How hard is it to grow your own organic veg garden

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skin1235, Dec 12, 5:34am
organic or not, its the same procedure, plant the seeds watch them grow, fight the weeds, beat the birds and the slugs, fight the weeds, shoot the cats, fight the weeds, feed the plants, fight the weeds, make compost with the weeds, chase away the late season birds, make more compost with whats left of the plants after you missed a few birds, go buy your vegies at the local, lol, and then fight the weeds some more, organic just makes it harder, no sprays to help fight the weeds, no fert in a bag to feed the plants - although smelly old chook poo, cow poo, horse poo, and even dog poo will suffice as ferts, and you can make your own stinky seaweed or animal poo teas to feed the plants, be aware as soon as you do this the weeds will move in and grow twice as big
but great fun, everyone should at least experience the sunburnt neck and arms, the baked earth look, and stunted plants struggling to survive the feast or famine watering system that allocated days allows once or twice in their life - kids especially so include them at every opportunity
most of all enjoy - the solitude, as the rest of the family refuse to enter the garden area so you now have your 'peace place' all to yourself for as many hours as you can stay in the baking heat of late Dec, Jan, Feb, and parts of Mar, then get rained on for the rest of the year as you continue to fight the weeds back from your wee garden area
skin1235, Dec 12, 5:36am
seriously ( organic or not ), dig over a patch, plant some seedlings, and enjoy
do you want advise re what to plant when, or easy starters etc
cmjbp, Dec 12, 5:37am
well said, skin
hahahahaha
No more mystifying the world of organics!
oh_hunnihunni, Dec 12, 5:50am
Dig over a patch of ground and pull out all the weeds. Find a corner and put the weeds there - it'll be your compost heap. Grab a bag of pet safe snail poison to protect your babies, and a big bag of sheep pellets and dig those into your patch, then choose your seedlings, or start your seeds. Summer vegies are easiest just now, stake the tall growing ones and line up the short ones. Water. Weed. Water more. Repeat till big enough to eat. Replant. Fun eh!
skin1235, Dec 12, 6:10am
there are "no dig" systems too, basically smother out the weeds and grasses of today with the likes of your lawn clippings spread about 150mm thick over as much as they will cover, or lay an old carpet down etc,once it has been down for a couple of weeks cut a hole to plant your plants in the soil beneath, treat with slug bait, and enjoy
Some say just laying several layers of newspaper is just as good then spread your clippings on top to hold it all in place - and it feeds the plants too -
a couple of old car tyres - drop a few spuds on the ground inside them, cover with older grass clippings, table scraps etc, when the first tyre is full put another on top, continue, when they are ready you have a couple of bags of spuds ready for the table, substitute clean straw instead of grass clippings and you don't even have to wash the spuds, four or 5 old sticks against a wall will grow climbers ( peas and beans ) to abundance

and while you're out there in your vegy patch - plant a couple of nicely scented flowers, or a rose
most of all enjoy, the peace, the sunburnt face, the quiet apart from your silent screams re sunburnt neck and sore back, the every increasing weeds, the inevitable wrong plants in wrong places at the wrong time
and enjoy, the wasted plants cos you've got far too many to eat them before they fully mature and sprout flowers and seeds or turn to slime before your eyes
don't whatever you do add up the costs of your enterprise, you'll go back to supermarket vegies real quick if you do that
spend that time just enjoying your garden and what it provides

and be as lazy as you like - the mower will hide all evidence - after the second cut you'd hardly know there used to be garden over there
skin1235, Dec 12, 6:14am
you have to start somewhere, and a mixed pack of vegy seedlings at paknsave for $4 is as good as any, then plant your seeds, bby the time your seeds are ready to transplant you'll be eating the mature plants you planted tomorrow, your seeds will be the replacement 2nd plantings as transplants in 6 to 8 weeks time
skin1235, Dec 12, 6:31am
O-H will have her faves, but most of the salad plants are what we call summers, imagine a tossed salad or a shredded salad - lettuce, baby carrots, sweet young beetroot,butter and green (french)beans, peas, a stem of celery, a bit of chopped mint, basil, parsley etc a few radishes etc, not too late to plant pumpkins, cucumbers, even peppers and tomatoes, and a good time to be considering the next seasons crop, silverbeet, cabbage, brocoli etc, bit early yet for brussel sprouts by about a month but anything you plant now will be great mid to late autumn and into winter
skin1235, Dec 12, 6:33am
lythande1, Dec 12, 6:06pm
LOL, you forgotblight, powdery mildew, downy mildew and all the other diseases as well as the pests.
gingeralenz, Dec 12, 7:27pm
Have a read of the Soil & Health book free on their website it covers all the basics of Organic Gardening. http://www.organicnz.org/60/organic-gardening/

If you want to pursue further you can come to soil and health meetings once a month on tuesdays, see their website.
gingeralenz, Dec 12, 7:45pm
I have quite the opposite outlook on organic gardening. I get great satisfaction that what i'm eating is healthy for me. My garden & soil is alive and thriving. I think its easier and ALOT cheaper to garden organically than use artificial chemicals and pesticides. The arsenal of essential chemicals and pesticides that is pushed at you by mainstream gardening is all a money making scam. The human race has been growing food just fine for thousands of years without them. The nutritional value in food grown with artificial fertiliser is not the same as organically grown. Nothing in this life is easy, if you want something good you have to work for it. Thats the problem with todays society they want something handed to them on a plate. 50+ years ago most people grew there own vegetables, nowadays most people are fat and lazy and shop at the supermarket. I believe things are changing now that times are tougher.
skin1235, Dec 12, 8:10pm
lol, it's not the organic bit, its the gardening bit, and you'll find me in mine any free time I can get
fighting the weeds ( and blight, and mildew -wet, dry, powdery, and all other varieties), and codlin moth, and aphids, grassgrub, twotooth borer and weevils, plus flies, bluebums, house, and sandflies, seven zillion wasps when the fruit is ripe, earwigs in me cabbages and centipedes in my lettuces
but hey you're supposed to enjoy your garden time, and with this lot theres no time to bet bored so I must be enjoying it - it is a great way to expend my homicidal tendencies
junie2, Dec 12, 10:26pm
I must be VERY lucky I think. I've gardened organically forever, and have a really lush and productive patch. I'm not into lots of work, so it's a no-dig too. But. ( fingers and weverything else crossed) I don't have all those probs you're talking about skin, apart from weeds. I've learned to live with the oxalis, but I wage digital war on convolvulus. We just don't get pests. I so agree with gingeralenz - it is veryworthwhile to follow nature in the garden.
sooseque, Dec 12, 10:40pm
Not a lot of encouragement here for ranablack, I have a no dig garden, not quite constructed as described by skin but layered with leaves, lawn clippings, lucerne, chook poos, straw etc. and not a weed in sight if done properly, vege plants are so healthy they only rarely get pests or disease and these can be treated with sprays made from plants you grow like chilli and garlic.Just google no dig gardening, if you are prepared to rake up leaves, collect grass clippings, manure etc it can be done on the cheap and you will reap the rewards.
junie2, Dec 12, 11:29pm
You're my sort of gardener, and that's my sort of garden mokaumoi! We're in tune with nature - not at war with it eh!
junie2, Dec 13, 3:30am
Lazy, you! ( Get in line behind me!) Down here in the colder south, I learn a lot from nature. Like- when the first tomatoes and spuds pop up in the compost and garden beds, that's when to buy any extras you need. I find you can plant weeks ahead of the self-seeded lot, but they all end up at the same size at the same time anyway, so why bother! The only thing I could do with more of in the veg patch, is bees. Varroa wiped out our own hive and we're vacillating over a top bar or conventional replacement.
oh_hunnihunni, Dec 13, 3:39am
The ones that are in the shops and getting cheaper every day lol. But try for varieties you can't buy - like freckles lettuces, and white radishes and lime green tomatoes, golden beetroot, and the like. That's why we addicts like to spend winter reading up on gardening books and making lists of things we want to grow - then we watch the listings here for those unusual seeds to put in alongside our usual rows of spinach, spinach and more spinach lol. I'm after a green rhubarb myself - the hunt is half the pleasure!
oh_hunnihunni, Dec 13, 3:42am
When my punkins are the right size I'll know my compost heap is ready to spread - because that's where the plants are growing! Lazy is good, so is watering with a nice cool glass in the other hand. Gardening is meant to be a pleasure, not a chore.
oh_hunnihunni, Dec 13, 3:43am
Rinse out your milk bottles over mildew prone plants - it really helps.
verrans, Dec 13, 9:18pm
Try growing corn(may need seedlings well from the garden centre this late in season), it seems to be less hassle when it comes to bugs and diseases compared to some other things.
verrans, Dec 13, 9:22pm
Can tell who has been gardening and who hasn't huh. Had a conversation with some people a few weeks ago, they were under the impression all anyone who wanted to save some money by growing their own veges needed were some containers and soil/potting mix and they'd be set for years with no other costs. Pfftt
zoopa, Dec 13, 11:57pm
I cultivate vegetables amongst the weeds. Sometimes I pull either out. Both are healthy and doing well. lol.
dbb, Dec 14, 3:02am
For kids, get some tomato seedlings in as fast as poss and they should be ready late March before the cold hits.Moneymaker is a good type.Home-grown tomatoes may not look as flash, but they taste 10 to 20 times better than bought ones at the supermarket.Ripened on the vine (covered with bird netting for protection), warmed by the sun and eaten immediately while still warm, they are a delicious delicacy.Lettuce also tastes better, but that's easy to grow.

The important thing with home-grown veges is to eat them within 20 minutes of picking, that way you get maximum possible taste, nutrition and life force from the sun.Supermarket veges are grown for their looks and their shelf life, and taste and nutrition is way down the list.Compare celery (also hard to grow) -- home grown is often much smaller and wilts less than an hour after picking, but has a much stronger taste.
oh_hunnihunni, Dec 14, 3:11am
There is another benefit though, which all gardeners will tell you about. You cannot stay angry or sad if you have your hands in the soil. The earth just takes all that away as you work it. I cannot tell you how many times I've proved this to myself in all the years of ups and downs, but it absolutely works. And that is something we can teach our kids that just might save them some hard times when we're not around. Get out there and dig. it works.
junie2, Dec 14, 3:20am
Oh so true OHH! It's amazing therapy.
PS, re celery, that needn't be 'hard to grow' actually. Mine is huge - and very tasty. I bury a bag of sheep/horse manure/whatever, before planting tho. Have never had rust ( touch wood) which my mum ( conventional gardener, used chemicals etc ) was plagued with.