually just let my fields lay fallow over winter

From my post on the previous page, these are my winter crops. They need as much sun as you can get them and due to the snow peas being climbers, protection from the southerlies if you can. I have my little vegie garden against the fence on the southern side of my garden meaning it's perfect for winter but tougher in summer where is gets 10+ hours of blistering sun per day on those 40+ degree days.

Snow peas though, oh boy. When cropping heavily over a 6 or so week period (not so heavy either side of that) I'm getting 10 - 30 snow peas a day. So sweet, so crisp. I usually bring a handful to work for a snack each day with plenty left over for the family and in laws.

Lettuces I plant Cos and just strip the outer leaves as they're ready. Eventually you're left with a lettuce stalk as it'll keep growing upwards, when the leaves turn bitter they're done. It lasts much longer than pulling a fully formed lettuce with 3 or 4 lettuces lasting a good couple of months.

Spinach I plant about 25cm apart, 3 - 4 seeds to a hole. When the spinach is baby spinach size or slightly larger I cut it about 1 - 2cm above the dirt and it'll recrop a couple of times. After that I let them go, then pull the mature leaves one last time before uprooting.

 

[Pweter]

A fortnight ago the weather had sufficiently cooled enough for me to risk putting in my winter crops, although at the time I wasn't sure whether we'd have another unseasonal burst of 30 degree temperatures. The time was now though, and I just needed to get them into the ground.

2 weeks on and the snow pea and lettuce seedlings have taken well and most of the spinach is starting to poke its head through the soil. Hopefully we'll start to get enough rain now so they can be set and forget, with the occasional weed and fertilising to give them a boost.





The ground level garden bed is basically builders rubble with all the big bits of crap pulled out leaving clay and pebbles. I gave up pulling the pebbles out and decided they'd stay to aid drainage a bit, though every autumn and spring a small wheel barrow load gets dug out and replaced with manure, gypsum and real soil. The pebbles still rise and the soil remains quite heavy with clay. Unless the vegies require free draining soil they're fine in there, and clay does hold nutrients for longer, and the vegies that do require decent drainage can always go in the raised bed.

 

[Pweter]

Only growing zucchini and tomatoes this summer. Space is limited so 2 cherry tomato plants and 2 zucchini plants.

Tomatoes are now producing 1 to 2 punnets a week, fingers crossed I can keep then in decent nick over the next 6 days where our temps will be 39/33/36/39/41/42 so they continue to produce.

Zucchinis have gone real well. Picked about a dozen so far with another 4 on the plants at this point. I did underestimate how much space they'd take up but thankfully only got 2 plants, a 3rd would've spelled trouble.

I have a basic plant shade cover I put up on scorchers now so hopefully it'll help during the hot spell, haven't had previously.

I put a firecracker chilli bush in a pot as well but it hasn't gone too well. I think the pot was too small so repotted in a bigger one just before Christmas and it seems to be helping. It's starting to grow a bit, flower a bit, and even a couple of baby chillis are now showing.