stories from the veggie patch

[Green rv]

revamped the veggie patch a few weeks ago
and its kicking ass. atm.

doing things a little different this season
bulk planting
i will end up with an overabundance of stuff but share it with the neighbours and friends
will get some pics of the rest of the yard maybe in the arvo so it not so gleary

in these boxes i have
broccoli
lettuce
beetroot
rocket
silverbeet
snow peas
+ something else but can't remember
the middle box was at times a fish pond with barra and bass + some others
and a turtle pond
it also has solar on the roof for charging 2 x 120 ah batteries for the camper



 

Adam

[Vitara_JaycoSwift_Outback]

Great set up 

[Azz]

Looks great. You will get so much produce out of there.

[dales133]

nice garden.
Reminds me i better do some planting.
All the herbs i planted lat year that were a bit dormant over winter have lept back into life.
Hopefuly its a good season

[D4D]

Looks great, I must get some planting done soon.

I like your retaining wall too!

[Green rv]

Looks great, I must get some planting done soon.

I like your retaining wall too!

what a mission that wall was
built it during the 2011 floods so was held up a lot. the whole wall weighed about 35 tons.
its amazing what 2 men and a shovel can do. actually i bought a engine crane and two hand trolleys. welded the hand trolley wheels onto the engine crane, to move them about the yard. at least 1 of the boulders weighed in at 750 kg
still haven't finished it just a few meters left, ran out of rocks.

Adam

[Steffo1]

Nice setup Adam.
We have a slightly different arrangement but still some raised beds. Our main problem is not caterpillars or the like but our resident possums. They must be the healthiest in Qld. Our oranges come under attack from Rainbow Lorries which peck a hole through the skin big enough to get their head in & eat it from the inside. Quite a few times we've thought there has been a few fruit on only to find it's a hollow husk!
Some of our recent produce.

[Green rv]

Nice Steffo

good variety of  fruit & veg.
i have a resident possum too.
i must get in and clear the back out so i can grow some melons.


Adam

[Trailer Bloke]

Very good can't beat fresh out of the garden vegetables 

[Jeepers Creepers]

Geez Adam, from a mower man's point of view......  are you friggin crazy.

All those edges and crap to mow around..... ffffttttt.

[WilSurf]

Nice.
We are thinking of getting an aquaponics system.

[plusnq]

Looking good.

[jayjay]

Great thread- especially at this time of year!!
Looks good Adam, nothing like getting your hands dirty and enjoying the rewards of your labours!
I am doing a major revamp of my patch- brand new raised sleeper beds, all ready for full-on attack.
Am thinking of doing the no-dig newspaper/ straw/compost thing rather than straight soil- with wicking underneath, to eliminate the need for daily watering (so we can go camping for a few days in warmer weather    and the garden not dehydrate too much).
Any swaggers out there with any experience or stories to tell re this??

Am trying to post a pic - but having lots of trouble, so apologies if it's not there......

[jayjay]

Hey, I did it!!!
Post a pic, that is!  Not bad for a dinosaur!!

[Green rv]

Geez Adam, from a mower man's point of view......  are you friggin crazy.

All those edges and crap to mow around..... ffffttttt.

haven't finished yet at some stage i will get some deco and put a mow strip along the wall and around the patches.
still as is only takes 1/2 hour to mow and snip.

Nice.
We are thinking of getting an aquaponics system.

i was trying that myself,
when i had the fish pond 2000ltr in the middle it had a watering system to water the veggie patch. but i kept getting bad algae plumes, so i put the roof on to reduce the light, to no avail.
had that system running for over 3 years, and the fish got quite big 30+ cm (4-7cm when i got them)
most of the system ran off 12v solar but also added a 240v  bilge pump on a timer.
this added heaps of oxygen and flow to the water and the fish seem to like it too.

i then derigged that and turned it into a micro eco system, with turtles and fish but a lot less water about 800ltr.
had that running real good, then someone pinched one of the turtles (would tell the kids it was hiding)
it had a water plant filter that ran down a waterfall , then ran through a gravel filter and water the plants.
in both systems as i watered the plants i would then top the pond back up.

i do believe the aquaponics system you buy / make, would be a lot less maintenance compared to what i had.
but mine was more about the visual than practical.


Adam

[Green rv]

Great thread- especially at this time of year!!
Looks good Adam, nothing like getting your hands dirty and enjoying the rewards of your labours!
I am doing a major revamp of my patch- brand new raised sleeper beds, all ready for full-on attack.
Am thinking of doing the no-dig newspaper/ straw/compost thing rather than straight soil- with wicking underneath, to eliminate the need for daily watering (so we can go camping for a few days in warmer weather    and the garden not dehydrate too much).
Any swaggers out there with any experience or stories to tell re this??

Am trying to post a pic - but having lots of trouble, so apologies if it's not there......

Thanks JayJay
i wish i had spent the extra and got some nice looking sleepers like yours

im not into the no dig system
my gardens now look like soil but started as wood chip mainly
i always make mounds to plant in and fill the divots with sugar cane mulch
after each year i dig in some extra mulch and pine bark chip(soft fall) this helps keep air pockets in the soil and retain moisture.

this year i added too one of the patches as it was getting low

1/4 meter of mushroom compost
1/4 meter soft fall
1/2 bag of sugar cane mulch
bit of worm compost
(note that if you want to grow from seed this mix may be a bit coarse but will be ok next crop)
i dont normally need to add this much, norm is 1 x bag soft fall 1/3 bag sugarcane per year per patch

other half a bag of sugar cane to mulch the top


Adam

[Steffo1]

Great thread- especially at this time of year!!
Looks good Adam, nothing like getting your hands dirty and enjoying the rewards of your labours!
I am doing a major revamp of my patch- brand new raised sleeper beds, all ready for full-on attack.
Am thinking of doing the no-dig newspaper/ straw/compost thing rather than straight soil- with wicking underneath, to eliminate the need for daily watering (so we can go camping for a few days in warmer weather    and the garden not dehydrate too much).
Any swaggers out there with any experience or stories to tell re this??

Am trying to post a pic - but having lots of trouble, so apologies if it's not there......

I got 2 ton of mushroom compost ( where the mushies in the pics came from) & mixed it with soil & our own compost.
Our soil here is very shaley & so difficult to turn but has a lot of nutrients so fair's fair I suppose. I found that to get a good compost going moisture content is the key. Too much or too little & it won't break down as it should. We're on tank water so I have to be a bit careful with my water use. I have a sheet of clear elsonite which I cover the bins with in heavy rain.
We just keep topping up the raised beds with the mix & mixing it with the natural ground in the other gardens.
I make up 2 x 44 gal drums of Seasol for the fruit trees. It can be a lot of hard yakka but the fruits of the labour are worth it.
Good Luck
Steve

p.s. the plastic garden edging is not successful!

[Green rv]

p.s. the plastic garden edging is not successful!

good to know i have been thinking of doing that

what's the plant in the last pic? will take a guess finger lime vanilla bean

and your cheating your yards a bit bigger than your standard block
but very impressive


Adam

[Bird]

What the **** did you feed that Red Onion on!

[Steffo1]

good to know i have been thinking of doing that

what's the plant in the last pic? will take a guess finger lime vanilla bean

Adam

They're broad beans & we lost a few to..............................our kookaburras! They would strip the shell off & eat the innards. We chased them off a few times but to no avail. Fake owls don't work either!
Photo shows aftermath.

[fishfinder]

Had a truck deliver 4 cubes of that dirty black gritty stuff to poke seeds in earlier this week. Pulled out the old shovel and transferred the stuff into the corrugated steel raised garden beds I put up about 6 months ago. So this morning, when the kids wake up, I will get them to put the seeds in the black stuff that is in the raised garden beds and hopefully we will have cherry tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, strawberry, carrots, capsicum, coriander, cucumber and some other green eating things.

If I have problems with birds I will get some reo bar, poly pipe and some netting to stop them and in the colder months replace the netting with clear plastic to turn it into a pot hot house , but not sure what to do with possums if they re appear.

On the instructions on the back of the seed packet it says to feed them Me thinks they mite starve as my wife is not much of a cook.

[WilSurf]

We bit the bullet last week and bought an aquaponics system.
Last Saturday we filled up the grow beds, washed she dust off, did the plumbing.
Earlier this week we filled up the 1000 liter fish tank and tested the plumbing: no leaks.
Yesterday the fish went in, 20 baby silver perches. If you look very closely you can see them.

[Steffo1]

Now that's a good set up mate. Are you sure you don't have any herons or the like in your area
Please keep us posted on the results.
Steve

[Green rv]

nice bit of kit wilsurf
interested how long it takes the fish to get some size to them


Adam

[WilSurf]

They say round 18 months to plate size.
As I am not a great fish eater (those bones has put me off when I was little) we haven't gone for Barramundi / Trout.
Next Saturday we will try to get some nice koi as well.