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Gardening

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Bought myself a pair of long-handle branch loppers today. The brand from Finland. Able to cut branches up to 55 mm diameter.

Jeebers, these things are the business. I shall never use a poxy little pruning saw ever again. So much power, clean cut, with so little effort. Just a great tool.
 
Admiral Byng said:
Bought myself a pair of long-handle branch loppers today. The brand from Finland. Able to cut branches up to 55 mm diameter.

Jeebers, these things are the business. I shall never use a poxy little pruning saw ever again. So much power, clean cut, with so little effort. Just a great tool.
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Fiskars?
I have a few of there tools, excellent quality.
 
So... is it gardening season yet?

I've moved to a new place towards the end of last footy season. After a long dry summer I'm ready to start making a veggie garden. Also going to get into making some biochar, just as a bit of a side hobby.
 

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That reminds me of something I've been meaning to post.

Some might remember an enquiry I made on here about buying kale seedlings during summer and whether they would survive. Well I don't know about seedlings, but I grew some during last the winter season that managed to survive the summer as mature plants, so it looks like you can grow kale all year round as long as it's big and ugly enough to survive once the heat kicks in.
 
It's gardening season all year round.

I've got cucumbers, rockmelons, tomatoes, peas and chillies on the go. New property, so it took a while to get the bed ready and I don't expect much first time around. Started some compost and trying to get the lawn going as well.
 
Reginald Perrin said:
Started some compost and trying to get the lawn going as well.
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I did this for the first time over the summer and it worked well. Pretty much used mainly only 3 things too, loads of leaves from this tree that drops about a million of them, lawn clippings and a lot of chicken manure.
 
Stronzo said:
Are weeds in a vegie patch necessarily a bad thing?

If there are heaps I can understand, but I would've thought they serve a purpose for locking in moisture and nutrients.
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Weeds are stealing nutrients from the vegies. They can also restrict their growth by taking up the space you want your vegies to grow into.
 
Reginald Perrin said:
Weeds are stealing nutrients from the vegies. They can also restrict their growth by taking up the space you want your vegies to grow into.
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That can be true to a point, but it is also true that they help hold nutrients and water in.

The less runoff, the more water and nutrients.

I'm no expert, but I think this stands to reason.
 

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Finished pulling the weeds that grew while I was back in Tassie. Tomatoes are going well, but the capsicum and chilli didn't come up and some of the cucumber plants died because the weeds got so tall they couldn't get any sunlight. Planted out some broccoli and cauliflower in the vacant space.
 
Kram81 said:
Planted a heap of brocolli and cabbage (the later for the first time) not really to eat but just to give to the chooks.
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I thought about cabbages, but I've never successfully grown a decent one that wasn't full of bugs. Have grown some really nice Broccoli though.
 
Stronzo said:
That can be true to a point, but it is also true that they help hold nutrients and water in.

The less runoff, the more water and nutrients.

I'm no expert, but I think this stands to reason.
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I'm no expert either, I'm just clinging to tradition.
 
The reason I think this is from watching an Australian story episode where a farmer went against the prevailing orthodoxy and planted heaps of trees and foreign plants around water courses on his farm. He put up with a lot of shit from his neighbours, but in the end he completely changed the ecology of his property from barren and erroding to lush. Many of the creek beds remained wet most of the year around, where previously they'd be dry most of the year around.

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1383562.htm

It seems as though the right type of weeds in the right quantity can be useful:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1440804/is-weeding-absolutly-necessary

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/weeds/WeedsToC.html
 
Stronzo said:
The reason I think this is from watching an Australian story episode where a farmer went against the prevailing orthodoxy and planted heaps of trees and foreign plants around water courses on his farm. He put up with a lot of shit from his neighbours, but in the end he completely changed the ecology of his property from barren and erroding to lush. Many of the creek beds remained wet most of the year around, where previously they'd be dry most of the year around.

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1383562.htm
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Good story, apart from the bankruptcy and family breakdown.
 

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Mine has dropped half it's leaves and seemingly gone into hibernation. Little burn marks on the ends of the leaves sometimes if I water it.

I cut off the suckers a little while ago when I realised they weren't mandarin but I'm not much of a gardener, I just like eating mandarins.
 

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