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Dale's Garden

Dale
Having an Impact

Dale's Garden

Hi everyone.  :smile:

 

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.

 

corn.jpg

"Do you like my ears?"

My corn has started forming ears.

 

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

 

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Spinach and Silverbeet harvest from a month ago.

 

 

 

 

Dale
Having an Impact

Re: Dale's Garden

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:

 

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Garlic......

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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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.  :smile:

 

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: Dale's Garden

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

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MartyH
Amassing an Audience

Re: Dale's Garden

Good work Dale. 

 

Yeah, my carrots often look something like this:

 

carrots.jpg

Dale
Having an Impact

Re: Dale's Garden

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.  :smile:

 

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.  :wink:

Dale
Having an Impact

Re: Dale's Garden

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.

 

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

 

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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.  :smile:

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

 

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

 

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

 

Re: Dale's Garden

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. 

 

Re: Dale's Garden

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

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Dale
Having an Impact

Re: Dale's Garden

@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.

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Dale
Having an Impact

Re: Dale's Garden

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

Re: Dale's Garden

Just adding a photo of the new garden bed.

 

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