Yeah I think it is marigolds that help to ward off pests, so I might go for them, & mix with basil, mint, parsely as I've heard basil helps to ward off the critters too.
And yes, that is my two pets bunnies in their new house :) Cheezel & Twistie are their names.
kbateman,
Apr 11, 12:52am
You are all lucky you been in your garden. I have been having to feed one week old pups every 2 hours. The mum took sick and the vet said she had lose to much calcium the pups where getting it. So I have to feed like this for 3 days. 2mls a feed by 5. I think it would be easyer garden. I love coming and reading in here what everyone is up to over the day. Good work.
ords,
Apr 11, 8:04pm
Garlic is also something that wards off pests. I got it planted beside the door of the tunnel house. Not much gardening going on today. its wet.
artiste,
Apr 12, 5:37am
I planted marigolds in a row in front of my veges and didn't have problems with caterpillars or other pesky pests at all.I also planted basil in between the tomatoes.Really keen to learn more about companion planting as I like the idea of not using chemicals if possible.Just check with your garden centre because they told me it is just certain types of marigolds.
artiste,
Apr 12, 5:39am
How do you add a photo!
soc_butterfly,
Apr 12, 7:09am
Yes marigolds and calendulas ward off pests.Also anything in the onion family, spring, garlic etc especially around roses.I grew all my garlic around my roses this last summer and they really did keep the aphids at bay.I still had to do the detergent in water trick once a week but that was easy.
kbateman, what a saint you are.I need photos please :)
artiste, you can either post them to your tradme profile (my trade me area) or you can use something like photobucket.com to post them to, then you just copy and paste the link from the photo, either click on the photo (once uploaded) and then copy the link at the top in the address bar (if on trademe) or if you use photobucket or flikr etc, they show you the direct link under the photo usually.
Hope that helps!
akalea,
Apr 12, 6:20pm
Everyones garden pictures are looking so good.Wish mine looked so good.I did some research courteousy of google and think I found out the anwer for my question re worm like pest in compost bin.Think it is a garden soldier fly lave which accoding to what I read is beneficial to garden.I thought it was not a good bug.Maybe I will have less flies next summer.The tomatoes are looking so good i have put some of them in bags on my deck and will give some to a friend who has a glasshouse.Wonder how they will go on deck.I have started raising my gardens higher as they did not produce well this year, maybe they were not deep enough.Hows the move south go!Everyone sounds so knowledgable I have learnt alot from you all.Thanks
missmuppett,
Apr 13, 12:00am
Just got in from watering & squishin baby caterpilars.now I know what I am lookig for it is easy.Gave everything a good watering too.
***In breaking news. my potatoes have sprouted up through the soil - proud mum alert***I still have a half bag (about 8) seed spuds to put out, so will try & do that this wkd.
I am off now for a facial, I got a free voucher from a friend WAHOO, have not done anythig like that since I can remember, very excited.Will stop ito the warehouse too & get a ew keyboard, this is so annoying typig without the n key! hahahahaha.
Have a great night all. MM
PS they are repeatin Get Growing on sunday nights on TV.
ords,
Apr 13, 4:19am
I need to plant more spuds and veges. ran out of time today. on the plus tho. almost finished sanding down some windows on the house so we can paint them.
smartart35,
Apr 13, 11:19pm
Hi I am new to gardening too and I just love it.Especially all the jam making. Thanks everyone for the awesome advice.
Ords - were did you get your tunnel house from!I have been looking for one but they are so expensive.We have really bad frosts where we are and one of those would be perfect.
soc_butterfly,
Apr 14, 3:54am
welcome smartart.I'm glad the end was art.nor arse ;)
done buggar all in garden, pansies still blooming (bless them)
aww what wee poppets!I'm not sure which I wanna steal most ;)
your marigolds (or are they calendulas!) are huge!well done.
lala2,
Apr 14, 5:24pm
Wow! what fantastic gardens. I am oflen looking through this thread, it has so many great ideas. I just wanted to ask if putting weed mat (or perhaps newspaper) down where broccoli(sp) or cauli are planted would be ok! I am going to move my strawberries so will put weed mat down for that. Should I keep the whole strawberry plant or just plant the suckers (if that's what they'r called), it was mentioned that they don't produce as well! and throw out the plants (it seems like such a waste to do that). I also have a fern inside that needs repotting, I was told that you can just cut the roots back instead of putting it into a bigger pot, do any of you know it this can be done. Any help would be welcome, Thanks.
soc_butterfly,
Apr 14, 6:43pm
Hi lala, welcome.
I don't use weed mat around anything bar grasses or succulents that take no maintenance and are very hardy.
You want the soil to be aerated and fluffy around veges, and weedmat can turn the soil very sour underneath it as no light or air get under there.This can also turn off the worms, which are vital for a good soil condition. So my humble opinion would be only to use weed mat in areas that you want to leave alone and possibly put stones over.But others will tell you differently I'm sure.
My mother weed matted all her gardens in her 1 acre section, and had to pull it all up as the soil had turned sour under them all.She got a gardener in to do it all and would never again use it.I have pulled metres of the stuff up around our new house we bought a year ago, and all the soil under it is flat, hard and sour.So I've seen it in action.
In saying that, I've used it myself for a section under kitchen window where I've put alternating carex coloured grasses with stones on top and it looks great and the grasses are growing well and very happy, so it does have it's place.
Strawberries last for 3 years, so keep them planted until then and rotate with the suckers as the mummy plants get older.
Fern, sounds like a bonsai type trick!I suppose you could give it a go, technically bonsai works on most plants, but they use conifers etc mainly due to the look of them.I'd only give the roots a trim tho and would trim the straggly thin bits rather than the thicker main roots.if that makes sense!
lala2,
Apr 14, 7:46pm
Thank you soc_butterfly, that makes a lot of sense, so no weed mat it is, as for the strawberries they are older then 3yrs. I had them sitting in a container in the garden for ages doing nothing as they had no room to do anything, then hubby made me a new little garden last year where I put them and they took off, but I want that garden for veges so I will replant them and see what happens.
artiste,
Apr 14, 9:59pm
Thanks!They are the best form of marigold for the vege garden according to the garden centre and grow quite bushy.Of course I threw away the tag thing, so have no idea what variety they are, but they definitely seemed to keep the bugs away!
The kids love the vege garden - never seen them so enthusiastic to eat their veges!They love to pick their own "salad" for tea!Often consists of basil, lettuce & spinach, but it does seem to go together quite well lol!
smartart35,
Apr 14, 10:26pm
Thanks so much for that ords.A brochure is on it's way to me via snail mail.I can't wait to get it and I am already thinking about winter tomatoes.The ones I planted this summer didn't do very well so I am not sure what I did wrong.I even made sure that I didn't plant them too early either and even gave them special tomatoe food.
Thanks everyone for the lovely welcome messages and all the advice - wow - it is certainly impressive - well for me as a new gardener it is!
kbateman,
Apr 14, 11:54pm
Hi Soc_butterfly. My babys are on my profile photo. Now I will get back to reading the threads that my babys are feed.
missmuppett,
Apr 15, 12:17am
Wow looking good guys, I love the washing machine inners Soc they are cool - and my my those marigolds are MASSIVE Artiste - do you employ said munchkins to squash caterpillars and such like! :)
Dropped my the garden centre today and picked up some: Parsely Celery Tatsoi Curly Kale Black Cabbage Purple cauli
Did some more squishing of caterpillars and another good watering - I am waiting for the Mr to come home to hack into the hard soil in the raised bed so that I can munch it up with some compost etc.Will be good to get this lot in, I have a good feeling about planting this wk and wknd :)
Have a good one all, I am off out visiting my mate who's just had her first baby! Awww.
See you, PS - welcome all newbies :) Lovely to have you along :)
rodcindy,
Apr 15, 1:57am
Hi guys!sorry I have been a little AWOL . been working (sux). and starting me wee garden !I have planted lettuce, cabbage, broad beans, peas, brocolli, Cauli and silver beet plants. planted s couple of bromeliads I have. sown onion, spinach, beetroot, radish seeds. and have seed potatoes out to sprout.Wen to the Warehouse today. and they had raspberry and boysenberry canes and sone grape vines in the bargain area. and I thought. SWEEEET. just what I REALLY want. but. "apparently". some one had put them there by mistake and they were NOT on sale.Grr. so I didn't get them. c'est la vie.
artiste,
Apr 15, 3:17am
Haha miss re the munchkins squashing caterpillars!I honestly haven't had any problems with caterpillars - not sure if its because of the marigolds or because i didn't plant any broc/cauli/cabbage!I have only came across one caterpillar (in fact half a caterpillar) as I was slicing silverbeet into an almost ready casserole!Didn't tell the family about the half I couldn't find lol!- !
soc_butterfly,
Apr 15, 4:04am
rodcindy I woulda argued that point.if in sale area, they have to honor it.well I'd have tried anyways ;)
miss, aww I saw a mate's wee one this week too.Nice to pick up.and better to give back!
My pots and washer inners need watering, I've been so tied up with new job lately the garden is being neglected :(
rodcindy,
Apr 15, 5:29am
Hi butterfly. I did try. and I pointed out the crappy discolored leaves on the raspberries, the guy said I knew shit about gardening. so I said well if you are goning to charge $11.99 for a plant like that. I can go to Palmers or Kings and get the same variety for the same price,, but more than 5 times the size and no crappy leaves. so I guess I will remain "berry-less" for a while lol
soc_butterfly,
Apr 15, 5:54am
Good for you RC!How very dare he!
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