Dale's Garden

Hi everyone. 🙂

I've got a bit of a vegie garden going. Basically, we have the space, I enjoy growing my own food, and it's a great way to get the kids to eat vegies (nothing better than eating what YOU grew). I also like taking close up photos of the vegies as they grow. I find it's amazing what you can see when you look really closely.

"Do you like my ears?"

My corn has started forming ears.

Growing Blackjacks (zuchini)..... one plant can produce up to 4 a week.

Spinach and Silverbeet harvest from a month ago.

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Comments

Jason

Welcome to Workshop @Dale.

Your vegies look fantastic, well done. Many thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to reading your tips.

Jason

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/75#Comment_75

Thanks @Jason.

Last night I was cooking sweet and sour chicken. Just a Kan Tong jar, nothing fancy. But I love the fact I can just walk out to the garden, pick a zucchini or capsicum or squash, and within 2 minutes have it in the wok.

That's the best thing about having your own vegie patch. You cannot get any fresher. All that flavour and goodness is all there. Coles and Woolies vegies taste like cardboard compared to home grown. 🙂

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/62413#Comment_62413

I picked the first of the tomatoes last night. It hasn't been warm enough for them to vine-ripen so I'm storing them for a week to finish off reddening.

Also facing an issue of yellowing zucchini. They grow nicely for a few days then the end starts to yellow. The yellow bits stop growing but the rest of the zucchini keeps growing. Googling the issue it looks like it's due to poor polination. The recommended action is to take a male flower and rub the stamin into and around the insides of the female flower. This should ensure good polination.

Will be trying this with interest.

bluebec

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/93693#Comment_93693

Hi @Dale

I get the same issue with my pumpkins. I have to manually pollinate all the flowers or I won't get any pumpkins at all. Bad design fault there.

I haven't had any luck with getting zucchinis to grow in my vegie garden, I'll try again next year.

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/113137#Comment_113137

A new batch of zucchini starting. I've got about 7 female heads and 3 or 4 males. I'll have to keep watch for the flowers and do the manual polination.

Three ears of corn in progress and heaps of tomatoes on the vine. The toms I picked the other day are starting to redden in their container.

Carrots and lettuce taking a while to get going though. Onions you can almost watch growing. 🙂

Fyre

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/124141#Comment_124141

Pollination issues are common in areas that might suffer from bad air quality (like where I live) if the pollination is insect spread.

Side note: You can help the pollination process with corn with a small paint brush. Rub the brush in the pollen (tassels at the top of the plant) and then brush it on the long fibers coming out from the corn ear. Make sure you give them all a good coat as each of those fibers links to one kernel of corn. Repeat each day for a week and you will have big, juicy corn cobs in a few weeks.

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/131469#Comment_131469

Never had issues growing corn, but thanks for the tip. 🙂

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/135931#Comment_135931

So after what I would say is the most successfull tomato crop I've ever grown, it looks like it's coming to the end for these vines. The weather has hit them a lot in the last few days and there's no new flowers coming up.

The corn has flopped, only have a couple of ears that are filling in. The zucchinis are still going but still having trouble growing them to full size.

Might be time to start preparing the beds for the autumn crops.

Jason

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/139003#Comment_139003

What are you planting for autumn @Dale?

Jason

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/141060#Comment_141060

Well Autumn (or Fall depending on your persuasion) is here, and with it comes a great time in the garden. Autumn is mostly about "under the ground" vegies.

I've only got one of my beds going so far, will get the other going over the school hols, but we have:

Garlic......

Onions......... (and you can see a couple of late lettuce too)

Big juicy carrots...........

Green beans...........

My strawberry bucket is going gang-busters!

You'll also see my kids have made up some pots of their own, with my daughter's "mixed flowers" on the left, and my younger son's sunflowers on the right. My eldest son has claimed the carrots. 🙂

Jason

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/142599#Comment_142599

Great work @Dale, many thanks for sharing.

How do you go with your carrots? I've had the same problem as @MartyH mentioned here - they grow into crazy shapes. I think it's because the soil is too compacted.

Jason

MartyH

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/142599#Comment_142599

Good work Dale.

Yeah, my carrots often look something like this:

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/143694#Comment_143694

As you can see from my photos, the mix I use is fairly course. I also only ever use a general purpose throw on and forget fertilizer. I think my secret to keeping good loose mix is I pretty much run a worm farm in each garden bed.

You know those big wooden fruit bins (http://www.rbli.co.uk/_img/pics/jpg_1395931249.jpg), with the high sides and stuff? I fill up to halfway with blocks, then black plastic the walls and new floor (halfway up). Then I put my mix in the bins. The mix is a mixture of half the previous seasons mix, quarter straw and old grass clippings (stored in a compost bin for a few months), I then sprinkle an entire worm farm over the lot, then top up with fresh commercial vegie mix. The height of the bins also means no leaning over or kneeling for me. Even the kids get into it. I put big casters on the bottom of the bins so I can wheel them to sunlight, shade or mix quite easily.

I got no idea what's in the commercial vegie mix I get. My wife's uncle is a market gardener and I get it from him. 🙂

Vegies are pretty harsh on the bed they're in, so I do this every 6 months. My worm farm is just a simple black plastic tub (must be black so no light gets inside and the plastic absorbs heat to keep the inside humid for the rotting scraps). I'll pour the entire worm farm into a bed, worms and all. The worms will help keep the bed "light and fluffy" I suppose. Having the worm farm and soil about halfway through must promote deep roots and long carrots because I've not had problems with stumpy vegies.

BTW, my baby carrots usually look like the above pic. 😉

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/144516#Comment_144516

Okay so it's been about a month since my last photos of my autumn garden bed. Time for an update I think. Here's a couple of shots. Great to compare with photos above a few weeks after planting from seed.

Need to look at putting another row of string for training the beans.

Notice how long and straight the root is. This is a great sign so I'm hoping to get some long, straight carrots out of this crop. 🙂

BTW, see discussion above on how I get long straight carrots.

Lettuce is starting to fill in. Tastes sooooooo good already! Can't resist picking bits off the leaves whilst I'm out there. haha.

Onions are starting to look good. Thought these are usually in for the long term.

timjeffries

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/145122#Comment_145122

I've got snow peas, sugar snap peas, garlic and not much else yet. My tomatoes only just finished and I've got a bunch of capsicums that are still going! I always find it difficult to pull the pin on the summer veggies.

Jason

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/145596#Comment_145596

The weather has been so unusually warm @timjeffries, I'm sure your capsicums still think its summer.

Looking forward to seeing your winter harvest when they get going.

Jason

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/145963#Comment_145963

@Jason, you're not wrong about the warmth.

I picked my first autumn lettuce today. And tomorrow I'm going to get another bed planted with broccoli, spinach and more carrots.

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/146258#Comment_146258

So yesterday I planted another bed. 2 rows each of spinach and broccoli, and a row of carrots.

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/146507#Comment_146507

Just adding a photo of the new garden bed.

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/146715#Comment_146715

This wierd weather this last week has certainly agreed with two things. My brocolli seeds and "meadow mushrooms" growing in the back lawn.

This is about half of this batch. Normally get mushrooms growing right through to July in our back lawn. Boscaiola for dinner tonight!

QuailFlock

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/141060#Comment_141060

Next year try to plant some flowers to attract the bees. You may include some edible flowers too.
I add the edible flowers to the salad and they are always a good conversation starter in a dinner party.

Happy gardening!

Andy_Mann

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/143693#Comment_143693

G'day Jason & MartyH

Our attempt at growing carrots resulted in distorted stumpies like yours. I googled around & found that the carrot is sort of the root system, & that too much fertilising makes them lazy.

I think Dale's onto it with his deep loose soil & natural goodness from the worms.

Dale

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/144521#Comment_144521

I've done the first thining of the carrots. OMG they taste fantastic! We had chicken stir fry tonight. 😉

Jason

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/145126#Comment_145126

Hey @Dale,

It's been a while since we've heard from you. How's your garden going?

Jason

Helen

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/141060#Comment_141060

Enjoyed this discussion. My veg garden is looking very sad, I off to Bunnings to get blood & bone etc. check out seedlings for autumn planting. Water tank near full, having some rain as well, feeling inspired to get on!

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