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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Keith C Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 7:35pm
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Originally posted by Fish 4T Fish 4T wrote:

I wish I have neibor like that


Would you change your handle to Turkey 4T?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 8:22pm
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anyone made a large pond? I had a excavator putting in a Boulder retaining wall and since he was there I said put in a pond. 6x8m and 2m deep in case I wanted a swim in summer. Prob is it fulls up and then drains away currently a mosquito breeding ground half full. Needs a liner and cheapest I can find is $1000 on trademe. Any suggestions ? Someone said buy a knackered second hand pool liner but I don’t want bright blue. It’s going to be landscaped with rocky waterfall powered by solar.
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote BananaBoat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 8:36pm
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Had my garden for 5yrs now, still learning... it has layers of mulch between everything, which makes it about 8-10hrs weeding per year...if that
Keep the leafy greens in one raised garden, lots of horse poos & compost in there
The other raised garden is heirloom veg varieties... everything just tastes better
Biggest lesson I learned - feed your soil, keeps disease & pests at bay... most times... except feckin passion vine hoppers & slugs/snails
I do not do plant rotation, again, feed your soil. My first year I got wiped out by blight, I grew the exact same plants in the same place after feeding my soil, no probs last 3yrs
When I grow my tomatoes, grow em 14inch long, dig a deep pit, add fish frame with head guts & all, handful crushed eggs shells, tbs potash, worm castings, gypsum, compost, bury the tom to its second leaves, I had no yellowing or leaf die off till mid harvest onwards
My entire garden is on an automated watering system with 2L per hour drippers.... tomatoes get 1L water every 3 days, green veg between 1/2 to 1.5 cups water.... everything did really well.

12 blueberry plants, ripped them up & potted them, easier to maintain & easily double / trebled the yield
A do nothing, return back heaps plant is blackberry & boysenberry, returning 3-5kg per plant, using this principal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL4zgAu7R4U for maximum yield.
Entire garden is under commercial grade bird netting.
The local park provided 3 wild blackberry plants to extend my berry harvest, will see how that pans out
Got the usual herbal patch, some citrus & fejoas, even got a bloody snail patch living around my lemongrass

Knocked up a modest sized greenhouse on top of my raised garden, finished it off over lockdown.... 15yr warranty on the outside panels & roof... will have some basics growing over winter & first time growing everything from seeds... all heirloom plants





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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 9:14pm
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I haven't mastered blueberries, they get eaten by goats, ride own mowers Embarrassed or just plain die.

To me the biggest problem with a lot of garden stuff is the cost of doing it. I don't have raised gardens because of that. The downside is the time spent weeding, it's extreme but it gets me outside. I guess most of us hate being cooped up. I love fishing - obviously, love gardening and messing about on my lifestyle block. Also hunting - if you can call it that but I get probably 6 or so half shares in fallow deer each year for the freezer, I can't imagine a life without being a hunter/gatherer/provider
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kandrew Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 9:16pm
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Originally posted by Reel Deal Reel Deal wrote:

anyone made a large pond? I had a excavator putting in a Boulder retaining wall and since he was there I said put in a pond. 6x8m and 2m deep in case I wanted a swim in summer. Prob is it fulls up and then drains away currently a mosquito breeding ground half full. Needs a liner and cheapest I can find is $1000 on trademe. Any suggestions ? Someone said buy a knackered second hand pool liner but I don’t want bright blue. It’s going to be landscaped with rocky waterfall powered by solar.
I’ve seen them line them with clay on tv, perhaps a bit of black poly first.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Keith C Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 9:20pm
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Smudge “ obviously, love gardening and messing about on my lifestyle block. Also hunting - if you can call it that “

Unfortunately I have to hunt both possums and rabbits to save my garden.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 9:35pm
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Originally posted by Keith C Keith C wrote:

Smudge “ obviously, love gardening and messing about on my lifestyle block. Also hunting - if you can call it that “

Unfortunately I have to hunt both possums and rabbits to save my garden.

Me too, love shooting them. Young rabbits are tasty. Have yet to try possum but one day I will
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote BananaBoat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 5:24am
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Originally posted by smudge smudge wrote:

To me the biggest problem with a lot of garden stuff is the cost of doing it.
sounds like my version of fishing haha
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 5:48am
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possum is as good as rabbit to eat in my opinion.
Smudge I used to have weeds in garden but as Kieth mentioned deep mulch reduces. Smudge in one of your beds try lasagna style. To start put down a layer of cardboard tape staples etc removed. If you have big sheets from bed, furniture bike shop etc I get a trailer load free every  6 months. Hose down to make wet and pliable and plant through cardboard or move layer of cardboard around plants. A couple of layers is ok but don’t leave any cracks. Put a 3 inch layer of green lawn clippings.  You are done - no weeds again just wait till harvest and go fishing. This locks in moisture and warmth. No chemical ferts need added, nature takes it from there. The soil comes to life. Cardboard breaks down after 2=3 months worms feed on decaying cardboard and lawn clippings. After harvest. I chop and drop what’s left. Leave roots in ground just cut at ground level they add to the living on site compost system you have started. Add a layer of compost about inch add cardboard layer plant add grass clipping and repeat each year. Never weed again soil explodes into a miracle plant anything media. Hardly water never add nitrogen or any other ferts as it kills natural macros and micros and makes your garden dependant on the chemical companies making those products. My last garden, each month I’d do a garden walk around bored as no weeds and plants going insane just wait till harvest or forage pickings for the table. Interestingly I got to 18 layers over time and if I put that on at one time it would have been higher than me but the soil stayed the same height as when I started.  Worms grow thick and drag the top layer and pull it down up to a foot deep feeding the plants, the old plant roots left decay and leave food and channels for the new plants roots to follow and encourage deep rooting so little watering required over hot spells. You get a feel when the garden is in a sweet spot my indicator crop was broad beans that grew over 2m heigh and cropped hard. It was a beautiful thing.

I have a new garden started which was work but over halfway there now. Garden edging adds slugs earwigs etc to garden as they are perfect hiding places. I do use edging on slopes but avoid. Wood chip paths over thick cardboard or wool carpet re used. Pest and diseases generally go for the sickest plants so a healthy organic garden reduces issues. Kieth interesting how you beat your disease issue pretty much same strategy, make your soil healthy and plants will be too. 
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mr Moritz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 8:23am
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When I first bought our place many years ago, decided to grow some sweet corn. Put the hoe on the back of tractor and tilled up about quarter of  an acre. Planted corn and it was coming away nicely. Had an electric fence around to keep cattle out. Bastards waited till corn was almost ready to pick, then picked on smallest steer and pushed him through the electric fence. Then it was all on. I got home from work to find nothing left. Ready to send the whole twelve off to the works then and there. I've never repeated that mistake...
If you always do, what you've always done. You will always get, what you have always got
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote letsgetem Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 9:20am
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Ive lived on Whangaparaoa peninsula for 5 years. Previously we lived near Rotorua. The Rotorua soil was fantastic, light volcanic; easy to work and free draining. The soil at Whanga is f ...in awful typical of north Auckland I think - heavy clay, very hard to work and stays wet after rain. 

Being oldish, I wouldnt bend down to the ground, so made raised garden beds 75cm high - beds 2m across I can stand and reach over to the centres,

When a contractor was concreting a new parking area, I got him to dump the soil in the beds - left 25cm at the top; bought soil to fill right up. 

Even though the bought soil appeared friable, after a years consolidation it was too hard. So I added 50mm of sand on top and dug in to the top 15cm. This is now a joy to work - easy to dig and easy to remove weeds. 

I add lime every two years - and Blood & Bone fertiliser yearly or twice yearly if I double crop. This supplies Nitrogen and Phosporus slowly over about 6 months - but not Potassium. I couldnt find any organic fertilizer to supply enough potassium,  apply Potassium Sulphate for that.

As the area is small (20 squ Metres), I run it hard; double cropping mostly. Results are generally very good.

I dont grow many different things - Brocolli, Spinach (both perpetual kinds), corn, onions, potatoes, butter beans.

I am starting growing spuds. Tried first in autumn March to winter - they did poorly, the spuds not forming properly (dark translucent inside). I suspect too dry; due drought. I could not water due to water shortage regulations. 

As our temperatures are relatively high, Ive planted new crop early in July - they have emerged and growing well.

I tried buying some seed potatoes, but as they are ridiculously expensive, I am just using eating spuds from the supermarket. I hope to avoid fungal disease, as our rainfall is pretty low. 

Its fun - second though to fishing.   
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Schampy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 9:27am
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Some good quality polythene would probably be ok. It only comes in 4m wide rolls though I think, and joining it with insulation tape won't work.
Beautnol rubber is another option, can glue the seams together with Ados so would be a lot more water tight.
We use TPO for a lot of pool liners these days as well as a roofing membrane. Its thermo-welded together, bullet proof. Not cheap though.
Your biggest problem is gonna be filtration. Like as you said it will be a festering swamp in no time. 
My current clients have opted for a fresh water pool- No chems what so ever,  The water has to be pumped through huge sponges in a tank to filter it. Apparently planting a lot of water Lillys etc around the edges helps keeps water clean.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Schampy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 9:28am
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Sorry the above was for Reel Deal
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Joker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 10:52am
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Here is a link to home made fish fertiliser from fish waste that is really good. A couple of Tablespoonful in a watering can is enough.



https://www.koanga.org.nz/?s=fish+fertiliser

Tip for the lactobacillus - sour dough starter has billions of bacteria in it.

You can make it yourself 
1 tsp yeast
1/4 cup whole meal flour
1/8 cup water
Feed for 3 days doubling the amount of flour each day. 
Use a couple of tablespoons in the fish fertiliser
Freeze 2 tbs batches for further use.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Schecter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 11:24am
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Yes, potato seed is hard to buy online. I sent an SOS to mum and dad to post some seed.



I noticed the price of compost has increased at my local landscape supplier.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote bazza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 12:07pm
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Originally posted by Schecter Schecter wrote:

Yes, potato seed is hard to buy online. I sent an SOS to mum and dad to post some seed.



I noticed the price of compost has increased at my local landscape supplier.

I brought some Jersey Bennes online a couple of weeks back ( choose to grow only J/Bs & Cliffs Kidney ) from Nichols Garden Center in Dunedin ( well priced & next day delivery, rang to commend them on their service ) also noted the warehouse have stocks in if you are in L3 can order & collect ... more expensive than Nichols tho.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote bazza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 12:19pm
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Originally posted by letsgetem letsgetem wrote:

Ive lived on Whangaparaoa peninsula for 5 years. Previously we lived near Rotorua. The Rotorua soil was fantastic, light volcanic; easy to work and free draining. The soil at Whanga is f ...in awful typical of north Auckland I think - heavy clay, very hard to work and stays wet after rain. 

Being oldish, I wouldnt bend down to the ground, so made raised garden beds 75cm high - beds 2m across I can stand and reach over to the centres,

When a contractor was concreting a new parking area, I got him to dump the soil in the beds - left 25cm at the top; bought soil to fill right up. 

Even though the bought soil appeared friable, after a years consolidation it was too hard. So I added 50mm of sand on top and dug in to the top 15cm. This is now a joy to work - easy to dig and easy to remove weeds. 

I add lime every two years - and Blood & Bone fertiliser yearly or twice yearly if I double crop. This supplies Nitrogen and Phosporus slowly over about 6 months - but not Potassium. I couldnt find any organic fertilizer to supply enough potassium,  apply Potassium Sulphate for that.

As the area is small (20 squ Metres), I run it hard; double cropping mostly. Results are generally very good.

I dont grow many different things - Brocolli, Spinach (both perpetual kinds), corn, onions, potatoes, butter beans.

I am starting growing spuds. Tried first in autumn March to winter - they did poorly, the spuds not forming properly (dark translucent inside). I suspect too dry; due drought. I could not water due to water shortage regulations. 

As our temperatures are relatively high, Ive planted new crop early in July - they have emerged and growing well.

I tried buying some seed potatoes, but as they are ridiculously expensive, I am just using eating spuds from the supermarket. I hope to avoid fungal disease, as our rainfall is pretty low. 

Its fun - second though to fishing.   

Hey Rex for what it is worth there is a plant raising enterprise on the Old Albany Hwy that regularly discard their plant raising soil afyer using only once & is a small mountain of it that you can have a full trailer full loaded via a front end loader for only about $40.

It is ultra friable & has plenty of residual nutrient to suit home gardens for 3 yrs or more befor having to boost it.
When you cry, feel pain or sadness, no one notices your sorrow .... BUT
fart just ONE time !!!!!!!!!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote MATTOO Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 4:56pm
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Hi Guys,
In Auckland and having problems finding seedlings online for delivery.
Most seem over run or out of stock.
I've exhausted all the material I have for seed raising with some dodgy seeds for some plants.

Any suggestions appreciated.
Just cruising in my now sweetas pimped out Southern 755 HT0!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tonto2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 5:37pm
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Originally posted by smudge smudge wrote:

Something very therapeutic about keeping a garden. 20 years ago I had about 5 times as much garden as I have now but it became too hard. If the geese didn't attack my sweet corn, the wind would take it out. Or the sheep would eat my pumpkins and watermelons. Plus I used to give away far more than we could eat, so now my household is only 3 people down from six, I have downsized. I'm trying to justify making it bigger but I know I wont be able to control the turkeys. I really want to grow kumara again just like in the old days. could grow enough to last all year and pumpkins, and - ohhh well - one day!

I also have about 50 swan plants and have just sown around 100 seeds.


Well I'll be buggered I never knew you could grow swans from seed, thought they came from eggs, you really are a clever bugga Smudge LOL
slowly going where everyone else has already been
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote bazza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 7:06pm
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Originally posted by MATTOO MATTOO wrote:

Hi Guys,
In Auckland and having problems finding seedlings online for delivery.
Most seem over run or out of stock.
I've exhausted all the material I have for seed raising with some dodgy seeds for some plants.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Suggest you try Nichols Garden online service ( Dunedin ) ... good prices & quality products along with next day delivery.
When you cry, feel pain or sadness, no one notices your sorrow .... BUT
fart just ONE time !!!!!!!!!!!
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