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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jan 2022 at 9:22am
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Titanium
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Watering ..We havint had rain for few weeks now.. and We have not watered the veg garden...
Tomatos producing, 1st double batch chutney the other day, heaps going over the 'fences'   Dwarf beans picking nice 'restaurant size'.. beetroot going well...
Everything.
 Now planting in  1 to 2m squares, and closer and having built up organic matter in the soil, only compost as mulch as plant out..Which gets turned over for next planting..
Cycle types crops is easier than rows..

Diffwerence is rather significant over row planting.

I only plant out when it rains, got a few m sq platches, should plant out and was hoping that cyclone would stay in close , drop a solid amount of water..
 But no....
Also with square planting can water the correct amount  easier..
I worked out some yrs back that over summer, row planting I needed 12mm rain per week over summer, and 20mm when plant out.
Thats .. if some dont realise, is 12 and 20 L per sq meter..
That is not much....
I know how many seconds to take to fill a 10L bucket...then where Im going to plant, the evening before.. turn that sq over, drop about 20L onto it....spread about 25/30mm compost out of the bin...
Next day drop another 10L ( to make sure) then plant out out.

Been away on a road trip for few days, again enough tomatoes (1 punnet of beef steak and another of moneymaker) for a 2x batch tomato relish throwing in beans , sprouting cali, leeks, and anything else that would other wise 'go over the fence'

Week or so ago was a batch capsicum relish.. try it even if dont like them...
And  chilli jam.. perfect match for venison, thu goes well with any meat..
This yr is the 1st of both of these.

 Would post up a few pics .. but I want to delete a lot duplicate and pics that have no informational value, and cant.. Its a hassle to go thru to find pics when need to re post now.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jan 2022 at 10:23am
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I would need a mountain of compost for my garden and trees. I make about 200 litres of it from one year to the next. At 30ml per sq metre I would need approx 3000l of compost. Mulching works, but I don't have anywhere near enough of that either. I try to plant out just before or during rain too but this week I've planted out courgettes, sweetcorn, chives, cucumbers, swan plants & lettuce. They need water as do my fruit trees.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jan 2022 at 11:27am
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Titanium
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I think many (well most) have gardens way too big for their immediate household and preserving/ freezing needs..
Which from yrs of experience have found to be the case.. plus they tend to take up far more time than can be justified for the actual kitchen volume.
When these require more time than can be justified, then the gardens tend to be in need of maintenance , weeding.. resulting in a never ending circle of never quite being on top of things..
 We started with large  veggie gardens when children where growing up.. and hen house fruit trees vines etc.
 Everything from the house/ kitchen, the hen house and trimmings, mulching  from trees scrubs kept up with the compost requirement nicely.
 Run 3 50L compost bins.
1 "in use for multch"
1 final composting down
1 filling up.
When the fully composted bin is MT.. the top unbroken down stuff in filling up bin is tossed in the mt bin down to partly composted level.
The still partly composted on the top of the composting down put over on top.
 That leaves most of that bin ready to use..
So one is never actually turning over all of a bin at a time, usually 1/2 to 2/3  only once .. and never having to do 2 at once...
 Lawn clippings are never added to the bins.
If have weeds in lawns, get weeds in garden, weeds in garden is work.. work is a 4 lettered word Wink
Also lawn clippings have little organic volume once broken down, and little nutrient value.

As children left home, sections of the gardens where put back to into lawns...hen house eventually shut down.
 The balance of scrapes , etc more than kept up with requirements.
Now Here, pretty much just the 2 of us, the compost is only just keeping up, and garden still supplies most of our veggies..
Thu we dont grow peas, carrots,onions sweet corn as these are cheap to buy, and/or take up lot space and/or take long time to mature and/or susceptible to wind or rain.

We still grow enough to supply most of or veggies, combined with the freezer and sauces, jams, pickles, and wines etc  for all yr round out of our little plot...beans, leek , beetroot, cabbage, cali, broccoli, tomato chili capsicums, lettuce (partly) cucumber, and spuds for Christmas... and few weeks beyond only
Plus the staple sage thyme, spring onions chives, basil couple others the wife 'orders'

 A home veggie garden should be no more than a few minutes here and there, to pick crop or turn a patch or row.. scatter a bit of compost, plant a punnet or 2. and while doing so any of the above, pluck the odd weed here and there that is in arms reach only.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jan 2022 at 11:46am
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Depends what you want from it Steps. It's a relaxing hour of escape for me. You're right of course. Most of us grow too much but it is enjoyable for me. It's a bit like saying that you should never spend more than X amount of time fishing. I catch more than enough fish just for the three of us and at this time of the year I limit my fishing.

I give away a lot of what I grow but I have downsized my garden 4 fold. I'd be lucky to have a 100 square metres now (not counting my 'orchard' space). What my still big garden does allow is the choice of things to eat with maybe 25 different types of vegies, fruit and berries. Then there are the challenges like growing eggplants. I'll crack that one day. Yes I can grow them but they are hardly prolific. Growing giant pumpkins is a prime example of growing for fun, stringy, huge and only good as sheep tucker requiring pretty much daily maintenance. My biggest was 102kg which is just a baby but a cool project.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jan 2022 at 9:43pm
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First pick of sweetcorn tonight. Wow, so much better than what I bought last week from New World. Hoping for rain in a week.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote lingee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jan 2022 at 5:05am
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yes the home corn is the  best,we have had 3 nites of corn so far yum. i grow a late crop as well,nice before winter, rain would be nice its so dry and only 1 water tank.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jan 2022 at 8:49am
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Titanium
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At best a few showers thursday.. maybe, big maybe. I recon will break up just before crossing nth on the 40th parrell.

 Then there is next tues, but I recon it break up before getting here from the Nth Territories, and if doesnt will hook out to the east.. which is generally the norm like the last 'storm'

So if tanks geting low dont wait to order tanker refill, get in line now if nth Taupo ish
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Steps think smart re weeds. Bare soil is natures scar so nature fills it in. Never leave bare soil. I don’t weed and have a plot 40m x 20m in continue harvest and sowing. I use grass that is heavy with seed as mulch, lawn clippings etc and no weeds. It doesn’t matter what. I’m big on chop and drop. No dig and lasagna methods. All organic no chemical ferts. Eg when a Cabbage is finished. Don’t pull and chop for compost. I cut at ground level rip off leaves and put lawn clippings over or plant next crop amongst cabbage bits discarded. I didnt even dig or remove couch grass( I’m close to coast) when establishing garden, just pushed down the tall grass. 3 layers of cardboard, wetted then a couple inches of soil compost then a thin layer of grass clippings. Planted seedlings same day. Boom. Instant vege garden with no weeds.when I say weeds I mean usual types but I do get a few natives like Totora, Manuka nikau cabbage and flax plants come up from time to time, I just pot up and have heaps growing on for other projects. Change techniques and don’t waste time weeding again. 
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 smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 7:10am
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Yay! Maybe some rain today and tomorrow!! Looks like a drenching heading for the whole country in a weeks time.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote lingee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 7:27am
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Yep we are getting sum and hoping it goes on for a few days,top up tank and o the garden will love it.made a few jars of tomato relishes and the beans have been grate as the corn, zucckini picking daily,and the list goes on, hard to beat home growen veg.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 7:41am
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Titanium
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Yep a quick shower few minutes ago..7am.. as per forcast. Then comes in this evening gone by thurs morning.

Cleared a couple patches on Sat/ Sun, turned over, 12L per sqm  spread compost and other 12L per sqm ,so ready to plant out today.

Havnt water the garden otherwise for few weeks now, dry as but everything producing full on.
Funny how stress causes fruit, and with tomatoes, beans, chilli capsicums, good fleshy fruit..
Broccoli starting to pick, lettuce, beetroot radish, bean patches just keep rolling over.
Couple double batches chutney and sauce done and enough on the current plants for another batch.
The late planted just  forming fruit now.

Chilli jam done, may get another 1/2 batch, and another batch capsicum chutney later in the week.

Definitely like how the square planting rather than rows performs.. water retention convenience of harvest and volume of production.
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I don't grow broccoli and cabbage over summer because of the butterflies. While I don't mind munching the occasional steamed caterpillar others do. Soft! How do you deal with them Steps?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Schecter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 8:01am
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My cherry tomatos and zucchini are very plentiful.  My wife has made a few jars of tomato relish.  I was never a fan of zucchini, but my wife has "sexed" them up by frying them in a saucepan with sesame seeds and chilli flakes...delicious!  

The spinach, kale and silverbeet are also plentiful and have bolted.  I toss them into a pot of brisket or porkbones for a boilup.  

The potato crop has failed.  I'll try again next year.

I'm currently preparing the autumn and winter crops of brocolli, cabbage, silverbeet, spinach, kale, rocket and beetroot.  

Good to have some rain in the coming days, as my waterbarrels are running low.
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I don't grow broccoli and cabbage over summer because of the butterflies. While I don't mind munching the occasional steamed caterpillar others do. Soft! How do you deal with them Steps?

 Yep for decades grew in winter because of that , plus take up lot space for longer time when growing..
Have a couple approx sq m patches this yr , needed  to cycle crop types.
Cycling crops is so important..and so often over looked in the home gardens.
And as I have mentioned before , I put a solar electric fence around the garden, ankle height to keep the cats out...
This has had an unintended result, no cats/ dogs around , more birds, bird eat grubs.. and think combined with planting in squares they far happier with the extra cover underneath.

Only stuff I use, add to garden, is a 3/4 can bake bean tin of gypsum, and another 3/4 of general garden fertiliser over the compost on top when plant out..No  fungicides, insecticides.. not cause anti, but just because not needed... but do lay out snail bitzum around the place day before full moon.. old school
The gypsum and general garden fertiliser is because the drainage here very deep and incredibly good. Water/ rain washes nutrients deep very quick.
 Last garden over 30yrs was just compost, lot of it, the wood ash from the fire and a good spread of gypsum 0nce a yr.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 9:57am
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Originally posted by Steps Steps wrote:

I don't grow broccoli and cabbage over summer because of the butterflies. While I don't mind munching the occasional steamed caterpillar others do. Soft! How do you deal with them Steps?

 Yep for decades grew in winter because of that , plus take up lot space for longer time when growing..
Have a couple approx sq m patches this yr , needed  to cycle crop types.
Cycling crops is so important..and so often over looked in the home gardens.
And as I have mentioned before , I put a solar electric fence around the garden, ankle height to keep the cats out...
This has had an unintended result, no cats/ dogs around , more birds, bird eat grubs.. and think combined with planting in squares they far happier with the extra cover underneath.

Only stuff I use, add to garden, is a 3/4 can bake bean tin of gypsum, and another 3/4 of general garden fertiliser over the compost on top when plant out..No  fungicides, insecticides.. not cause anti, but just because not needed... but do lay out snail bitzum around the place day before full moon.. old school
The gypsum and general garden fertiliser is because the drainage here very deep and incredibly good. Water/ rain washes nutrients deep very quick.
 Last garden over 30yrs was just compost, lot of it, the wood ash from the fire and a good spread of gypsum 0nce a yr.

So nothing for the caterpillars then?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 1:26pm
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So nothing for the caterpillars then?

 Other than the low solar electric fence, no cats and therefore birds.
3rd or 4th year now with this garden..
 Last garden, the birds would come down into the garden when I was there...me there no cats..
There was a couple thrushs  and a blackbird in particular who would dig almost in hand reach next to me.
Same sort of principle but they, and myself where not there long enough to have an effect as the current electric fence.

And the wax eyes and fantail families would follow around the garden... this was bang in the middle of Sth Auckland urban
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Ahhh ok, so birds then. Dang!  I better have a word with my blackbirds and turkeys they not doing their job! I think I wont bother growing broccoli in summerBig smile
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote MATTOO Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 4:50pm
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Titanium
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Smudge,
The best defence I've created without poisons has been birds, and wasps.

I have a bird feeder with oranges and sugar water in the vegetable garden.
And I don't kill any paper wasps or other wasps unless there in a high traffic zone.

It's an option for you to consider.
Just cruising in my now sweetas pimped out Southern 755 HT0!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 5:28pm
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I literally do have turkeys in my garden and a pet blackbird, along with others, when I was growing broccoli I would spend time squashing caterpillars but I couldn't keep up. I guess it doesn't help being surrounded by farmland. There is a kale paddock just across the road that is just swarming with white butterflies, starlings, doves, blackbirds and sparrows Big smile
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jan 2022 at 6:32pm
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Mattoo same same. Have approx 20 cabbages and 20 broccoli. They get a bit of a munch on lower leaves till caterpillars are the size they can be spotted by wasps. Don’t touch let them do their work. Good harvests and cut off chewed outer leaves on cabbages and broccoli heads don’t get touched. Just about to to do my next successive planting of same numbers so hopefully there are enough caterpillars around to keep the wasps coming back and keen.

Usually when my cabbages and broccoli Brussels etc come on the shops are flooded too and prices are very low but this year…$4.20 a broccoli head ? Far out glad I planted.
Harvesting this week, peas, orange, white, green and purple carrots, broccoli, silver beat spinach, red shallots, spring onion, green and red cabbage, orange, yellow and red beetroot, Dalmatian beans, dwarf butter and green beans, cucumber, red yellow green and black tomatoes, parsley, potatoes, spring onions, basil,  coriander, capsicums, chillies, drunken ladies lettuce (favourite), two types of kale. I stagger my pick varities to change up meal recipes. If like the beans and parsley that are pumping I am bagging and freezing for winter. Most are a steady flow.

I also are trying planting in blocks for some crops after Steps mentioned earlier in the year. So far carrots are similar when compared to rows. I have grass clippings for mulch which holds water in well.

This year I’m experimenting with harvesting seeds. My successive bean plantings are 3rd generation from a packet I got in spring. Also I’m pulling flowering lettuce plants down to just above ground level. exposing soil under the flower seed heads and making sure they get a water. So far quite a few new lettuce plants have been pricked out to other parts of the garden. Saves trying collect the tiny seeds and propagating.👍
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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