Food Gardening

[manticle]

Finally got some good patches going after 4 months and a bit of work.

I was in a hurry to get stuff in the ground so my soil preparation was a bit naff.
Paying for it now with a constant battle against weeds and the soil is a bit dry and grey but most seeds I've planted seem to be coming up after a week or so.

Anyone got any tips on non herbicide methods of blackberry control? Got a bit growing here - I know I won't get rid of it and eating the occasional berry won't be too bad but that ****** needs to be restrained.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I emptied the last of my aged compost onto the garden beds and turned over the newer compost, a couple of cubic meters in a confined space, when I come to use it in autumn it will be half the amount.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Anyone got any tips on non herbicide methods of blackberry control? Got a bit growing here - I know I won't get rid of it and eating the occasional berry won't be too bad but that ****** needs to be restrained.

The only thing I know of is a goat, but it will eat everything else it comes across,I think most weed killers nowadays are neutralised when they hit the soil, not sure about Blackberry killer though.

 

[manticle]

I'd love to get a goat but the yard might not be big enough to be able to keep it away from everything else.
Maybe I can rent one?

Will have a look at some chemical options -the brambles are far away enough from everything else that I wouldn't be super concerned - it's more that I wouldn't mind eating some fresh blackberries.

 

[Danwood]

I was reading about a goat for sale in Richmond recently... think it's gone now, though.

 

[manticle]

Richmond, TAS?

Or VIC?

 

[Camo6]

A good 'low' toxin herbicide for blackberry is Brush Off or its equivalent. Not super effective on very young blackberry but great for bigger plants. Slow acting but gets right into the roots. Supposedly less harmful than fly spray but wouldn't rely on that. Otherwise, gloves, a fern hook and a whole lotta physical labour. Or a goat. But that might cause a bit of gossip with your neighbours. Better to be Manticle: the Great Blackberry Poisoner.

 

[Danwood]

Richmond, TAS?

Or VIC?

Nah, Victoria. It went to a Japanese buyer, I think.

 

[manticle]

I want a cordless goat I can pack away when it's not in use.

 

[Danwood]

Here's me, trying to be subtly topical, and you're just being silly.

And anyway, there's no reason why you couldn't pack away a corded goat just as easily as a cordless one.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

http://goat-simulator.com/

 

[spog]

I'd love to get a goat but the yard might not be big enough to be able to keep it away from everything else.
Maybe I can rent one?
Will have a look at some chemical options -the brambles are far away enough from everything else that I wouldn't be super concerned - it's more that I wouldn't mind eating some fresh blackberries.

Sodium perc ? Biodegradable and gets rid of nasties in the brewery so it might sort a nasty in the yard.

 

[Airgead]

My FIL used to have a flamethrower type arrangement that he used to burn blackberries out of gullies. That would be effective. And fun. Almost as much fun as a goat.

 

[manticle]

You could roast the goat at the same time.

 

[Dave70]

Finally got some good patches going after 4 months and a bit of work.

I was in a hurry to get stuff in the ground so my soil preparation was a bit naff.
Paying for it now with a constant battle against weeds and the soil is a bit dry and grey but most seeds I've planted seem to be coming up after a week or so.

Anyone got any tips on non herbicide methods of blackberry control? Got a bit growing here - I know I won't get rid of it and eating the occasional berry won't be too bad but that ****** needs to be restrained.

I've had good results destroying bastard lantana creeping into my yard by taking a 25mm spade bit drill to the thickest part of the trunk I could find, boring in about 50mm and filling the hole with one of the top selling glyphosate herbicides. Neat. Shes on the way out after three weeks.
Had to do this covertly as technically the trunk is still on my neighbors land. But he's not interested in keeping it tidy so bugger him. The whispering pines will be the next to go.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

You can drill little holes into a tree and squirt some Roundup into the hole that will kill it.

 

[Dave70]

You can drill little holes into a tree and squirt some Roundup into the hole that will kill it.

Thats the plan for the pines as the trunk is to far to reach with the Makita..

 

[Camo6]

My neighbours gigantic cypress that overhangs 4 metres over my backyard will be getting a bit of glyphopuncture to help it cope with the upcoming El Niño.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Thats the plan for the pines as the trunk is to far to reach with the Makita..

You need a cordless DeWalt

 

[Dave70]

You need a cordless DeWalt

The drill isn't the problem. By 'to far' I mean I cant stretch my arm far enough through the pig wire fence. Id hate to be labeled as some kind of neighborhood tree killer if sprung.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Thats the plan for the pines as the trunk is to far to reach with the Makita..

Cable tie the Makita to the front of this

Note: Also a very effective machine for removing lantana

 

[Lincoln2]

As per a cracker tip from WEAL earlier (with youtube vid and everyfing) I decided to plant my August taters in pots. I was a bit late but - maybe early Sept.

Seed taters at our local produce cost $3.60/kg which gets you a good number of chitting sebagos.

They ******* went OFF! I filled the pot to 1/3 with potting mix and planted. I've already added a mix of compost and sugar cane mulch to 2/3rds and then to full, about 10 days apart for each hilling, that's how fast they took off.

Re the bottom left: I cut the bottom out of a pot and placed it on top of the full pot to get a double pots worth of crop. I thought I'd invented a genius idea but apparently it's been done before.

I may have accidentally over crowded a few pots but as this is an experiment I was willing to take a few chances.

These were the biggest pots I could find in town and I'm already planning a trip to the big smoke (Lismore) to source bigger pots for the Feb planting.

I'll post more pics at harvest.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I planted mine about the same time but in the mushroom compost in 30 litre pots with 3 spuds in each as per video, final topping was some of the compost from my own heap, not got flowers yet but have just started to bud, been feeding them with tomato plant fertilizer as I suspect the guy in the video was doing to get such a big crop.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Old tyres are really good to

Just keep putting another on and filling with compost and straw, water with powerfeed/fish emulsion once a week

 

[spog]

I once put seaweed on my vegies and wow did they take off,If you want to do it don't get caught.Apparently taking it from the beach is very naughty.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Its the bomb that seaweed. Friends on the coast swear by it

Best liquid fertilizer is a big cherry barrel filled with everything from horse **** to fish frames, seaweed, dead cats, anything, than let it ferment up.

I cup in a watering can every week

 

[wide eyed and legless]

That Powerfeed is good stuff but I wouldn't be recommending for tubers or root crops, to much nitrogen,makes lots of foliage at the expense of what is growing underground.
As there doesn't seem to be any specific fertilizers for the eggplant, chili, bell peppers and potatoes I just go with the tomato feed lower nitrogen and phosphorous higher potassium 3-3-4.5.

 

[spog]

I believe seaweed extract is more of a soil conditioner than a fertilizer.

 

[Mardoo]

I believe seaweed extract is more of a soil conditioner than a fertilizer.

Yep, discovered that after "fertilising" my hops for two years with seaweed extracts. Boy did they take off after I actually started fertilising them!