I am a very poor excuse for a gardener really, but love to grow things. I have grown veges for years, something really satisfying about eating what you have actually produced yourself. I love flowers! Used to grow them commercially for many years. What about you?
Our first daffodil is out today
I always have a vege. garden during summer. Still have a few carrots sitting in there. Just had the first of the pumpkin crop. Grew them during summer (ok, they popped up all by themselves and I encouraged them a bit). Nothing like a roasted pumpkin soup for winter meals.
Well hello. I was just thinking on Sunday as I was preparing the ground in front of the roses for this year's garlic crop that it would be good to start a group like this and whaddya know? It's already here. Yippee!
The shortest day. Garlic planting time...
OMG I do have some friends! Welcome to my garden You feel like such a dick posting about veges on the open forum, some people just dont understand
My mother was always scornful of people who didn't have a vege garden....so I have always had a vege garden so she wouldn't nag me.Now she has gone,my garden is in her honour....I keep wanting to talk to her about it. Last year I made a raised garden with 2.4m sleepers - my plan is not to use my sandy soil and just keep pouring good stuff on the top.I was going to have 2,and rotate crops and stuff.But this weekend I redid it,now it's 2 x 2.4's a side,and 1'8m wide,so long and narrow so i can work on it without stepping inside. I won a TradeMe auction of a chipped tree for $5,been there awhile so it's compost too.The buggers won't get back to me and I couldn't pick it up.I hope to do that this weekend - then I can fill the raised garden,and put my good soil on top.Have 3 bags of horse poo to go in too. Was hoping to do a winter garden....so maybe late winter or early spring is what we will call it.
I have had a bit of dirt with veges in it for more years than I care to count. Sometimes it has been a big area, sometimes a small one. Right now I am in large grow bags(cheaper than pots) on my back deck. Managed to keep the summer vege requirements met for the most part, and am trying my best to get some winter veges at the moment.
A good compost bin is a starting point. All the grass from the lawn and the kitchen scraps get "melted down" and form the base of the next season's fertiliser. Well worth doing. I'm currently nagging someone who chucks all of her kitchen peelings into a rubbish bag...
We have an old blender that we put all the vege scraps in - at the end of the day we blend it up and pour it somewhere.I'd like something set up outside to do that with...the mulcher can't do fresh scraps (too wet and it clogs).An old waste disposal set up somewhere maybe.
I am thinking worm farm. Seriously. I talked to a woman the other day who confirmed how good they are to me. All vege scraps, paper and the like in the top. Fertiliser out the the bottom and worm casts from the trays every so often. Will go out to our local farmers market and have a squizz soon. Apparently they are available in kitset from for $80 odd.
My Dad used to have a worm farm and it was very good indeed. It also provided loads of entertainment for visiting kiddies. For some reason they found it very interesting.
We dont get too many curios kiddies at our place these days so it should be all good. We went to Puhoi for lunch on Sunday and ended up meeting Brian Edwards and Judy Cunningham. We spent a good hour chatting away and it was her that was telling me about worm farms. I am not a huge fan of chemicals around food, but because i grow in bags I dont have the ability to really get carried away with compost and the like, so rely on slow release fertilisers. She reckons the juice from the bottom of a worm farm is the best thing since sliced bread. Also when you go to replant you take a tray of castings from the bottom and mix that in to your soil. I am actually quite keen on the idea. Now all I have to do is convince Maha to take me to the market on Saturday. It is jam packed with snotty soaps (stressed out Auckland pricks) so is not our favourite place to go.
Is this the Puhoi market? Or the Matakana one? Just go to the "secret" Matakana market if it is... (Locals only)
As far as composting goes, I just cut out the middle man and throw my stuff straight in the garden like my dad used to. Just dig about 30cm deep trench across the garden. Compostable scraps (ie, not meat) get tossed in. When you have a nice layer layer built up cover it with a thin layer of dirt then repeat the process. I usually finish up with about 3 three layers of material (like a compost lasagne!) The good thing about doing it this way is you don't have a smelly old compost bin tucked in a corner, you get a nice even coverage through the depth of the garden, you don't have to dig it in and it starts working straight away.
