hi all im new too and got some great tips so far from here and its nice friendly refreshing thread , not sure if its any use to anyone but i heard that plants that are stressed and rootbound when bought they tend to go to seed faster so check underneath the pot if roots all sticking out they will go to seed faster!
tom293,
Dec 4, 9:04pm
Hibeen planting for a while just trying something I have heard about recently and thats growing certain veges upside down, just interested to see what they do
soc_butterfly,
Dec 4, 9:35pm
Hi Tom, had seen a thread a few months back about upside down gardening, general concensus seemed to be that it was fun to try but no better than normal gardening.Keep us informed of ur experience!
My lawn is growing so fast with all this bloomin rain grrr!I've dragged out my hand mower to try and do it myself, the lawn man is getting mighty expensive 2 weekly!
Trouble is it's still wet and too thick really for the hand mower *sighs* oh well I'll persevere to save some money.Also pulled out the line trimmer, petrol powered and rather hard on the arm muscles I must say!
stevee6,
Dec 4, 11:09pm
Buzzy - ty for that. I'll put some in next September and see how they go. Meanwhile I'll put in some brassica seeds next month to start off my plants for winter. Here's hoping!
skye7,
Dec 5, 12:00am
Returned home (Southland) this week and wow the garden has taken off. Everything is looking fantastic.
Potatoes are huge and flowering, lettuces are being used, beans and peas yummy.the biggest surprise is my corn plants are massive as are my pumpkins.
I do have cabbage and cauliflower plants which are a bit of a mystery they are huge but don't appear to have any hearts!
Today has been a day of wedding and I have loved it, great stress relief!
spud111,
Dec 5, 8:15pm
Hi Is it to late to start growing potatoes!
stevee6,
Dec 9, 7:32pm
LOL not killed it, quite! Everything here is growing at a great rate, weeds included. I finally pulled out my big broccoli plants - the yellow flowers were so pretty it was only when my zucchini underplanted started to look yellow that I bit the bullet. Spinach is doing wonderfully too - I cut half the plants back to the ground as someone told me it brought on the new leaves - we'll see. The tomato plants are rocketting away - it can't be too long before flowers start to form now. Peas - what can I say! Sweet and millions of them! I've started a new batch of seeds as well - can't have too many pea shoots in salads. We bandicooted a feed from our Jersey Benne potatoes - yummm. They seem to be getting brown patches on the leaves so the rest'll get harvested for our New Year's dinner leaving the bed clear for the new season's brassicas. Berries are doing wonderfully - been eating loads of strawberries and the wee alpines too, and had a few of the red, white and black currants too. I put a couple of melon plants in amongst the berries and so far they're doing well. Still small though. And my passionfruit vine has had its first flower!
wandering_sloth,
Dec 9, 10:56pm
im sooooo friggin excited
today i harvested my FIRST crop from the vegie garden - brocolli and silverbeet. Ok silverbeet is easy lol, but brocolli . its so pretty, i didnt want to cut it up. But i did, and the stalk is *really* crisp and crunchy compared to shop bought. Am going to steam it just right
wandering_sloth,
Dec 9, 11:48pm
so i cooked the silverbeet up in a little butter
why on EARTH did it smell like marijuana cabbage!! hahahaha EWW
skye7,
Dec 10, 12:48am
No secret. So far all I have done is plant it and watch it grow. I have some outside and some in the tunnel house. Tunnel house is growing rapidly and the outside ones are growing but slower than the tunnel house. Will let you know if we have success
hoonguek,
Dec 10, 3:37am
silverbeet - i stir fry mine in oyster sauce. yum
naturalkiwi,
Dec 11, 6:56pm
Hi all you fellow mud-grubbers!Have to share my favourite way to grow lettuce. I learned this from the Prof on Maggie's Garden Show:
Mark out roughly a metre square area of garden - or as much space as you want it to take up Randomly scatter a packet of mesculin mix lettuce seeds over the square. Lightly cover it, and apart from watering and thinning out a bit as they come up, leave it alone.
Get out with the scissors and snip off handfuls when you want a salad.
It sure makes salads quick and simple, and keeps growing for ages.We have two squares, and plant them roughly two weeks apart so we have continuous summer salads.
naturalkiwi,
Dec 13, 6:47pm
Hi again!Sorry to be slow replying.We've only done the lettuce square in summer until now (we're onto our 4th lot this season), but we've been given (yes, given!) an enormous polytunnel, so we're going to give it a go over winter in there and see what happens.Remind me to keep you posted!
buzzy110,
Dec 13, 7:09pm
mmm. Will probably work good but how many people really eat salad in the winter! I know I keep thinking I'll eat it year round, but come winter and the nesting instinct takes over and out goes summer salads and in comes soups, stews and hot foods.
What I want to do this year is have at least four or five big, firm hearted cabbages ready for picking around March. I'll put these down in my sauerkraut crock and they, along with fermented red cabbage 'coleslaw' and fermented carrots and beetroots, will be my only 'salad foods.
So I have to figure out how to ensure I have a crop of carrots, beetroot, cabbages, red cabbage and celery all ready for preserving for winter. Already I am starting to panic. Wish I was more experienced at this. Lucky me, I have gotten on talking terms with the local Chinese market gardener and he, like all gardeners, is a mine of useful information and he is so willing to share. He is my new best friend. lol
shopaholic76,
Dec 14, 5:17am
What an awesome thread I am a newby also (must be something in the water!) am just loving the whole experience it is sooo amazing to see stuff that you planted growing and getting little vegies and fruits.have done seedlings and from seed. also experimenting with massive homemade planter boxers of herbs, look stunning on the deck and thought would be great when bbquing as I will have ingredients to hand. I have planted miniutre rose bush and marigolds around my herbs and tomatoes which not only looks fab but also seems to be doing the trick as my toms are fruiting after only planting a few weeks ago.sooo exciting. Thanks for the cool thread I will be reading and learning
mariner51,
Dec 15, 4:42pm
A good tip for beans:
Many people complain that they plant beans and they "don't come up". But what usually happens is that slugs and snails eat them as they emerge, or birds pluck off the tops before they even start to put out the first leaves. - If you take a look you will find the remaining shoot below ground level.
I protect mine by cutting the tops of 1.5 litre soft drink bottles just below the shoulder and place these (not the bottoms) over each runner bean seed. It keeps the snails out and the birds off. When they are about to out grow the bottles I take them off.
foursisters,
Dec 15, 5:24pm
Hi there - I'm new to growing strawberries and have been told to trim off any runners for better fruiting. Can I use these for new plants and if so does anyone please know how I should go about it. At the moment I have them in a glass of water! Thanks
buzzy110,
Dec 16, 3:08pm
Caulis -I have been told, and I have read it in another thread, that you need to fold the leaves over the flower head as it is growing. This keeps it looking lovely and white and probably helps to deter butterflies coming in and laying their eggs on it. At least, if they do lay eggs it will be on top of the leaves rather than the precious cauli itself.
I have also heard that you need to be careful when using grass clippings as mulch as if it is laid on too thick, it warms up and burns your plants so maybe you were lucky to only have enough for a thin covering this time. Also, as the clippings aren't 'cooked' there will be a lot of seeds so I hope you don't have too much weeding to do.
lythande1,
Dec 16, 11:33pm
Onions, leeks, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts, caulis, spring onions, silver beet and spinach are all easy enough to grow anywhere.
Tomatoes, dwarf beans and corn are iffy. Last year was Southlands non-summer (we had snow on 5th Nov and it stayed cloudy all summer) and everyone I know had a failure with corn and tomatoes. The tomatoes did grow - but outside the couldn't ripen in time to beat the frosts. The corn was miserable and struggled. Frosts last till October, occasionally November. They start again in April. Early April. So you need a glasshouse. Or, as I don't have one, and saw a dismal failure among those here who do, give up and grow them indoors under a grow light. Now I can grow them all year round, couldn't care less if it snows. Beans we left this year until November to plant, so they're ok this year. Last year we had to try twice and even then didn't get a lot off them. It all depends on what happens with the weather here, and our growing season is so short compared with most parts of the North Island. I know - I've lived in both. So while success happens, so can failure and it's misleading to say it's not a problem ever. A glasshouse is only warmer than the outside temp by a percentage. If its way too cold, even then the glasshouse won't help. You could use heating in it of course. I find the indoor thing a better option, warm in winter from our woodburner.
On the other hand, the positives are no blight, no molds, the soil is great, no clay either and lots of things grow well here. Like swedes, leeks, raspberries, all the things that are better for having sat in frost for a while. Leeks are perfect for late autumn, they stop growing and sit happily all winter in snow, hail and frost. Pick at leisure and they resume growing in spring, so you can time it for a fresh burst when nothing else is ready too. Potatoes and carrots are amazingly easy to grow here too. Way better than Ohakune even, husband lived there for a while, he says they do better here. So good and bad. Just watch those frosts!
soc_butterfly,
Dec 16, 11:59pm
I read somewhere on here to do them in 12 rows of 12, it works best that way because they self pollinate each other and also give shelter or something.not that I've done it, I have about 6 in my garden looking half dead :(
weed matting is not advisable for large areas as it makes the soil under it go a bit septic and mouldy.You're better using mulch and for really nasty areas try several pages of newspaper as it will at least break down over time and allow more airation than weedmatting.I only use weed mat under the likes of grasses in 'non-gardening' areas where I put stones over the top of it and just use the boiled jug to keep blown seeds at bay.
wee_nikki,
Dec 17, 12:11am
Just thought Id come and say hi :)
I just planted my very first vege garden. bought plants from Bunnings and threw them in the ground.Will have a read through this thread and see what I actually have to do with them lol
wee_nikki,
Dec 17, 12:26am
Lol I dont have a clue ! Im amazed at how anybidy can stay on top of weeds though ! Every single day they are back !
Stay at home mum and I still cant keep up lol.
buzzy110,
Dec 17, 8:25pm
Yes. We are all learning together. It would be nice if some more experience gardeners would share their knowledge but at least we can tell each other the pitfalls when things have gone wrong and what went right and what we did to achieve that wonderful nirvana. for instance I have put up a couple of big posts on how to NOT grow potatoes.
I have also posted a way I succeeded in getting my brassicas off to an early start for everyone who may be able to do what I did.
buzzy110,
Dec 17, 8:31pm
Leeks - lythandel mentioned leeks and how good it is to have them ready grown by late Autumn. That would probably be about May I think. I also read a quick throw-off line about leeks in another thread and I think it is a good tip.
If you want leeks throughout winter (and who doesn't) for your soups and stews then December is the time to plant them. So for those who haven't planted their leeks yet you better get going.
I started some from seed but they are not really ready for planting, so not wishing to let December slip away without having planted any, I have bought 20 seedlings which I intend to plant tomorrow. I'll plant my seedling when they decide they want to be something other than thin and pathetic looking.
buzzy110,
Dec 17, 8:35pm
I don't know about the south Island, but some supermarkets stock Awapuni - a brand of seedlings usually found in a multi-tiered metal rack in the fruit and vege section. They come wrapped in newspaper and for about $3.29 you get up to nine healthy seedlings. sometimes it is less and sometimes more, as in the leeks I just bought.
I think this is a great, eco way to sell seedlings rather than in plastic punnets.
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