Well it has been a long time since my last post!

Alot has been happening :) i have started my own veggie garden installation business called "The Edible Garden" www.facebook.com/TheEdibleGarden.Organic

Its been a slow start but starting a gardening business at the start of autumn wasnt that bright :) so i will be relaunching come spring!

In my home garden i have limes ripening, as well as little lime and lime flowers (entire lime tree has come bezerk!) My lemonade tree has also got 4 fruits/lemonades (what to call them?!?) that are growing well! I have been picking lettuce and bok/pak choy like its going out of fasion and my pea and snow peas have just started producing! yummy!

Aprils Numbers!

342g Fig
10g Raspberries
207g Beans
54g Capsicum
55g Eggplant
173g Pak Choy
6g Carrots (still cant seem to get it right)
34g Zuccini
30g Lettuce
10g Snow peas

Total: 921g

The Warm autumn weve had has messed up planting big time! Although the pak/bok choy has done quite well they have been riddled with holes from the cabbage white butterfly! Which has stayed around alot longer this year! Thankfully they have now disappeared and everything is making a recovery!

Snails and slugs are doing a little bit of damage but nothing too terrible at the moment.
My Pepino has reflowed and has set a dozen little pepinos....yum!

Bananas have stopped putting out leaves....im thinking that at some point they should be producing fruit! I must pick up some clear plastic to put around them to keep them warm!

Ok so for the gardeners out there here is what to plant this month (for temperate gardens!

Broad Beans
Cabbage
Carrots
Chives
Garlic
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mitzuna
Oregano
Pak/Bok Choy
Parsley
Peas/Snow peas
Radish
Rocket
Shallots
Silverbeet
Spinach
Swedes
Turnips

Happy Gardening, Remember if you have any questions feel free to ask either on this blog or the edible gardens facebook page!

Febs Harvest...What to Plant now....and snail/slugs and how to deal with them!

Well not quite sure what happened to our lovely summer weather....looks like we've gone headfirst into autumn. Both good and bad, i love seeing the leaves change colour but the onset of cold weather means that its time to the summer crops to end...and in with the winter veggies!

But before i get ahead of myself here are February's numbers!

41g Blueberries
113g Strawberries
2586g Tomatoes
33g Capsicum
252g Corn
78g Silver beet
467g Watermelon
170g Beans
166g Rhubarb
8g Herbs
327g Pepino
86g Fig

=4.327kg!


What to plant now

Temperate Climate

Asian veggies (bok choy, pak cho etc)
Beetroot
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrot
Cauliflower
Kohl Rabi
Leek
Lettuce
Onions
Peas
Snow Peas
Rhubarb
Shallots
Silver beet
Spinach
Spring Onion
Swede
Turnip
Zucchini

Snails and Slugs

Horrible things, and with the onset of colder weather they will be out in great numbers! So you may as well get a head start on them! Here are my top tips for dealing with snails and slugs

1. Beer Traps

These ones are fancy and i own a few of them. How they work is that you did a hole in the ground so that the base is level with the ground, Fill with some beer (they don't have a preference so stale beer or light beer should be fine!) Put the lid on and leave it. Check it every couple of days and scoop out the dead slugs and snails.

Turns out they love the smell and go get drunk and drown! If you aren't so keen on wasting your hard earned beer there are a couple of options. I did and experiment in may last year with a few different liquids. To see the results click on the link below.

http://pottedveggiegarden.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/spring-is-here.html

The beer traps i have are from a brand called 'slugga' and can be bought at bunnings warehouse for $6-$7 each

Otherwise make you own! Cut the bottom off a soft drink bottle and use that, just be sure to give it a cover of some sort.

2. Get out the torch, i would have to say this is the most effective way to get rid of snails (not so much slugs) When the season hits i am out every night for 10 minutes with my torch, a bucket filled with boiling hot water. I don't particularly like touching slugs and snails so i generally use an old pair of tweezers and go around picking them off my plants and dropping them in the bucket. This also helps you to notice how big the snail population is! Where do they hide?!?!?! Anyway, if you do this religiously for a week or two you can generally take some time off...

3. Copper tape. You can buy this from bunnings, it is from the brand 'slugga'. Its not cheap (because its copper) but the theory goes that if you put the tape down around the rim of your pot plants it will stop slugs and snails....bbbeeeecccaaauuussseeee....apparently it gives them something akin to an electric shock. I have had some success with this, unfortunately it doesn't work on earwigs which i had a problem with this year.

4. Iron phosphate Bait. If you feel the need to poison your slugs and snails then try this option instead of the usual metaldehyde bait. It is supposed to be non toxic and breaks down into the soil (where is doesn't do any damage to the soil as it actually occurs naturally there. I'm still not a big fan but......its an option

5. Sand Paper, this one i only just found out about the other day (from my daughters 'dirt girl world' dvd! So i have yet to test it. But its sounds pretty good, so what you do is cut out you own 'anti slug' rings from sheets of sandpaper (make it quite rough...maybe an 80 or so...you can pick up single sheets for under $1 from....you guessed it....bunnings lol). Make sure they are flush with the ground, the slugs and snails hate crawling over rough surfaces like this. They would prefer to avoid it, however if they are very determined and have a go they have to produce a lot more slime to do it safely, which dehydrates them :) win win...i think so!

6. Eggs shells, ash, Saw dust. These range in effectiveness. The crushed eggs shells essentially do the same job as the sandpaper...but you need alot of them. and have to replentish them regularly. The ash and saw dust dehydrate them...but some rain and they are smooshy or have washed away.

Thats all for today!
Happy Gardening

Cabbage White Butterfly

So...as it is time to sow your brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower etc) you need to be aware of several pests that they will undoubtably come across. The first will be cabbage white butterfly. Unfortunatly for you you they dont just eat cabbages...but every bassica! This is what they look like...

Then will come the eggs (the little yellow ones up the top), they are layed mostly on the underside of leaves but some will be on the top too.

Then the holes and caterpillers (they grow to be enormous!)

You can see the little caterpillers

End result=eaten, although only babies have been working on this one so far.

So your beautiful seedlings, that you just planted can end up like this really really quickly....so how to prevent it. You can go the unatural way and spray them with chemicals  :-( but i garden organically so here are a few tips

1. Save your used egg shells! Placing half eggs shells around you plants will help deter cabbage white butterfly! The butterflies think that this spot is already taken (by other cabbage white butterflies and leave it alone)

2. Builds habits/areas for predators (birds, lacewings, ladybirds etc). I will be building a bug hotel soon. Otherwise for birds have fresh water and nesting boxes

Simple Bug Hotel

Elaborate Bug Hotel

3. Check that your seedlings dont have eggs or caterpillers on it and then have a physical barrier around the plant

4. Go out there and rub off the eggs and pick off the caterpillers. If you have chickens or birds they can be a great treat...otherwise i go out with a bucket of hot soapy water and they have a swim

5. If your really getting desperate 'Dipel' is an approved organic insecticide. It is supposed to only affect caterpillers and not people or pets.

6. This one i havnt tried but apparently 1tbs Mollases to 1L water and 1tsp dishwashing liqued. Sprayed on both sides of the leaves works. Will have to try that :)

Well hopefully now you will be prepared for these little nasties!

Next Post will be on slugs and snails...ewww

January's Harvest and potting bench

Well January was an incredibly good month! Unearthed potatoes....finished the nectarines...got stuck in strawberries and blueberries! yummy! How good is it to have a proper summer...not like last year!

So here we are...the official numbers for jan

351g Strawberries
120g Nectarines
8g Raspberry
609g Blueberries!
852g Potatoes
139g Lettuce (more than that but adam doesnt weigh the lettuce he takes on his sandwiches)
107g Fig
36g Silverbeet
10g Kale
96g Eggplant (soo yummy fried!)
9g Spring Onion
187g Pepino (Small melon type fruit)
165g Corn
29g Beans
17g Capsicum
5.57KG Tomatoes!

With a grand total of

8.305KG!!!!

Things to Plant Now

So to help the gardeners out there i am going to start helping people know when is the right time to plant seeds! So for february in melbourne (and other temperate places) you should plant:

• Beans
• Beetroot
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Carrot
• Celery
• Leek
• Lettuce
• Potatoes (get them in quick)
• Radish
• Shallots
• Silverbeet
• Spring onion
• Swede
• Corn
• Zuccini

Autumn and Winter catch alot of gardners by surprise :) so they are under prepared and end up having not much of anything. Right now is when you need to be growing seedlings for all your winter crops like leek, carrots, cabbage and broccoli

Potting Bench

So for a while now ive been asking adam to build me a potting bench :) we got rid of our outdoor setting (was to big for the space) and so all my gardening stuff had been sitting on the ground! We got everything we needed from bunnings and started

Building

Building

Staining

Stained

Ready for use

This was when adam lost the drill bit...lol...we ended up getting it out with a magnet attatched to a loooong stake!

And some pics from the garden:

Australian Lime in flower

Teepee...ready for beans and snowpeas

Raspberries

Watermelon

Rainbow Chard (silverbeet)

Oh and last but not least...if you want to get my posts by email you can sign up on the right of screen :)

Summer and water saving

Well it certainly feels like summer...a big improvment on last year! The garden in going fantastic and we are picking many kilos of tomatoes each week :) i have even had a few rounds of drying tomatoes (have 2 plants that are a drying variety).

However as it is summer and i am having to water regularly (and now have a new fish tank to add to the water bill) we have implemented a few stratergies to try and reuse water.

1. we now have buckets in the bathroom which we put into the shower before we hop in while the water is heating up
2. I am forever washing my hands in the kitchen sink...from preparing food for my daughter and i. all this water was just flowing down the drain... so i now have a bucked in the sink to wash vegies in and my hands over

A while ago my neighbours came over to my house to see my garden (adams idea! i was so embarrased haha) and it inspired them to create gardens of their own! So for the last few weeks we have been trading produce! Beans for tomatoes, peaches for rhubarb. It been fantastic! As we can only grow a very small amount in our backyards we have managed to grow different things (completely by accident!)

November and December Harvest

Sorry about the delay :) was in a friends wedding and then christmas! Such a busy time of year. Hope you are all well an stayed safe during the silly season :)

November
116g Salad Mix
154g Rhubarb
51g Strawberry
261g Royal Blue Potatoes
8g Blueberries
3g White currants
25g Spring onion

Total: Not very much................................................i mean 618g

It may come as a surprise but spring is actually the hungry season! Its when your winter vegies are finished but theres nothing new around yet!

The rain for november was: 316mm


December
94g Blueberry
151g Rhubarb
1170g Nectarines :):):)
22g Strawberry
2787g Potatoes :D:D:D
282g Tomato (first for the season)
14g Beans

Total: 4.52kg!!!

Scabiosa Midnight...so pretty

Using small drawstring mesh bags to stop the birds getting at the fruit of raspberries and strawberries! Works so well

Pepino-first time it has fruited since i got it...small melon like fruit

Pennsylvanian Crookneck Pumpkin (Long butternut)

The little dirt patch surrounded by logs is another attempt to grow carrots- and the netted section at the back if for a second round of potatoes

Chiminea (sp?) that we got for christmas from my parents :)

Second and third pumpkin plant growing up their trellis

xx

October's Harvest :)

Numbers are in for october :) with a total of:

1.023KG!!!!

4g chives
25g rhubarb
536g lettuce (mixed: cos, mignonette, baby spinach....)
7g snow pea sprouts
448g spring onions
3g radish

:)

And some spring garden pics



Beautiful strawberry flower :)




Seedlings




Seedlings

Hope you all have spring gardens going :)