Any veggie patch gardeners out there?

[SixtiesChild]

I love my garden, especially my veggie patch which I try to keep as organic as I can. My five year old has been gardening since she was two by helping me water and pick food as it ripens.
Directly outside of her bedroom window are giant sunflowers and miniature orange pumpkins which are really easy to grow as long as you water them and theres plenty of sunlight.
It's been really satisfying to grow our own veggies especially since we don't want them to be sprayed with harsh chemicals.:eek:
This year we grew, carrots, cucumbers, corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuce water melon, passion fruit, tamarillos, and various fruit trees.
I have tried growing vegatables in winter and am hopeless at it. I don't know why. So, I stick to the summer veggie patch.
I'd love to hear what families on bubhub like to grow in their garden.:)

[Shazbutt]

My DH is the veggie gardener, but when he's away working, i'm left in charge of watering and picking. He grows cucumbers, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, cauli's, broccoli, corn which hit about 8 foot tall this year :eek: , peas, beans, whatever takes his fancy.

DD1 gets in and picks the cherry tomatoes, pease, beans straight off the bushes, and eats them while sitting in the garden :rolleyes: .

He does spray some things, (but not her bushes), just enough to keep the grubs out and cabbage moth especially. Oh, and fruit fly's off the tomatoes, thought eh cherry tomatoes fared really well this year without anything. A bumper crop.

[giggles]

After moving back into our home last year afer it had been rented out while we were living in Kalgoorlie we have just ripped out the entire, weed ridden, overgrown garden out the back.

Hubby built the "Taj Mahal" for birds and made a beautiful flowerbed area.

He has included 14m2 area for my vegie patch and herbs to grow and I have just ordered a mini plot from Diggers (link below). I think these are mostly heirloom variety vegies!

I can't wait to get stuck in and begin to see something edible coming out of our garden!

http://www.diggers.com.au/

[jasminesmum]

I would like to grow veges but we don't have alot of room.

Do you need to water them fairly often and do they shrivel up in this heat?

[Shazbutt]

Michelle, i am watering ours with the sprinkler for a good hour over every section on every second day (our restrictions are every second day for sprinklers out here), and hand watering them every other day.....and they still shrivel up sometimes :rolleyes: Its just too d**m hot out here this summer.....

[SixtiesChild]

There are vegetables that you can plant in small spaces. Carrots grow all year round and really don't take much space at all, even could be grown in a pot.
Radishes, miniature pumpkins do not require much space, and cucumbers do well with a small trellis to climb.
Even can be grown on a balcony, if you have no garden. Herbs are easy too.
As for watering, in summertime, everyday is best and on really stinking hot days, morning and night.
To prevent them drying out, I use pea straw as mulch and this keeps the moisture near the root system longer giving the plants a greater chance of survival.
Sometimes I wish I lived in a tropical zone so that I could grow my favorite fruit-
Mangoes!!!:D

[SixtiesChild]

Just thought I'd add one more post to this thread before it disappears.
I've been experimenting with growing watermelons and honeydew and rock melons.
I'm very exited about this because I live in Victoria and I guess I thought you couldn't grow watermelons here but it seems that you can if you take good care of the crop and water it well.
The weather has been quite hot lately and they love it!!!
I got the honeydew seeds from a melon I bought at the local supermarket and I dried and planted the seeds about 10 weeks ago . There are some large melons growing on it and I can't wait to taste them because they're growing organically.
The rock melons are very tiny- about the size of tennis balls, so I don't know what to expect from these. Strange considering they were certified seeds which I purchased.
Has any one tried growing melons?????

[book_mum]

Has any one tried growing melons?????[/QUOTE]

Hi there, just came across your post, I am a city gardener in Sydney, right in the city I plant and grow vegetables in our preschool. I have a 25 square patch and although we have been successful with watermelons in the past, this year has been dreadful. I have gone through 4 punnetts of seedlings, the birds took off with the first lot until I netted them over, lost all the rockmelon and honeydew and couldnt afford to buy any more!
The watermelon and pumpkin are all leaf and refuse to fruit, so I have given up. I find it really hard to keep the moisture in the soil, keep losing all the lucerne and because of water restrictions, can't keep it wet enough. Help!
We had great success with peas, cauliflower, and capsicums last year, as well as spinach, the organic spray tips are great, we lost so much cause I didn't use anything.
Anyone have a silver mould thing on their zuchini ?
Cheers,
Margaret

[jasminesmum]

We now have a vege garden too. :yelclap:

We have zucchini, carrots and strawberries growing at the moment. My MIL is giving us some lettuce and tomatoes to plant as well. It is very exciting watching them pop up and grow so fast. Can't wait to eat them.
We have hay on them for mulch and are going to keep them as organic as possible. No sprays at all.

I like the idea of the miniature pumpkins and passionfruit. Do they take long to grow? When can you plant them?

All the best with your gardens.

[faery]

we just moved to brissie and finally FINALLY after years of struggling in inner city sydney, have SUNSHINE!!!! the plants are going crazy.

we got overexcited and put in a bunch of stuff, probably at the wrong time, but just wanted something to start growing. we've got carrots, lettuce, tomatos, corn, watermelon, strawberries, heaps of chillis, pumpkin and passionfruits creeping over from the neighbours, 3 lemon trees and a mandarin tree we are trying to nurture after the last tennants neglected them. we also have a "zen patch" where my partner chucked a handful of random seeds and just waited to see what will come up. i think more chillis!

we also have heaps of herbs growing, and mushrooms popping up all over the place (although not the eating kind, still nice to look at). we're keeping everything organic and have just accepted that a fair % will go to the birds and the bugs. I can't wait till little baby comes out so i can get into it again (too hard to bend down!!)

does anyone have any ideas about our citrus trees?? I've never had fruit trees before and so far we have manured, and mulched one of them. the fruit never seems to ripen and splits. if you cut a fruit it is almost dry. not sure if anything else can be done, ot if maybe we should just really chop it back??

as far a watering, it's been raining a bit lately which is great. but we usually keep our bath water from the night before and bucket it out ontl the garden. there is no soap or anything in it, just a few drops of essential oil. we also put out the dish risne water, and keep a bowl in the sink to collect any water from rinsings hands etc.

oohhhh i love garden talk!!!:yelclap:

[giggles]

Give this page a go for your citrus fruit problems. (http://polkhort.ifas.ufl.edu/citrus.htm)

Admittdly it is an American site and fertilizer times etc should be reversed I guess!

We are also new veg gardeneers and have a heap of things coming up right now. Beans, corn, capsicum, tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, carrots, beetroot, silverbeet, spinach, rocket, lettuce and herbs like parsley, basil, chives, coriander, thmye, mint and sage.

It's so exciting!!!! :yelclap: