Meg from Victoria.

Discussion in 'General chat' started by fuzzy butt, Jul 16, 2008.

  1. fuzzy butt

    fuzzy butt Junior Member

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    Hi from rural Victoria,
    Hi everyone Hope all is well.
    I just came across your forum and WOW!! what a wealth of information.
    I've been trying to implement permacultural activities and self sufficiency for years now . some disasters and some success.
    I think I'm going to learn quite a bit here. I've reared lambs for the table and chickens huge vegetable gardens. Had a cow and a young bull. had no idea what I was doing and sold both eventually.

    Well that was then and this is now. At the moment i live in a rented beach side property with a wood shed that I've converted into a chook shed, (I can't help my self) :lol: and I'll be growing miniture fruit trees in pots as soon as i can afford them. (Not a lot of money around at the moment .) There are fruit trees already in the garden but I want to be able to take the potted ones with me when I leave.Maybe. (My situation is currently seperated from husband not sure if I'm going back yet)
    I've worked in shearing sheds and work as an occasional farm hand, for an old farmer friend.

    The problem I have (yes, apart from long posts :lol: ) is nothing grows properly where I am . the soil is very sandy and the owner of the property could only grow the garden that is here now because she brought in soil. (she's a landscape gardener)
    I'm wondering if huge pots would fix this problem . Especially when I want to plant veges, I dont' want to sit and wait for dead plants , what do I do?

    Thanks in advance

    Meg
     
  2. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    Meg,

    I wish you well and good luck.

    On the production situation, I cannot offer advice. On growing stuff in pots - then go for it. I think the big thing that any permie has to understand is that very few of us can 'produce' enough to create the wonderful photos used in current permie/ag/herb/home garden magazines.

    You really only have to feed you. So plants lots of extras. If you are growing in pots, put a few in a garden bed. If you are into garden beds, put a few in a pot. Compare your production and eat all of your produce.

    cheers,
     
  3. Loris

    Loris Junior Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    Pots sound great! I had a friend who lived on practically pure sand. She combated that by adding as much organic matter as she could into and on the soil. Ask all the neighbours to let you have their grass clippings and prunings, try and locate manure and compost until you can't compost no more. All of this added to the sandy soil will give you nice free draining garden soil which is half useful and hasn't cost you the earth to have soil carted in. Also my friend developed a keen eye for trees that shed their leaves in autumn and was always waiting to cart the leaves home for the soil.
     
  4. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    If you can find someone who has lot's of clay this can be added to vegi bed to slow down the water, as well as mulching and manure.
     
  5. fuzzy butt

    fuzzy butt Junior Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    Thank you guys I really appreciate the tips. Normally I produce enough to fill a deep chest freezer, lasts about six months.

    I shall mulch and compost till the cows come home. I've decided to put leaves and grass and clippings in a small yard behind the chook shed and eventually allow the chooks to use the mixture to play around in . for some reason I think this might help the breakdown.

    Again thanks for the advice loris, ho hum, and bazman, for your invaluable info :D
     
  6. urbanus

    urbanus Junior Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    A lifetime ago I established a producing garden in the sandy soils of beachside Perth by digging 50cm deep trenches (which is much easier than Melbourne clay), lining the bottom with thick layers of newspaper and layering well rotted leaf mulch followed by compost/sand mix which was planted into and then topped with mulch and a good handful of dynamic lifter. I'm pleased to say that over the course of a year this became a rich friable soil that was able to hold moisture. Plants loved it and one of the bigger difficulties in this environment was stopping them from bolting to seed.
     
  7. ColinJEly

    ColinJEly Junior Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    I knew someone who used to live at Golden Beach in Gippsland. Very sandy soil. Used to make 'pots' in the sand. Fill them with organic matter. When I was working mowing lawns would gladly give away clippings. Contact local mowing contractors for mulch.

    Cheers

    Col.
     
  8. DuckyLady

    DuckyLady Guest

    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    LOL i am not much of a gardener but I do love pretty flowers :D

    I found this site after doing a search for a new chat forum . I must go for a browse through and check it out.

    Nice to meet u, Meg. 8)
     
  9. fuzzy butt

    fuzzy butt Junior Member

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    Re: Meg from Victoria.

    Thanks for the information guys. Gee you guys are great!!!!
    I have to admit I've gardened a vege garden 50 by 50 ft. I threw everything in it and sat back and watched.I didn't add anything to the soil just water. the property we were on was sandy ...walk five feet clay ...walk another five feet hard dark rich soil. so all I did was till it . worked out fine. (apparently the area hadn't been dug up in over seventy years. but it had cows horses and a couple of my lambs on it.) anyway the corn was a bit smaller than it should have been but it oozed juices and taste. The tomatoes were nothing but flesh, hardly any juice cavity at all. ( and that's the way I like em' )No beans though except for a few butters. The green beans didn't like the soil at all. The lettuce went straight to seed
    the capsicum just kept coming to the point i had to look up a few books to find new recipes and how to preserve them. POTATO's? I thought I was in the Irish famine ....you can grow those little guys anywhere. They did well in any type of soil i put them in.
    I did put straw and hay on the top of the soil to keep the sun off it .....(we've been in drought now for over seven years.) Oh and to clear the paddock area I did use a supersonic version of roundup to get rid of the grass but that was all pushed and mulched back into the soil again after it was dead.

    Hi duckylady :D i'm an extremely irreverent gardener . I'm not into gardening flowers as such unless they are natives and I don't have to look after them much. :lol:
    It's funny you know i've been living next door to our town gardener for the last two months and only just thought of asking him for clippings. :rolleyes:
     

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