New vege garden & composting!

[Atlantic Puffin]

Yay, new section!

I will be the first to post :highfive:

I'm looking for tips on starting a vege garden and also a compost bin (to make compost to put on the vege garden hehe)

At the moment I have been more into growing roses and am thinking these holidays i might start a small vege patch!!

What veges should i plant (if any) in early January.
Is there any special considerations i should keep in mind if planting in a VERY hot climate? (today its midday and is 32degrees... HOT)

With my compost bin...
Is there anything i SHOULDNT put in it??...
And also, how long should i leave the compost break down before i use it to mix in with my soil etc...?

Thanks everyone!!! :xmas:

[babyblu11]

Yay! I have a feeling I'm going to like this new section! :D

Laa - I've made the decision lately that I'm going as green as I possibly can (cloth pads, recycle and reuse as much as I can, natural products etc.) and two things I want to do is start a vegie patch and compost bin.

I'm in the middle of building a new home so it will be a while before I can set up my vegie patch and compost bin, but I'd like to learn as much as I can in the meantime.

I've just learnt that you can put shredded paper into the compost bin. Things that you wouldn't put in would be meat products.

I'm guessing the rule would be that anything that is plant based could go into the bin, also egg shells.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear what others have to say who already have an established compost bin :yes: And as for vegie gardens, well I know NOTHING about them yet! :laughing:

[Ready To Run]

Hey, thanks veve for this new section :) we are in 45°C heat out here regularly so i have shade cloth over most of my veges. im growing herbs, tomatos, beans, rockmelon, pumpkins, potatos and just about every other vege :laughing: im going to plant citrus trees too. we have chooks, getting more soon and i want to get into worms and composting :)

[Atlantic Puffin]

haha... Thanks Babyblu!!... We moved into our new house exactly 12 months ago tomorrow! YAY

I'm really trying to make a conscious effort to be more environmentally friendly. :) If only my lovely DP could be the same haha.. It drives me nuts when he leaves the shower running to "heat it up" while he goes and gets his clothes, read the paper, shave his face etc etc etc hahaha...

Oh wow - ready to run, how do you cope in that heat!!! I get annoyed when its 32deg like today!!... It usually cools off in the afternoon but lately no such luck... Yesterday at 830pm it was still 26degrees and the humidity omg my hair was so curly!!! haha..

I think i might do those things you suggested.. maybe throw in some pumpkin, potato, watermelon seeds down the back.. (we live on 4 acres).... Then try having some tomatos, herbs, beans and stuff in my vegie patch!..
We have a few citrus trees, but they are all really small. :( Its hard to keep them growing well.. i think the soil i planted them in was a little to hard.. eep!... I have to keep the water up to them for them to do any good... but its okay, we have our septic hooked up to a sprinkler system. Its a bit illegal but sooooo much better then what we had.

Must be a funny sight for our neighbours seeing me outside in gumboots and big rubber gloves on just to move the sprinkler hahahahaa!!!!

[Ready To Run]

Have you seen "the good life" :laughing: pumpking grow well with ash in the soil. my grandpa grew then in burnt piles of logs, they were amazing pumpkins. its aparently cool, gets up to nearly 50 on hot summers. its cloudy today so not too bad but yesterday was a shocker with high humidity :( We are trying to cut down on power but we just need the air con so badly with little ones. saving on hot water though, we need cool showers :cool:

[Atlantic Puffin]

HAHA..... Yeah we only have one aircon in our house.... And thats in our bedroom... So we have only been using it at night to get comfortable.. its horrible. I hate being sticky and hot trying to get to sleep!!... It doesnt help that we dont even have a fan in our bedroom either!!... (Terribly designed if you ask me!!!)

We actually burnt a pile of green waste the other day!!!! I had heard of that a while ago but totally forgot!!! Im going to get some pumpkin seeds today and plant them haha!

I hope they grow.. that would be awesome!

I have asked for the Yates garden guide for christmas this year.. so hopefully my secret santa will see sence and buy it for me hehe..

We have a large family and we just do a secret santa with a list of things we would like to an $80 value!. So instead of buying for everyone .. we just do it for one person. So good!

:)

Its been quiet rainy here too.... so the humidity has been horrible!! The office i work in is airconditioned.. It was acutally broken for ages and we just got it fixed a few weeks ago... Thankfully... it was soooo hot!

[AM]

Laa - A tip about your citrus, they do not like anything competing with their roots, so clear everything around them out to the dripline (where the branches go out to) and then lay down good compost all around, and then water, and mulch heavily with sugar cane mulch or similar, and as the tree grows bigger, extend the circle of compost and mulch outwards.

This will help with keeping the tree moist, as they love water, (but must have well drained soil) and are gross feeders.

If you can arrange it, get a male of the household to pee on the soil under your citrus periodically, it will love the nitrogen from the urine.

Otherwise feed well with compost/cirtus tree fertilizer a few times a year, and don't let it dry out.

Whenever I start a vege garden I build a raised garden, and then layer it. I put cardboard or newspaper on the bottom and soak it, then add whatever animal manure I can get hold of (rotted chook, horse, cow, sheep etc) and put a nice thick layer of that down, and then layer a whole lot of garden/vege scraps and then fill up with a mixture of compost and good garden soil, and mulch on top with a thick layer of fine sugarcane mulch (make sure you water it all well before adding the mulch on top)

When you are ready to plant, simply push aside the mulch, and plant into the soil, and rearrange the mulch around your plants, making sure to keep it from touching the actual stems of the plants, this can cause rotting.

The garden will rot down in time, so you simply top up with compost to kee the level up, and keep mulching, as the sugarcane rots down quite quickly as well, but is really good for your soil, so it is all good!

When you water, make sure you do it in the morning or the afternoon, not when the hot sun is shining on your plants as this can burn them, and also give rise to fungal disease. Also, water the SOIL, not the foliage of your plants, as this also can create disease, and also a lot is lost through evaporation.

Shade cloth over the vege garden is advised in the hot months.

[bootiful]

Hello fellow gardeners :wave:

I am just about to redo my vege garden after a rather successful first round.

Gardening Australia website is a good place to start to find out what will grow best in your area. There are also heaps of other good sites for info, have fun googling :).

As for compost I don't really have enough waste for a bin so I just shove it down the side of my garden bed and it breaks down. Best things to use are vege scraps, egg shells, old tea bags, newspaper etc. Things not to use are animal poo, meat (cooked or raw), onions etc.

I made a raised layered no dig vege garden and found that it worked really well. Good Luck and hope to see some photos of your garden soon :gl:

[ElizaDoLittle]

Oh no animal poo? I've been putting my rabbit's poo in there for a year... And Cow poo in my garden.... Why not In the compost?

[Nimrodel]

Oh no animal poo? I've been putting my rabbit's poo in there for a year... And Cow poo in my garden.... Why not In the compost?

Animal poo from herbivores is fine, it is only cat and dog poo that shouldn't go in there because of the possibility that they can spread disease.

The other thing to keep in mind with compost is that unless you are able to make a hot compost pile, dont put in anything with weed seeds. Either bin it, or what I do is put it in one of those big black thick plastic bin bags and leave it in the sun for a few weeks. This 'cooks' the seeds and will stop them germinating once you add them to the compost or even worse, once you spread it all around your garden!

Finding this thread has reminded me about a thread I was planning on starting a few weeks ago with a heap of info on starting a garden and composting etc. Guess I should get my butt into gear eh?

[ElizaDoLittle]

Ah cool, freaked for a minute there!

Big big bug mistake I made wad to put
My dead cherry tomatoes in there, like ones that had overripened. I think I have pulled out about three flipping MILLION of them!
Sprouted everywhere :hair:

[Nimrodel]

Haha most of my garden is self seeded. I have tomatoes and ruby chard growing like crazy and not a single one I actually planted.

One of the benefits of self seeded plants (especially in a climate like mine) is that they are tougher and better adapted to the conditions. Only the strong survive so after a few generations you will have plants that are perfectly acclimatised, can survive on less water and are more resistant to bug and fungal attack :thumbsup:

[missie_mack]

Hair is also great for compost. Animal hair or human hair, doesn't matter.

Re growing citrus. If you train them to grow on lattice or something similar you will find you get more fruit as there is more exposure to the sun. If its really hot I would only plant seedlings in the morning or early evening.

[aymee83]

Hi, last year i started my first veggie garden, although i dont have a green thumb at all, the garden has done well and im learning all the time, i have planted... tomatoes, corn, beans, lettuce. basil, parsley, cucumbers, zuchini, capsicum, spring onion and golden nugget pumpkins, i dont have much space so we have just used small raised beds and pots, i also have strawberries in hanging baskets and a dwarf naval and a passionfruit vine in pots, they are watered most evenings and seasol every fortnight..
What are you growing atm???

[Atlantic Puffin]

Oh, i finally checked back on my thread - lazy i know!...

Over the holidays i have planted pumpkin, and watermelon down the back paddock!.. They are growing like crazy, and i see one watermelon on there! YAY!

Hopefully we can save some money to get some garden beds happening to plant some tomatoes, lettuce, and carrots!