Dan's Garden Journal

[Daniel.Mav]

All cleared now it just needs a dressing of compost dynamic lifter and clay breaker! Then I can start planting. Going to buy seedlings this time...I don't think I have enough time to start via seeds, what do you think?
I'm planning on planting -
Kale, tomato, cabbage, peas, beans, beetroot, carrots, fennel, broccoli, spinach, anything else for the season?

 

[stevo]

Seeing photos of other peoples gardens makes you want to get out in your own garden... cept I'm stuck at work!

 

[Mark]

Yeah looking great!

It's possible you could get some cucumbers if you put a few plants in now and coriander plus dill are both good herbs for the cooler weather.

Cauliflower is in fashion at the moment and it's always beautiful fresh from the garden. We're coming into leafy green season so any salad or vegetable leaf crops should grow nicely.

If you're into onions or garlic planting them over the next month or so is about the right time for them.

I agree with Ash about your zucchini etc try to find the sunniest spots for those fruiting plants.

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Thank you both for the tips. I just bought some seedlings and sowed some seeds too. Ill be out tomorrow planting like mad. Found a small butternut on the vine today too!!

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Onion and garlic. I thought it was too hot in winter here for them? Ive been growing leek and garlic chives instead. Might try and find some shallot bulbs and bunching leeks in the future

 

[Mark]

I thought it was too hot in winter here for them?

Always push the boundaries Dan you'll be surprised at what you can grow.

Our climate on the northern side of brisbane is slightly hotter than yours but I have successfully grown garlic and easily grow onions every year.

Yes garlic is a little more challenging to grow and I've had failures that's for sure, but it can be done and is definitely worth the effort.

I was once told by a horticulturist not to bother growing olives because they will never flower in our climate and this season we harvested 8kgs of fruit from our trees! Food gardening is a great sport

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Fair call. Ok I'll pop some onion seeds in tomorrow. Full sun for them?
Mark, I'm greek so don't get me started on olives haha. I nearly bought two for pots out the front the other day but ended up getting twp cumquats

 

[Mark]

I just got two cumquats the other day also!

Never grown them before but instead of whacking them in the orchard we're using them as ornamental edibles either side of our front driveway. One is a standard variety and the other is variegated leaf.

Olives do pretty well out your way - there's a grower from Ipswich who sells their olives at the Caboolture farmers markets.

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Nice I also put then on either side of the driveway. Mine are meiwa. I'll have to grab olives next time I need a plant

 

[Jennatis]

That's a great little set-up in your backyard! Nice job on the beds and the chook pen

Did you purchase those banana trees and if so what variety are they?

You seem to have pretty good growth in general out of those beds although a few of your citrus in pots look a little leggy, which can be a sign of not enough sun, but the beds are green and happy. Did you happen to get some figures on roughly how many hours of direct sunlight the veggie garden beds are getting?

Did you get much fruit from those zucchinis and how is that pumpkin going (I assume it's a pumpkin)?


Please write as much as you like - we all enjoy reading here oh, BTW we also have an article section so if you feel like writing an essay on pretty much any subject feel free! So far I'm the only contributor lol...

I think there might be a few of us following the progress without commenting. I am & learning along the way!

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Well I'll keep posting my long winded thoughts and questions haha!

 

[OskarDoLittle]

Fair call. Ok I'll pop some onion seeds in tomorrow. Full sun for them?
Mark, I'm greek so don't get me started on olives haha. I nearly bought two for pots out the front the other day but ended up getting twp cumquats

Hey Daniel,
You're coincidentally not too far from me...(centenary suburbs, brisbane) so I guess similar weather, but as Mark points out, often it's your garden's micro climate that can make a difference.
Your garden's damned impressive! Esp on a small block (I'm also on a suburban block, and it's hard to negotiate the "productive garden" versus "leisure yard" - my other half is definitely NOT into gardening and he thinks my veggie patch is quite the eye sore!
I've done ok with garlic, but dismally with onions from seed. I've experimented with various types and found that so far red onions seem to be surviving, but I had to buy seedlings. I got a few browns to germinate, but they seemed to burn off within days. Shallots - no probs, leeks - just seem to be doing nothing much! I've managed to grow a Kent pumpkin (Jap pumpkin) for over 12months now which has provided fruit year round. And it's just burst into very vigorous growth again. If your butternut won't fruit, you could always try a Kent. I have the same problem as you with zucchini. Grew a beautiful plant, heaps of fruit, harvested the first one no probs, then every one after that rotted before I could pick them. I presumed it was flower tip rot...so now I've planted 4 different varieties in my raised bed to see if they'll do any better. I keep reading how easy zucchini is meant to be to grow, but it just doesn't seem to agree with me!
Welcome to the site, and keep posting on how it's growing. I'll be particularly interested in what fruit/veg work for you - will give me some ideas for my own garden!

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Hi Oskar, nice to hear from a neighbor .
Last year I only got little pickling onions from a batch of brown onion seedlings...even worse luck from the red batch. But my second run I got browns up to a large pickle size haha.
I tried shallots (the one that forms bulbs like garlic do) but again no luck for me, they just seemed to grow one bulb each instead of a 'clove' of bulbs.
Leeks I've had great success with and I've been just cutting and letting them grow - repeat.

I'm going to try sowing and buy seedlings this week and see how I go with them during the winter. I really want a good crop this year cause I use so many onions in the kitchen.

Garlic will have to wait for next year. I don't have any in the fridge and I think I've left it too late.

Cheers mate, this is my second year with the garden. Started as a dirt patch filled with native trees. Taken alot of work to get it all built. Now I just need to get more production out of it. This year I'm determined to get more food from it because atm I feel like I'm putting more into it than I'm getting out of it.
I'll post pics and what I've planted this week once I finially finished. Still getting the soil ready. Just added compost, lime, sulphate, sugar, somethingI forget tge name of for nematoads, dynamic lifter, epson salt,choir and some potting mix.
I need some production of this haha.

 

[Daniel.Mav]

So going to buy onion seedlings today. Quick question, do I plant them in full sun (5-6hr) or part sun (3-4)?

 

[Mark]

So going to buy onion seedlings today. Quick question, do I plant them in full sun (5-6hr) or part sun (3-4)?

Definitely full sun and use the part sun for things like salad crops, passion fruit, herbs, etc...

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Thanks mark! Bought carrot seedlings too. Never used seedlings for carrots so we will see how it goes. I'm thinking about planting them in amongst the sweet potato vines growing under the banana trees.
My theory is that the vines will keep the soil shaded.
What do you think? Possibly for beetroots too. Theres a pic of the banana bed earlier in the thread.

 

[OskarDoLittle]

So here's what I've not worked out about carrot seedlings...the nursery will tell you to plant them as they are in the tube (ie a crowded clump), or maybe that's just the few people I asked at nurseries, who possibly have never grown a carrot!
After blowing a couple of punnets I just went back to direct sowing into final position. Much less wastage even if quite a few don't germinate. I guess I should try splitting each little carrot seedling out from the punnet, but that seemed like hard work!

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Yeah I havnt grown carrots from seedlings but I figured itll be the same as seperating onion seedlings. Just dunk them in water and carefully pull them apart. I got one punnet with quite young seedlings another with mature seedlings and I'll be sowing seeds as well. So hopefully I'll get a nice staggered harvest.

On a different topic, I just went down to check on the garden and came across one rat! God I hate these little buggers. Last spring I killed a heap with normal spring traps and then moved on to poison in pvc pipes. I think tomorrow I'll need to get out the big guns again and go hunting!

 

[OskarDoLittle]

See ya learn something new all the time...I'll try the water thing next time.
I guess rats could be a bit of a problem where you are, there's quite a bit of bush still right? Do the chickens/chicken food attract them?
We have quite a few snakes, so I'm not keen on keeping birds...I have this weird notion that snakes will be attracted to them!

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Yeah we back onto some bush land so I think the battle is futile. Only seen one snake so far so thats nice. Havnt had a drama with them.