Do you have a green thumb? Gotta tout my own horn here.
My good friends know me as a fairly quiet unassuming sorta guy. But every now and then I've just gotta tout my own horn.
I started a project last March. I wanted to build a productive veggie garden that could supply regular produce for the kitchen and not take all the time in the world to setup and establish and maintain. My constraints; only 1000gal tank of water to use on the garden, I could only supply minimal external additives (I could buy in mulch but only use a little imported fertilizers) & no insecticide spraying. My positives; hey I teach horticulture. If anyone could do it i should be able to, you'd hope. Why do this. Well actually it was the starter project for a new course I'm hoping to run, a Certificate II in Horticulture; Suburban Production. Call it a bit of a passion of mine.
Ok the first photo is from March 8 2009 after I dids some hard yards creating simple terraces with scrap material I had lying around. This is not the sort of thing you would start with if you've never had a veggie garden before. But I wanted to show what could be done with a bit of nouse and not a huge investment of time. Generally a few hours on a weekend (very relaxing) and the odd afternoon splashing some water, light weeding (shouldn't be any to start with after correct preparation and vigilance ) and generally just enjoying the garden.
The second photo is from today, one week shy of 12 months. There are still a couple of beds that still aren't up to full fertility and production but they will be there withing 2 month if not by the end of March.
I'm pretty chuffed actually. I will admit here though that I did supplement the beds initially to get them going, but most of it has been green manure cropping, worm tea and castings (gallons and gallons of tea), and mulch Mulch, Mulch.
They have. 3 passion fruit and 5 (?) Luffa take care of the fence for me. Somewhere in there are watermelon and rockmellon, corn, silverbeet, Asparagus, banana, Madagascar Bean, Monstera, Tomato, strawberry, shallots, chives, parsely, pidgeon pea, cauliflower, brochini (?) and who knows what else. Its been fun
Very nice. What a difference. I'll have to contract you to do the same in my backyard to hide the two ducks and the pen. Don't bother about the fertilizer, I have plenty... daily. Just bring the vines and the plants.
Yeah Dave, from about 6 weeks from the start its been producing. Snowpeas, beans, brochini, shallots, corn, tomato, asparagus, passionfruit, silverbeet, swiss chard, chinese greens, paw paw, lettuce, strawberries, and stuff I've probably forgotten, oh yes blue berries for a while (they didn't make it this year but maybe next. )
Great stuff Paul .. I 've worked in agriculture for 20 years my erb garden though well mulched is a mess .. The worm farm got very popular with
the local birds recently when I left the lid off.. fantastic and dedicated effort .. enjoy the rewards
Yeah Dave, from about 6 weeks from the start its been producing. Snowpeas, beans, brochini, shallots, corn, tomato, asparagus, passionfruit, silverbeet, swiss chard, chinese greens, paw paw, lettuce, strawberries, and stuff I've probably forgotten, oh yes blue berries for a while (they didn't make it this year but maybe next. )
can you grow some clear weather paul you seem to have the touch
It would clear up if people in this area (and others) would stop buying astronomy gear. There has been a lot of astronomy equipment bought over the last few months, Australia wide it seems.
I haven't done anything in the garden for weeks. I want it to stop raining for a while (my tanks and creeks are full to bursting) and I want to get my hands dirty without getting wet.
Not yet. I love lychee but they get a lot of mite here and i don't know if its worth it.....though I do like them. The fig tree is fruiting really well this year. I just wish the rain would go away for a few weeks. The figs are splitting about 1-2 days before they are ripe enough for picking (I like tree ripened fruit ). And hopefully the Kurawong will leave the citrus alone this year
There is a Loquat (its gotta go its a weed), couple of guava (may get rid of them if they bring in too many fruitfly), white mulberry (gotta get some black), two types of mandarin, Meyer Lemon I think (I didn't plant it), valencia orange, banana, Avodado & Pawpaw.
Yes erinose mite is a problem with them Paul, aside dimeatoate ..yuck .. wettable sulfer does give some measure of control applied with the emerging leaf flushes spring to mid summer .
Kwai mai pink / bosworth 3 does well down our way , some of the
northern cultivars don't produce well around se/qld so best to avoid them .
Great looking garden Paul, looks like really good progress. I'm certainly not a green thumb but a few weeks ago wifey and I set up a very small patch of our yard to grow some vegies. So far seems to be coming along. We have a few Asian greens, corn, rhubarb and couple of others I can't remember but we've got nothing on your patch First shot was from late Jan and the other two I took a couple of days ago.
I would love to do that Paul, but when you rent it's a no go.
I agree about way too much Astro gear being purchased lately,basically ensuring cloud Aust wide for months. LOL
David, I rent.
I grow my vegies in brocolli boxes. Most successful have been celery, silverbeet, cherry tomatoes and of course the herb box. I've planted basil in the flower bed and snow peas grow up a home made trellis up against the water tank.
I asked permission to put in a larger trellis to grow a passionfruit vine and they were quite happy for me to do that.
The size of Pauls vegie patch is about the size of my whole back yard.
My real estate agent said they want the back garden left just how it is thankyou.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie
David, I rent.
I grow my vegies in brocolli boxes. Most successful have been celery, silverbeet, cherry tomatoes and of course the herb box. I've planted basil in the flower bed and snow peas grow up a home made trellis up against the water tank.
I asked permission to put in a larger trellis to grow a passionfruit vine and they were quite happy for me to do that.
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Do you have a green thumb? Gotta tout my own horn here.
But every now and then I've just gotta tout my own horn. 
) and generally just enjoying the garden.
My thumb is more brown than green.
Very nice. What a difference. I'll have to contract you to do the same in my backyard to hide the two ducks and the pen. 
