Gardening Forum

[incisor]

thats one reason i posted, to see who stuck their nose in...

ta

You could run a poll Dave and see if there is interest in a gardening area,one of my interests is growing vegtables,I have quite a well setup raised vegie garden as anyone who has visited will know.
Andrew

[DiscoMick]

We have an orchard - does that count?

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[LandyAndy]

Don't ditch them sheets of iron,when people see pics of my beds they will grab them.My beds are made from sheets of iron from the tip tek screwed to broken guide posts from the depot and filled with dirt from the oval heap which is road sweepings from the road sweeper,woodchips,all the grass and dirt from the oval when its vertimowed.Its a great compost mix,just gets a tad water repellent which is easily treated.

These pics are from my winter plantings so most are now harvested or getting harvested.














I have 13 olive trees and get the olives processed most years,best yet has been 18lt of oil.
Andrew

[LandyAndy]

We have an orchard - does that count?

Sent from my SM-G900I using AULRO mobile app

Yep.
My orchard is also my chook run.I throw 40kg of grain in there at the start of winter,they scratch it in,and cant keep up with the green feed during winter.Some does go to seed,they end up eating the lot.
Andrew

[1950landy]

We have grown sme strange carrots over the years because of rocky soil.
The possums aren't fazed by the chilies either

The flying foxes kept eating our Paw Paw's I gave up in the end once the tree got too tall to put a net over it & pulled the tree out.

Our neighbour had a large passionfruit vine growing on two sides of her front fence . She had it covered in yards of mosquito net, I came out one morning & there were about 50 white cockatoo in the front yard all eating her crop & the net had more holes than a sieve . The birds had eaten about 1/2 of the fruit in about 1 hour & the neighbour was left with about 2 buckets of fruit.

[1950landy]

I am thinking of buying a native stingless bee hive to try to improve the crop. Only thing holding me back is the cost of around $500. I have been trying x pollinating the fruit trees with a cotton bud but I usually end up knocking the flowers off . Bees seam to do better job.

[incisor]

my new bed i planted about 2 weeks ago

[zulu Delta 534]

A couple of years ago we had a bit of a drought and as a result of this we found that recycling old bath tubs mounted on old school desk bases was an ideal way to keep the vege patch reasonably weed free and also gave an opportunity to collect and recycle water that was surplus to the plants requirements when watering.
An added bonus is that it tends to eliminate bending over and believe me Dave in a few years you will appreciate that. I have manufactured out of PVC tubing a couple of frames that stick into the garden and support an insect screen, not that insects are our major problem, more so the possums and it takes more than netting to stop them.
You would be surprised how easy it is to accumulate bath tubs once the general populace knows that you want some.
I have another couple that I have sealed off the plug holes and use for water lillies but these ones are located at ground level. Gold fish keep the mossies down and a bit of plastic netting keeps the birds from the fish!
We used to grow redclaw in a couple of 15' swimming pools but getting the waste (ideal garden fertiliser) was getting on top of me so they have all ended up on a couple of plates and the tanks chucked out.

Regards
Glen

[zulu Delta 534]

Frames are simple and adjustable (no glue.)


Water lillies grow happily


Sweets grow on the fence.


Regards
Glen

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

Another approach is Ester Dean's No dig garden from the 1970s, Here is a Gardening Australia Fact Sheet. Accessed 13th September 2016 from, Gardening Australia - Fact Sheet: Step-by-Step No Dig,

Here is another source describing the same concept Accessed 13th September 2016 from [ame]http://communitygarden.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/no-dig-brochure.pdf[/ame]

A more modern take of the same idea, Accessed 13th September 2016 from [ame="http://www.sgaonline.org.au/pdfs/factsheets/no%20dig.pdf"]http://www.sgaonline.org.au/pdfs/factsheets/no%20dig.pdf[/ame]

A variety of Ester Dean's gardens can also be made as raised beds for people with back issues. Ester Dean did publish a book which is still available if you want to go to the original source of the idea - Esther Deans No-Dig Gardening & Leaves of Life there are a number of booksellers and gardening organisations who sell it.

Kind Regards
Lionel