Green Thumbs Gardening

[Rags]

Hi Mick,
You've done a lovely job on your cold frame.

I have saved the glass door from an old shower screen which I will get round to
using as the lid of a cold frame. It will be about shower door size... :happy2:

I also picked up a couplke of pallets a few months ago. I was going to use them in
framework for an adobe pizza oven I was going to build. (Lots of "was's" in there)
That plan has gone skyward, as I was given a Weber bbq just after Christmas.
I had pallets attached to the wall of my shed at the last place I lived. It worked well,
so I will do the same again.
Had a quick squizz at that website. Not bad, I'll have a more in depth look later on.

http://therawfoodfamily.com/

Hello Sunny,
I took the easy option and bought a couple of packets of seeds.
Will be popping these in a pot this week
IMG_5696.jpg

And here is the last of the tomatoes. It has been a dreadful season for me here.
That poor little eggplant and zucchini are what came from THE largest plants!
Like I said, we've had a very wet and humid summer here
and all my veggies went to leaf, and fruit went mouldy.
Very disappointing. I have now dug them up and they're now composting.
IMG_5697.jpg

Straw bale gardening. I had a crack at that a few years ago. It was fun.
Also for confined spaces, google Square foot gardening.

http://www.suwanee.com/pdfs/Square%20Foot%20Gardening%20PP%20031610.pdf

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/plant-spacing/

Never heard of Black Krim. Gonna google it.

My SIL lives in a unit with a small balcony garden. She's growing a few herbs, rocket and other lettuce and a couple of
baby tomatoes. She's having a lot more success with her tiny space than I akm with my garden.


We have an easement next to our house, so I'm going to get Mr Rags to fence a bit of it off and extend my veggie garden.
We have vermin deer here, so it has to be deer proof.
I told Mr Rags I wante a leccy fence which I can plug direct into
a power point but Mr Rags pointed out that I'd probably burn our house down. Bugger.

[Mick]

I told Mr Rags I wante a leccy fence which I can plug direct into
a power point but Mr Rags pointed out that I'd probably burn our house down. Bugger. brill!! hiya rags thats a goodly sized cold frame..as for extending the veggie garden go for it!! had roasted parsnips last night,that had been roasted with rosemary on then absolutely mmm..as for the pallets attached to the shed good idea,ideal base for all different climbers..

moss think you are right upwards is best..just need to be a bit clever so that plants dont get denied the sunlight they need but lets have a wee think about it
did you keep any of your seeds from the toms?also the zuccinis..they look really small..did they cross pollinate ?That happened to me one year..didnt even realise there were such things as male and female in the plant world!!duh

[Rags]

Morning Mick.
I lurve parsnip.

A friend gave me some nashi pears last night.
Going to make pear and ginger jam. Promised him a small jar.

Sorry for such a short post, but have to nip up to Sydney.

[Rags]

This is what part of my veggie patch looked like when I planted it out last Nov.

IMG_5418.jpg

What a bloody disaster it turned out!

[Tabbers (a.k.a. KTAB)]

Thanks very much Rags, you're a sweetie taking the time to create this green fingers thread. I look forward to contributing, hopefully when I have something coherent and useful to say that is, in the near future. In the meantime don't give up on that little patch, you can rebuild.

[MossRose]

Rags, sorry to hear the weather has been less than cooperative. Pear and ginger jam...sounds wonderful. Mick, I love parsnips and your recipe sounds simple and delicious.

Thanks for all the great tips on growing in small spaces. I've done a lot of research in the last few days. I have always used EarthBoxes to grow tomatoes, even when I had land. I've just had better luck. So I still have the planters. The support/trellis that comes with them is not very sturdy, so I was looking around the Internet and came across this (first post):

http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=9383.0

This might work. I like the look, and I think they would hold up well. I just sent the photo to a friend who works with wood. I'll see what he thinks.

I do have a community garden plot this year - 10 x 20 ft. so should be able to grow quite a bit of food on it. However, after reading up on square foot gardening, I think I may incorporate that into the plan too. I'm going to devote most of my patio to herbs and wildlife planting this year, since I have a spot for food. We need to bring back the bees and monarchs. That's my new goal for this small space.

[abcowboy]

Hi everyone, been following the thread but don't have a lot to contribute yet as our greenhouse/solarium door is still blocked by 6 feet of snow! But spring is just around the corner now....

[Rags]

Holy Moly Cowboy!!!! That's cold.
I'm going to be over your way in June. 3 days in Vancouver before we meet up with friends in Whitehorse
for a 5 week tour of Alaska.
We're going to fly up to Barrow, stay overnight, and I'm going to
paddle (for 3 seconds) in the Beaufort Sea.
You East or West side of Canada?

[Rags]

Rags, sorry to hear the weather has been less than cooperative. Pear and ginger jam...sounds wonderful. Mick, I love parsnips and your recipe sounds simple and delicious.

Thanks for all the great tips on growing in small spaces. I've done a lot of research in the last few days. I have always used EarthBoxes to grow tomatoes, even when I had land. I've just had better luck. So I still have the planters. The support/trellis that comes with them is not very sturdy, so I was looking around the Internet and came across this (first post):

http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=9383.0

This might work. I like the look, and I think they would hold up well. I just sent the photo to a friend who works with wood. I'll see what he thinks.

I do have a community garden plot this year - 10 x 20 ft. so should be able to grow quite a bit of food on it. However, after reading up on square foot gardening, I think I may incorporate that into the plan too. I'm going to devote most of my patio to herbs and wildlife planting this year, since I have a spot for food. We need to bring back the bees and monarchs. That's my new goal for this small space.

Hello Mossy,
Those frames look quite good don't they.I might switch to frames rather than staking them.
A few years ago I had a piece of reo which I staked about 18 inches off the ground and let the tomatoes grow over it.
Worked quite well.
Bees. I want to get a small hive , but will wait til next spring, about Sept-Oct.
We also have beautiful little native bees, but they are getting wiped out by european bees,
plus they produce only a tiny amount of honey. If you took much more than a tablespoon, you'd wipe out the hive.
You keep them more for the sake of saving the bees and having your plants fertilised.
Australia has something like 1400 native bee species.

http://www.aussiebee.com.au/beesinyourarea.html

Haven't seen a monarch for a while, but we've had beautiful black winged orchard butterflies and wanderers flitting round our
garden all summer.

http://australianmuseum.net.au/wildlife-of-sydney

I probably won't plant anything in the veggie garden as we're going away in June for 6 weeks . So I'll
put a heap of compost in, dig in the straw and letthe soil suck up lots of nutrients ready for spring planting.

[abcowboy]

Rags, I'm on the west side of Canada, province of Alberta, we have 2 daughters living in Vancouver, a 14 hour drive away lol. Too bad you'll be there in June, we are flying out to see them in early April!

Are you guys talking about bees for pollination purposes?

[Rags]

Good morning cowboy.
Yep, bees primarily for pollination.
Yikes! 14 hours! But I guess you have to negotiate the mouintain range.
We've been to Silver Star twice in the last 4 years. Hope to get there again next Feb or March.
Beautiful snow (you can tell I've never had to dig out my driveway).

One dya I want to go around Canada, specially the Kamloops...
Many years ago I saw The Grey Fox... I loved the movie, watched it about 4 times and a lot
of the action was set in the Kamloops. So it's on my list of places to visit.
Just don't have the time to do it this year. So near and yet so far.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihG8vpfz1Yc

[MossRose]

Hi Cowboy - yes, bees for pollination...trying to undo the damage of colony collapse disorder. And like Rags said, native bees are under siege from invasive species. I would like to have a hive, but I am pretty sure that my apartment complex would have an issue with that. LOL. Maybe one day.

[abcowboy]

Rags, it was indeed a great movie!! What are you doing for your 3 days in Vancouver?

A good friend of mine used to own and operate a commercial greenhouse, tomatoes, english cucumbers, and lettuce. I helped him with all the hydroponics install as well as heating and ventilation equipment. He taught me how to prune vegetables the proper way so that they grew bigger and faster. His hired hands didn't like the bees for pollination so he had them do it another unique way, good old fashioned adult vibrators, those original hard plastic torpedo shaped ones! As the workers pruned, they would touch the tip of the vibrator to the blossom, the vibrations released the pollen, some of it sticking to the vibrator tip and achieving cross pollination at the same time! I use the same trick in my much smaller greenhouse with great results!

[Spiritfree]

Wow - I am learning a ton on this thread. Thank you all.

Now, Mick and Rags, I am having difficulty posting pics. Is there a secret? I go through the process but then nothing seems to happen -either way (uploading from my own computer or trying to post a url link). I have to believe I just missing something.

And Cowboy -no excuses. Go shovel the 6 feet of snow and get into the greenhouse. (LOL -I would not even know what6 feet of snow looks like.)

The bee disappearance is becoming more problematic as the years pass. Someone told me about it four years ago and I thought it was probably just a natural cycle. I now know that it is a real and growing problem. Thanks to all for the info.

[Rags]

Wow - I am learning a ton on this thread. Thank you all.

S'orright

Now, Mick and Rags, I am having difficulty posting pics. Is there a secret? I go through the process but then nothing seems to happen -either way (uploading from my own computer or trying to post a url link). I have to believe I just missing something.

To copy URL highlight it, right click mouse, click copy, then paste it in the post.
Posting pics is a little bit of a procedure.
Are you clicking on basic uploader then browse after you click my computer?
I always make my pics smaller , about 400 kb so they upload faster/easier

And Cowboy -no excuses. Go shovel the 6 feet of snow and get into the greenhouse. (LOL -I would not even know what6 feet of snow looks like.)

The bee disappearance is becoming more problematic as the years pass. Someone told me about it four years ago and I thought it was probably just a natural cycle. I now know that it is a real and growing problem. Thanks to all for the info.

The demise of bee populations is a worldwide thing.
Tasmanian honey production in late 2014 was about 15% of what it usually is,
though this could have been a seasonal glitch.
Beekeepers Australia wide are very concerned about what is happening.

And this has been THE weirdest summer I've ever experienced botanically speaking.
We've had many of our native trees in an abundanvce of flower like I've never ever seen before.
But, heavy winds have stripped flowers and buds from trees and plants, and here on the coast we've had really
heavy raoins and humid conditions. Again, I dont' remember anything like it in the past.