Grow your own vegies?

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Forgot to mention my main 'vege', the grape vine over our deck. Albany Surprise, a rather sweet dark skin eating grape. Deck coverage is about 3m x 8m and the vine not only provides us with summer shade and a natural air con cooling effect into the house but about 100 kgs of delicious grapes each year.
I normally make about 20 -25 jars of grape jelly cos no way could we eat that amount. It goes on my morning porridge all year and I take in about 10 -15 kilos to work and give it away.
Winter it loses the leaves and gets pruned and we get the sun back into the lounge.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

WOW ...sounds awesome. Are the grapes no good for homemade Wine ?

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Unfortunately no, tried it once but the results were less than ideal. Wrong sort of grapes in the sugar\acid balance.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Interesting replies. I imagined there would be even more gardeners out there. Having a quarter acre of garden sounds great, that's my whole house block!

This gardening by the moon is intriguing. If it isn't bunkum I can only imaging it has something to do with stimulating (or suppressing) plant hormones. I wonder if it works under near-continuous cloud cover? (BTW Back in the day I knew people who did all of their gardening by moonlight. )
No one has mentioned companion planting. At least it has a clear and believable basis. I'm trying it as much as I can in a small garden. I know the tomato & basil combination is believed to work but does anyone have experience with other combinations, either plant together or combinations to avoid?

[Ric]

Hi David, here's a link that explains it a bit more.

http://www.moongardeningcalendar.com...Traditions.pdf

I'm still learning a bit more about companion planting. I'm told that peas and corn work well. you plant the peas a little later then the corn and use the corn as the climbing platform for the peas, still yet to try it though.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Marigolds (I think) keep bugs away from other plants. Pyrethrum Daisies are supposed to be good to for obvious reasons.

[Ric]

Yep, Marigolds work very well.

Beware though they can take over very quickly in only a season or two, wonderful self seeders.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by Ric

Yep, Marigolds work very well.

Beware though they can take over very quickly in only a season or two, wonderful self seeders.

Hah ! Yeah, I know, my wife loves them. We end up with about 3rd generation plants each year. Them and some yellow head daisies ( name unknown) which return year after year and ditto some purple flowered thingie.
If I have a bare patch I don't know what to do with I just leave it a week and something will appear, guaranteed !!
Volcanic soil is so rich just about anything takes off as long as I can keep enough water going to it. Trouble is it is so porous that water it one hour then water it again an hour later !