Losing hart

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by PDB, Feb 25, 2008.

  1. PDB

    PDB Junior Member

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    Ok I need to start again.
    Nothing realy seems to be going to well, if it does grow all the bugs get it all first. I am getting the odd bean (not to good for a family of four). so back to the drawing board.
    Firstly I know the layer mash I use will grow, It contains "The layer mash has wheat, cracked sorghum, cracked corn, cracked lupins, protein meals and vitamins and minerals added along with molasses." Is there any reson I can't use this as a green mulch. I have asked around neighbours and shops for scraps with no joy. Not game to ask lawn cutting services for clippings as I don't know what weeds and chems I will be getting.
    I have gone part time to look at living a more sustainable life so I have no money for mulch or getting consutents in or sprays . So am realy strugaling. Any advice would be great!!
    Paul
     
  2. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    PDB

    Oh mate, that doesn't sound too encouraging.
    What does your soil look like or are you planting straight into imported stuff?

    I have always found that you get the best results when you concentrate on one manageable bed (for me, no greater than 4 x 6m)...

    What have you tried planting?

    A picture tells a thousand words.. any chance of posting a few photo's of the area you're working with?

    PPP
     
  3. PDB

    PDB Junior Member

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  4. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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  5. PDB

    PDB Junior Member

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    How the #*#*#**#*#**#**#**#**#**#*!!!!!!!!
    did you do that???
    Oh and Thanks :D
     
  6. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    OK is the main vegie garden up against the fence? (plus the bit at the bottom of the stairs?)

    I'll assume you don't have a bad back, you're not a purist, and that you want RESULTS..

    I'm going to put this out there for a starter, I am happy to discuss changes to the plan below for those better in the know.:

    I would:
    - dig up the garden to a full spade (250mm) depth or more
    - add as much compost as you can get your hands on
    - add some poo.. i see you've got a chook yard on the plan.. is that in already?? .. grab as much as you can find.
    - give it a good dose of blood and bone - at least 10 handfulls for that area
    - give it a bit of dolomite - 2-3 handfulls incase your soil doesn't want much of it.
    - lightly dig all this in, keeping most of the good stuff in the top ~100mm,but have some real soil in the top 100mm as well.
    - if you've got kitchen scraps etc, just dig a hole in the bed somewhere and bury them.. continue to do that in between plants.


    PLANT.. why don't you try 1/4 of the bed with some rows of corn (use seeds), grab some seeds out of a butternut pumpkin and plant them at one end of the corn,
    Perhaps buy some seedlings.. this speeds the process up bigtime. (don't buy tall "Leggy" seedlings, buy the stockier, bushy looking ones.

    sorry to put so many things on the list that you might have to buy, but I get the impression that what you need is some results, to keep the enthusiasm up... correct me if I'm wrong.

    hey have you thought about passionfruit? The only reason I ask is I've just discovered a heap of flowers on the plant I put in ~9 months ago and I'm pretty excited.

    I can see a few potential spots..
    1)up the back of the basketball ring??
    2) on the other frame (wind mill??)
    3) on a fence??

    I see that your plan is mostly longer term plants (trees etc) they'll take a while to produce, so now that you've got them in, concentrate on a vegie garden, this is what I'm doing at the moment on my little block.

    PPP
     
  7. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    The addresses to the photo's indicated that they were in the permaculture.org.au photo album, so I went looking.
    I found the photo's then left clicked on the photo. When a seperate window came up, I copied the address from along the top into my post.
     
  8. Duckpond

    Duckpond Junior Member

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    you live in the tropics, and have a big established garden. you can prune all your esisting plants, especially the unproductive ones like grevillia and use them as feedstock for your compost. You pee, use that in your compost it is great for accelerating your turnover time.

    I agree with PPP use collected seeds to grow veggies as they are fast turnover and also generate feedstock for compost or to feed chooks.

    GET CHOOKS or ducks or other poultry. They have a good return on investment, and are integral to a permi garden as they eat scraps, and garden waste, and produce eggs and manure. GET CHOOKS

    contact tree loppers for free mulch. it will need some finishing to be useful, but it is good roughage to add to your compost. You can dig out the soil from a bed and replae it with 300 - 400 mm woodchip, then leave ti for a long while to break down to soil. cheap but long term. You can use it instead of straw in your chook pen to let the chooks break it down. its free so use it. GET CHOOKS

    visit salvage yards, tips, trading post and other places to get cheap or free materials. If you have the skills, tools and time you can do lots for free
     
  9. Loris

    Loris Junior Member

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    Re: the green manure. I feed chooks just mixed grain and I use that for green manure. It contains cereal grains, sorghum, sunflower. I spread it over the soil, let it sprout and cut it for green manure when its about 10 inches high. Works fine. Better still, you can let it grow a bit bigger and put a mobile chook pen over it so the chooks can do your soil for you. They get green pick and they will scratch the green manure into the soil and fertilize for you.
    Keep trying different things till you find a system that works for you. And don't get worked up about the bugs - we found our garden was full of them and fungal rot this year because of the incredible wet season we're having in SEQ. Even when its not wet its overcast. You'll find that these problems will iron out maybe in winter when the cold will knock the bugs and some of this rain stops. We even had nematodes this year which we have never had before - I blame the wet.
    Don't worry - it will all even out in the end.
     
  10. PDB

    PDB Junior Member

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    Thanks everyone.
    I do have chooks three of them, I don't seem to get enough scraps so I had to buy some mash. I also have a wormfarm.
    I also have pumkings and rockmelon growing around the bottom of the sweetcorn inbetween the gravillias. I can see the little cobs growing and get all excited but now thay are exposed for some reson and things are eating them.
    I have passionfruit growing on the tree over the coop and on the pisimon tree.
    All my toms, strawberrys, broccoli, cabbages, beetroot, turnips and even my lemon tree are just feeding the bugs.
    I will keep trying and hope it's just all the rain and wrong time of year :D
    Thanks Paul
     
  11. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    Even though insects can get themselves in balance eventually, I would try spendinge some time killing every insect on your plants which are causing damage.

    I walk around my garden every morning, having a look and getting rid of insects that look like they might be getting out of control. - feed the chooks, they'll love it.

    Leave all ladybeetles(including the yellow ones) , wasps, spiders etc.. they eat other insects aphids and mildew.

    Also, after seeing a number of fairly spectacular looking butterflies, I've been leaving a few of most types of caterpillars I see. But that is up to you.

    I haven't yet had an insect problem I couldn't solve by squashing them... though I haven't had that many seasons of gardens admittedly.
     
  12. Brett

    Brett Junior Member

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    one word for you... Pond....

    It'll help balance out your eco system and it's easy to run.

    How to do it:
    - Dig a hole
    - Look on ebay for "Pond Liner" (I paid $1 for mine, and $12 postage, but nonetheless was quite affordable)
    - Fill it with water (if you are using tap water you may need to leave it for 5 days for the chlorine to evaporate)
    - Add about 4-5 fish (Goldfish, perch both good varieties and 5 gold fish set me back $10)

    So basically this should attract some more wildlife into your garden, promoting bugs that will eat the pests.'

    Brett
     
  13. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    the trouble with ponds in brisbane is cane toads :-(
     
  14. DJ-Studd

    DJ-Studd Junior Member

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    Meaty goodness. You'll also need to add a BBQ to the pond equation :wink:
     
  15. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    I'll assume that's a joke.
    If you eat a cane toad you will die.

    I do have a pond in brisbane, and have only ever spotted one cunning cane toad in it. It is a raised pond made from a large ~1m diameter pot.
    Apparently some native frogs can climb but cane toads can't.. ??
     
  16. DJ-Studd

    DJ-Studd Junior Member

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    Ok, how about feeding them to the feral cats then? :lol:
     
  17. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    great idea! only I have read that some cats and crows have learnt which parts to leave alone. :-(
     
  18. PDB

    PDB Junior Member

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    Thanks Brett Yes I also have ponds number 3 on my list I think, there are two one is an old bathtub that over flows into the in grownd one. I was getting alot of canetoads but I have found a good way of getting them now. I have sunk an old dustbin into the ground so the top is at ground level near the ponds. Than I have hung and old solor light over it to atracet moths at night. The toads fall in and can't jump out (frogs can) I got about 10 toads in the first week and then the odd one or two. I don't see them at night now like I used to when I go on my nightly bug hunt, But you should here all the frogs its great!
    I still don't know why my sweetcorns have opened and are so small??
    I am also woundering about the gravillias thay do bring in alot of birds to the garden which is good but maybe the birds are now only interested in the flowers and not the bugs??
    Thanks Paul
     
  19. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    I know many people flat out refuse to get a soil test done on their property, but I would certainly do it if I were you. It will help you pinpoint what you need to add most. You can't have proper fertility without a good nutrient balance. One nutrient badly off-balance will throw off everything else, and can tie up what you do have so the plants can't use it. Organic matter certainly helps, but it can't solve problems with missing minerals. If they aren't there, or locked up due to other mineral imbalances, you need to add them or make them available to the plants.

    Many places in Oz are short on calcium and probably magnesium, so you probably need to add dolomite lime. Calcium in the soil is what puts the other nutrients into the plants, and without enough of it, your plants will starve to death. Do you need potassium or phosphorus? A lot, or just a little to balance things out? If you don't know, you won't know what to do.

    If you can, get hold of a book called "Hands-On Agronomy" by Neal Kinsey, it will explain how the nutrients in the soil work, how much you need, etc.

    If you don't have much money, you need to find out what you need to do first, and do it. When you have a little more money, you can do the next thing. Australia has old soil, and much of it is depleted, same as places here in the U.S.

    Keep going, it will work.

    Sue, who is working on the same problems.
     
  20. Ulfgarius

    Ulfgarius New Member

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    Re: Losing hart

    Canetoads make good blood and bone. Give them a smack and bury where they will do some good for once. No problems.
     

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