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^ dunno about that,I'm not opening any of those links ^.
The last one asking for an essay on wanking is a bit much !....ohh hang on, puts glasses on,ohh walking.
Silly me.
 
wide eyed and legless said:
Pea straw is great as a mulch, don't worry about the peas sprouting they will be putting nitrogen back into the soil plus you can eat the peas, maybe wouldn't be a good look in the front garden. Personally I use the sugar cane mulch as it seems to get the worms moving probably because there a traces of sugar still in there. The absolute best mulch I have used, and the cheapest was dag ends off the sheep, benefit of the shit still on the wool and the wool breaking down itself releases amino acids into the soil another plus is the worms and microbes love it I paid $20 for a bale weight around 200 + kilo.

Dusting the veg with Derris dust a natural insecticide from some sort of bean, got taken off the market once before but now it is back so I am not sure whether it is safe, they advertise it as 'natures way' does kill most bugs and caterpillars.

If your starting with a blank canvas shaunous I would be looking at Aquaculture especially if you have the space, I was thinking of starting from scratch next year but I have to many established fruit trees I would have to take out, plus I have started working again so I will be time poor :unsure:
Will PM you when I find my invoices of where I bought the mesh and poly, the floor I rolled out with shade cloth from eBay heavy duty and cheaper than Bunnings.
Maybe I will look into aquaculture, i do have several of them 1000l bulkies or pallet tanks, whatever you want to call them and people seem to be using them.
I don't want a massive greenhouse, only enough to keep a family going really. My spot I like is about 2x5m. I could put it somewhere else on the 330acres but I'd like it with my developing garden now if possible.

The vineyard is kicking into life, and I didn't touch it all winter, so now I'll have to try train one shoot and leave the others to hang. My plan was to prune back and use the cuttings to fill in spots where I lost plants last year (because I planted cuttings then went on a 2 week boys trip to the Cape and let the cuttings fend for themselves). I failed
 
shaunous said:
Maybe I will look into aquaculture, i do have several of them 1000l bulkies or pallet tanks, whatever you want to call them and people seem to be using them.
I don't want a massive greenhouse, only enough to keep a family going really. My spot I like is about 2x5m. I could put it somewhere else on the 330acres but I'd like it with my developing garden now if possible.

The vineyard is kicking into life, and I didn't touch it all winter, so now I'll have to try train one shoot and leave the others to hang. My plan was to prune back and use the cuttings to fill in spots where I lost plants last year (because I planted cuttings then went on a 2 week boys trip to the Cape and let the cuttings fend for themselves). I failed
Have you looked at Geothermal greenhouse to heat or cool and grow plants out of season.
 
Shaunous, as promised help with a hydro system, I am putting in a 10 pot gravity fed hydro system cost around $100, pots $2.50, pot saucers $3.00 valve is the dearest item $27, a reservoir, I used a 60 litre dustbin from Bunnings length of 4mm hose, a 4mm filter and a hand full of grommets.
Will get another dustbin just for plain water for the hot days.
IMG_0516.jpg
Valve

IMG_0523.jpg
Pot and saucer with grommet.

IMG_0519.jpg

Pots, obviously must be level for the water feed from the valve to all the pots, 5x4mm cross barb fittings and it would be an advantage to have a 4mm stop valve for each pot.
Hope this helps and you don't have the headache of using a pump.
The black shade cloth you have could be a bit of a problem for veggies.

Lot of good 'how to tips' videos on this site for all gardening info.
https://www.growveg.com.au/gardening-videos.aspx
 
Finally, back in my own garden this arvo, harvested the remaining beetroot from this bed, will be pickled tomorrow, strangely my wife simply adores pickled beetroot, I doubt she hasn't got a top without beetroot stains down the front.
IMG_0530.jpg
Something has been nibbling my neeps strung some netting around to stop the birds getting in and laid a few traps around the base, doubt whether I will catch anything, not as I want to, (live and let live), they are probably indigenous rats.
IMG_0528.jpg
After the beetroot harvested laid black plastic over bed to heat the soil up for the dwarf beans, don't do as I did once put the beans in under the plastic, cooked the beans.
IMG_0531.jpg
 
Did my beds this week

Going

Corn, cucumber, watermellon in same bed

Climbing beans and carrots in another bed

Black Russian & Tom Toms in another

Plus the usual herbs and chillies ( Going to just go only Tabasco this year and make a shit load of sauce )
 
wide eyed and legless said:
Finally, back in my own garden this arvo, harvested the remaining beetroot from this bed, will be pickled tomorrow, strangely my wife simply adores pickled beetroot, I doubt she hasn't got a top without beetroot stains down the front.

As I tell my wife; you can beat an egg but you can't beat a root.



Can't wait to get home and see the progress of my hops and seedlings.

@Melbournites: how was the weather in Melbourne the last couple of days?
 
I've finally had some good success with tomatoes this year. Here's what was picked just today from a no dig dirt patch I set up earlier in the year. I think I could have got the Money Makers a bit bigger with more frequent watering but I'm pretty stoked, not much fruit fly damage either. I think I got the timing pretty good for doing most of the harvest before it gets too hot.

Tomato Harvest Oct 2016.jpg
Money Makers Oct 2016.jpg
 
My tom's haven't even started flowering yet. Where are you? FNQ?
 
Brisbane. I planted them at least 3 months ago and thought they wouldn't do well with the cold but it gave them a good headstart for when the weather warmed up.
 
I think Bris has had a warm winter this year? I've been growing tomatoes and chillies in Kyogle all winter, which is great considering that even on Bribie Island they would die back over winter.

All my food waste - including meat, bones etc goes into the compost and I get a heap of volunteer seedlings pop up.
A bunch of tomato plants came up, obviously just from one fruit, so I split them up and planted to see what variety.

They turned out to be Roma style - probably Aldi, and clearly they are bred for yield, yield, yield. Will be interesting to see how the flavour goes.

tomatoplants 1.jpg

tomatoplants 2.jpg
 
Bribie G said:
including meat, bones
Stop it. The maggots don't deserve to eat that well.
Blanch em, roast em and make some hearty beef stock instead. Then maby some pho.
 
Cauliflower was a success this year after 2 years of failures,I've still got some small ones coming on but the weather is starting to warm up they might fail.
But here's 2 of a crop of 5 that will be blanched and frozen, chuffed that I finally succeeded in growing them.
.image.jpeg
This getting as addictive as homebrewing!
 
manticle said:
After stock is made, bones make good fertiliser. I do the same.
I grind them bones to make my bread.
 
shaunous said:
Dave Loves the Bone... [emoji6][emoji6][emoji6]
Come on big boy, you know the old saying. 'The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat'.
 
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