44 replies to this topic

[Den]

Hi All

At first I saw vegi gardening as just a boring chore, but once I started getting results and reaping the product I found its pretty enjoyable and rewarding, now I really enjoy getting out there every morning. Pardon the pun, but once you start it really grows on you.

My Great Uncle used to commercially grow tomatoes in Sydney and he had two tomato crops, a seperate crop for the family and the other crop was for the supermarket! need I say more?

I'm no expert at this but try to keep this garden as organic as possible, with a base of peat and mushroom compost to which I have been adding only certified organic mixed animal poohs and soils from bunnings. The soils looks unbelievably healthy, its like worm city.

Since setup it takes me less than 20 minutes a week to maintain this garden, less time than it takes to drive to the shop! and I prefer to be working on my garden than standing with a trolly in a shopping cue, what a waste of life that is. Because its raised its really easy to work on - no bending over! and you keep the plants closer to your eyes so you can easily spot any problems early, it also keeps most of the weeds out and if an occasional weed pops up it takes only a second to pick out.

I'm planning to make a second garden bed next to this one, and my goal is to become completely self sufficient with my vegetables.

With this single bed alone I have reduced my vegetable bill from about $90 to about $20 a week, I used to spend about $15 a week just on herbs. But the best thing is the great taste and your not eating phosphate grown crap full of hebicides and pesticides that they sell at the supermarket. Also I share alot of my excess produce with family and friends, who all make comments about the great taste.

I now get a kick out of creating a nice meal completely from my garden without a single cent going to coles or woollworths!

Right know I am growing:

Cucumber
Cellery
Various lettuces
Brocholli
4 varieties of tomatos
Corn
Chives
Capsicum
Parsley, curly and Italian
Basil - sweet & Thai
Mint
Potatoes
Silver Beet
Parsnips
Chillies
Dwarf Beans

New garden bed I plan to grow these and more:
Carrots
Onions
Pumpkin
Cauliflower
Leeks
Zuchini

Keeping the bugs off:
I use a chilli and Garlic mix spray to keep the catapillars at bay, I also find planting stuff apart and keeping the shade to a minimum keeps alot of the pests away like snails and catapillars, though I pick snails out daily by hand, they are easy to find, just look in any shady areas, though now that Ive been doing this regularly I hardly ever see a snail. No sprays, pellets or any other chemicals go into this garden. Slaters dont cause me any problems as long as I leave them some dead stuff on the ground to eat, so I throw a few clippings on top of the soil for them to eat, some people call them pests, but I think they are handy little bugs, they work the soil surface similar to what the worms do below, so I leave them alone.

Next projects Im planning include:
Second garden bed.
Chicken tractor - in case you dont know its a movable chicken cage.
Compost heap.


Cheers
Den

Heres some pics

[Poncho]

Fantastic Den - you didn't mention anything about the aesthetics of your garden but I'm sure it must be a huge motivation also!

I started my first vege patch in November and am strict about keeping it organic as well. I'm growing broccoli, corn, jalapenos, variety of capsicum, watermelon, strawberries and tomatoes. I planted snow peas but planted them against a colourbond fence and I think the heat radiating from it on hot days killed them off. Also have a pomegranate in a pot with flat leaf parsley growing underneath.

I started because I was sick of paying heaps for rubbish produce at the two big supermarket chains. Also it is a devious ploy to get my 2yr old daughter to eat veges - she helps me with the watering and with the harvesting when its time and I figure she may be more inclined to eat the stuff if she helps grow it.

One thing that really bugs me is that Australian producers have to abide by some of the strictest agricultural regulations in the world to grow and sell their produce, yet overseas growers are not subject to the same regulations in order to sell to the Australian public. Not a level playing field!

It's becoming a new passion of mine and I've been thinking a lot lately of the private and public benefits of home produce. One thing I want to try in the near future is some of the old fashioned heirloom varieties of vegetables, like Black Russian tomatoes and Rainbow Inca corn. You should look up seed savers exchange (SSE) and seed savers network if you haven't heard of them before.

Do you make the chili and garlic spray yourself?

[Den]

The craziest thing about Australians :

The Aussie dog diet : An Aussies gotta make sure their dog has the most perfect diet, give em the best most expensive tucka thats vet approved(and make sure you tell everyone how you buy your dog the best food - like we care) give them all the essential vitamins and minerals, make sure he's getting the right calcium, to keep the dog in tip top shape.

The Aussie diet : arrrr, dont give me any a that health rubbish talk, I aint a bloody health nut, my grandad drank beer and smoked till he was 90 and he was alright, food its all the same just gimmie the cheap stuff, and beer and pies that have the meat left over that dog food Companies cant use cause it would be cruelty to animals.

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Hey Poncho

I forgot I also have capsicums, I just added them to my list, I have 9 plants cranking with capsicums, considering there about $10Kg in the shops, theres a big saving on just them alone, I think I have at least 5Kgs ready to eat over the next few weeks alone.

I also cant believe people here eat vegies from China, do you really trust their regulations over there?, I think its crazy to be eating imported vegies, even if it was top notch - which I doubt, just think of the pollution/carbon it takes to ship it all here, and the freshness after all that travel? its bad for the environment, its bad for peoples health both here and over there, just look at Egypt the West is buying their grain instead of growing its own because of the exchange rate its cheaper for the west to import rather than grow, but now Egyptians are starving cause we've pushed the price of their grain beyond their lower income population, and we are doing this more and more, not only do we enslave developing Countries to make our cloths and crap now we want them to grow all of our food as well.

I used to make the spray but I ran out of chillies, so for now I just using the bunnings organic chillie and garlic spray, I just started growing Jaleps but I dont think they are hot enough so I also planted these orange chillies which are really hot and sweet, and they are also a beautiful plant, I ll post up picks later when they've grown.

Cheers
Den

[Sazabi]

You're not turning vegetarian on me now are you? If so welcome to the club lol

[Den]

Im mostly vego, I tried going full vegatarian for a while but I cant go all the way cause I like seafood too much and the odd bit of red meat

The meat and fast food industry has been marketing to portray a tough guy image if you eat lots of meat!. Nothing can be further from the truth, since meat has become cheap and strongly marketed cancer and particularly bowel cancer has dramatically risen in this Country. I heard a recent media report that 50% of Australians are now predicted to get cancer at some stage in their life, and no-one seems to care? Domino's can still market their 8 meats pizza and hungry jacks can put 1kg of meat in a burger and then ask you are you tough enought to eat it? when they should say are you stupid enough to eat it?

The meat and dairy industry have been working heavily through marketing to cram as much of these products into us to make a profit, even though its common knowledge of the dangerous health issues these foods cause when eaten in excess, which currently is the practice of most of our population.

If I had it my way many people in the fast food, meat and dairy industries would be in jail for falsely advertising their products.

Cheers
Den

[Ronny]

Nice garden Den, I've been to your place twice now and havent seen it lol.
I've always wanted to grow my own vegies but the house we're in at the moment doesn't have a garden or big enough yard to make a vegie bed,
specially with two dogs lol.

I dont think I could go very long without red meat.
I just had 4 wisdom teeth removed yesterday and I had steak for brekky this morning lmao.

[Poncho]

Jalapenos not hot enough for the spray or for your taste?

Agriculture here isn't very logical - we can get oranges from California cheaper than we can from Harvey. We grow crops like rice that can be bought very cheaply from our neighbouring countries, without the thought that they are very water intensive yet we live on the driest habitated continent on earth.

[Den]

Jalapenos not hot enough for the spray or for your taste?

LOL, the ones I grew didnt seem that hot to me, so Im only assuming they arent as good, as I've grown some other varieties that are so hot they could melt concrete pavement.

Agriculture here isn't very logical - we can get oranges from California cheaper than we can from Harvey. We grow crops like rice that can be bought very cheaply from our neighbouring countries, without the thought that they are very water intensive yet we live on the driest habitated continent on earth

I agree some forms aren't viable, we've all but destroyed most of our river systems, but in metro areas we could be more sustainable if we could capture rain water, reuse gray water and grow alot of our own fruit and vegies.

[Pieface]

Great looking garden Den!

My veggie patch is a bit neglected at the moment as I'm trying to summon up the effort to do a bit of structural work to improve the ease of working in the garden.

Nothing like the taste of homegrown frsh of the plant is there!

Couple of pics of some of my homegrowns:

[dazzabozza]

Hey Den

Got it rigged up to use your waste water from your aquarium/s? I'd like to do something like that.


Daz

[ado]

Nice garden Den!

I agree...it's great to grow your own produce

I'm building a pond in my backyard atm Daz and working on pumping waste water from the pond to sprinkler my vegie garden.

Maybe I'll post some photos when its complete

ado

[Cicolid]

Congratulations Den.

I did notice the pride you had in your veggies garden when we last come round.
With space permitting we have been growing our own veggies for over 30 years.

Proven facts:- Most fruit & veggies obtain their flavour in the weeks prior to picking. As a lot of our produce comes from the Eastern Sates or other Countries they have to be picked several weeks earlier so therefore they lack the true taste.

If anyone is interested the WA Department of Agriculture produces a book on growing veggies just for WA conditions. This is a fantastic book. It has such information as growing periods, when to sow or plant etc.

Most of the WA soils are rubbish, so I suggest you buy some really good topsoil to start with.

Good luck to anyone wanting to try it.

[Krystal]

You're not turning vegetarian on me now are you? If so welcome to the club lol

Im Vegetarian No red meat, chicken, seafood etc.......Best thing I ever did really......keep considering Vegan as well, i get lectured enough as it is being just a vego.

Great Veggie Patch Den....very well laid out .....when i get my new place i will be setting up an aquaponics system, only i wont be eating the fish that i grow Just the veggies

[Den]

Nice Vegies Pieface! I like fennel and beetroot, there will be a spot for them in my next garden bed, fennel makes a great salad ingredient, other than that I dont know what to do with it but Im sure theres alot of great ways to use it.

Got it rigged up to use your waste water from your aquarium/s? I'd like to do something like that.

Im not sure wether its a good idea,

Some fish foods contain stuff like hormones, colours, preservatives and other man made chemicals, who knows what sort of stuff they put into those pellets, to my knowledge there is no regulation for aquarium fish food and even if there was I doubt it would be policed?

Please forgive my ignorance to those people who know chemistry as I know very little about it, but my fear is that some of those chemicals could get absorbed by the roots and work their way into the vegetables. I dont want to take the risk of some kind of hormones or other crap getting into my food. So for now my aquarium water goes on my lawn.

Cheers
Den

[Den]

Summer is coming, time to get the garden shed open, well this winter I have been growing too! have been able to supply all my own carrots, Brocholli, parsley, swedes, onions, spinach and much more all from the garden for most of the winter.

Heres a Swede that outgrew the others, its so bushy I only noticed it this morning it weighs 1KG exactly!



Built a new Gargen bed last week, this one has been planted with cucumber, parsley, corriander, carrots, and 1 capsicum thrown in cause I ran out of room. A second identical bed will be built for purpose of herbs only and most of the current herbs will be shifted into it.


I plan to plant a big crop of corn soon. I think once I have the 3rd garden bed ready I dont think I will have to buy much vegies.

Recently I have made the decision to boycott the big supermarkets as much as I can, especially for fresh vegies.

Firstly the price of vegies at the big supermarkets are a complete rippoff. Many vegies are now imported from poorer Countries which have questionable farming practices. In many cases supermarkets are offering old vegies with a reduced nutrition value and inferior taste. Then you also have to consider the carbon cost of freigting vegies from overseas, while at the same time you are also inflating the local cost of vegies in those poorer Countries while our local farmers are loosing out as well. Wether the vegies at the big chains are local or imported you are being ripped off, the prices are marked up to support inflated executive wages and dividends for the share holders, I know Im sounding like a commie but I am still a capitalist, though capitalism doesnt neccessarily mean we have to go so extreme where we are today.

I think its much better if you can find a market that supports local growers or even better grow your own!

Anyway happy gardening!

Cheers
Den

[SynoAngel]

First time I've seen this thread, some very nice work indeed Den with the vegetables. We plan to put in a vege garden in the future its just not high on the priority list at the moment. My chicken pen is structural built, I just need to finish off some minor details and that will product plenty of organic fertilizer for the garden. With any luck we will be able to get a bumper crop like yours sooner rather than later.

Daniel

[Den]

Dont waste another day! once you get going you wont wanna stop. Just make sure you do a raised bed at least 40cm off the ground, helps to keep the weeds and pests out, and also much easier to manage, as you dont have to bend down so much. My garden is a complete pleasure, getting out there for a look is the first thing I do when I get out of bed every morning, sometimes its the second thing I do, depending on how much water I drank the evening before.

Cheers
Den

[golden_dase]

I envy you guys...!! Living in a rental limits my gardening hobby.

Den, if you would like some authentic asian herbs to grow, let me know... my uncle has heaps of different ones!

[Den]

Hi Kevin

Does your uncle grow Galangal? interested if people are growing it locally, as I have tried to grow it and failed in the past, I think its because it does not like the cold, I'll probably have to set up a small hot house.

But any tips on growing it in Perth would be appreciated!

Cheers
Den

[golden_dase]

Hi Den

I will have to google that vegie, then print out the image, then take it to my uncle's house so he can advise. Because, I have no idea what that plant is called in my lingo... LOL!

Will let you know.


Cheers!
Kevin