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Gardening chat


Ozquoll

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Hey all, thought I'd re-start the Gardening chat thread here at new EB 🙂

 

Melbz is finally getting a bit of warm spring weather! My tomatoes are loving the warmth after sulking through a cool and rainy spring. Two of them have started flowering, yippee!

 

Have discovered that most of my lawn is a species of grass that goes to seed when it's only 4cm high 😠. I don't know if I can mow it low enough to cut off all the seedheads without completely scalping the lawn. I did oversow it with better varieties during winter, which helped in some places, but now I'm thinking I'll have to grub up the entire lawn next winter and start from scratch 😒.

 

How's everyone else's garden going? 🌱

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Ozquoll - 4cm is quite a depth - what type did you use? This time of year our grass always goes to seed because nature loves to reproduce!!!


My chillies are starting to get into full production, capsicums are starting to set and we are pulling out all tomatoes. Oh, and there is a bumper crop of silverbeet to harvest - getting a good haul about every 3 weeks at the moment.


I have had a phenomenon that I have never seen before this year (it would be the year for it) - my parsley bolted to seed!!! I expect that of the coriander, but continental parsley I generally get a few years out of before having to plant more - this year I didn't even get a decent tabouli!!!

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The nature strips in my neighbourhood are all seeding, except mine because I refused to plant that grass. We sneeze enough as it is.


Got tomatoes and basil in over cup weekend as is tradition. Now that I can go to Bunnings I might grab a few extra. Zucchini in too but they didn’t like those two warm days, hopefully they recover. Harvested all my garlic a few weeks back and now my pantry smells amazing.

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Ozquoll - 4cm is quite a depth - what type did you use? This time of year our grass always goes to seed because nature loves to reproduce!!!

The seed I used to oversow in winter was a mix of Kikuyu, ryegrass and fescue, but none of that stuff is going to seed, it's the dodgy "grass" that was already there that is the problem! Any grass that puts up seed on such short stalks is totally unsuitable to be a lawn grass 😠. I expect that the dodgy grass will die off once it has set seed, so I'll be left with ugly bare patches on my lawn. Grrrr.

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Urg grass. It makes me sneeze and gives me hives all over my legs when it goes to seed like that. Our has died a miserable death and now I have dead grass and red dirt out the front of my house. I'm pretty sure it's this grub that eats all the roots. I need DH to rip it all up and then re-lay a different type of grass. It gets a good water every day with a sprinkler but we have maybe a foot wide patch left.


I haven't been motivated to garden. it's too hot here. Veg patch is finished for the year and um has been taken over by long grass. All my indoor plants on the other hand? They have been growing nicely. My Fiddle Leaf fiscus finally decided to be happy and is getting some nice new leaves and I moved around the other two in the bedroom so they get better light and the philodendrum isn't trying to fall out of the pot to get leaves towards the light anymore. I do think I need to get a stake though to give it some support.

I'm also contemplating a rack like this: https://www.mitre10.com.au/media/catalog/product/i/h/ihg_6180285-0.jpg?quality=80&fit=bounds&height=840&width=840&canvas=840:840

It can sit under the living room window, so the plants there get enough light but kids can store shoes or crap on the bottom of it. I think Kmart might have something better for the bedroom (currently they are sitting on plastic tubs which I have stored craft stuff in :lol: )

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My tomatoes are also starting to flourish after a slow start, and the rest of my veggie garden is starting to look like it might mean something. I planted two spaghetti squash seedlings and something ate them so I've planted more in a different location and they seem good so far.

I'm waging war on harlequin beetles with a spray bottle of detergent. I don't want them to find their way to my tomato plants because they suck the flesh out of the fruit.

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I haven't, but our late neighbour planted them in his guerilla gardening strategy - there was a straight line of well-spaced flame trees from his front gate across through the parklands all the way to the esplanade! It is a nice little tribute to him now.

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Depends on what sort of flame tree it is. There are a few called a flame tree... we have a variety here that is called a pointsianna. (Looks vaguely like a red jacaranda). The Illawarra flame tree is similar in look but a different type of tree. And then there is a variety that is a totally different species again that my grandmother called a flame tree that had these huge flowers that looked like a flame and grew really tall. I think it might have originated from Africa.

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Guest BusbyWilkes

One of my kids has planted broad bean seeds, and now I have dozens of broad bean plants mixed in with my sweetcorn. Yuck. Hopefully the chickens like broad beans, because no one else does.

I put in tomatoes, marigolds and peas today, then hacked out a patch of dying cape weed and put in a couple of dozen sunflower seedlings. Then I planted a couple of flame tree seedlings that mum bought me. Has anyone grown them before? I hadn’t realised that they existed outside of the song.

 

I had never like broadbeans either, until I learnt how to prepare them. Everyone else may already know this, but a chef friend said as well as removing them from their pods, you can/should peel or remove their skin/tough outer layer. Then, as well as preparing them in a traditional veggie way, they make an awesome dip/spread.


On the flame tree, the one I know is the poinciana that PP mentioned. They are beautiful, if that’s what you have planted.


Edited as autocorrect changed broadbeans into broadband!

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Sorry, I hadn’t realised that there were a few! Illawarra Flame trees.

Pretty sure they are fairly hardy. They used to grow fairly easily up in northern NSW where I'm from. Just be careful of where you plant them with the roots. Town here is full of pontsiannas.

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Sorry, I hadn’t realised that there were a few! Illawarra Flame trees.

Pretty sure they are fairly hardy. They used to grow fairly easily up in northern NSW where I'm from. Just be careful of where you plant them with the roots. Town here is full of pontsiannas.

 

I put them in 10m from the house on the northwest, primarily for summer shade. My house is incredibly badly designed, and my kitchen faces west for the full force of the afternoon sun. I’ve got yellowbox eucalyptus further away and down the hill, but they’ll take 20 years to provide any shade.

 

I don't know if they grow where you are but one you might like as well is the Gold shower tree. They grow fast, fairly tall and during spring drop their leaves and explode into yellow flowers. Just don't put them near a pool like ours is (I spend 3 months a year constantly removing leaves and then emptying the pump basket of yellow petals). They are also fairly easy to grow. And the termites seem to leave it alone.

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Gold has an en on the end but apparently the site doesn't like Gold*n and I get a 403 error. Why I don't know?

 

It's the combo of the words golden and shower, they're a bit kinky :lol:

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Gold has an en on the end but apparently the site doesn't like Gold*n and I get a 403 error. Why I don't know?

 

It's the combo of the words golden and shower, they're a bit kinky :lol:


:lol: But even just Golden gets the error.


ETA oh and now it works 🙄 Though I posted the above on a computer and this one a phone.

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Double Delight

Our garden is going great guns. We are harvesting radish, iceberg lettuce and beetroot. The first of our cucumbers are ready (three varieties - green, apple and lebanese). We have carrots, celery, watermelon, rockmelon, spring onion, leek, tomatoes, black and yellow corn and our garlic is just about ready to harvest. I'm just about to plan our verge garden. It's the last one to overhaul since we moved here 20 months ago.

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Got a recommendation if you are looking for gardening boots. I got these Bogs Sweetpea boots recently and they are very easy to slip into and get out into the garden quickly 😊. They are waterproof but they're not rubber, I'm not sure what they're made of. Very comfy, whatever it is. Also they're nice enough to wear to school pick up, which is more than I can say for my other gardening boots!


https://www.bogsfootwear.com.au/shop/styleGridSearch.html?text=sweetpea

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Spidey_Senses

Adelaide has had a very wet spring so I should be taking advantage of that but I havent had time. Ive got tomatos, baby spinach, beans and lettuce coming along. Thats about it. We have big raised garden beds and I should be making more out of my garden but Im time poor.

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Made 2 dozen silverbeet and feta rolls last night because we needed to harvest - also have a dozen "balls" in the freezer for quick grab and throw into recipes.


Pulled down the rest of the cherry tomato vine and made a delicious slow-roasted tomato, garlic and basil paste that will not last the week as we have discovered how good it is as a spread!


Also made 2 jars of red chilli sauce, 3 jars of green chilli sauce (there is about 20 chillies used in each jar) and have the straighter chillies brining to pickle whole tonight.


Capsicums loo are starting to take off. Beetroot are tootling along slowly. I have to do something about the rosemary. Other than that, we are at watch and wait status - mainly waiting to see what DH will plant next, really.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone know why my Climbing Fig (Ficus pumila) isn't clinging to the brickwork? It's been in for about five months, it's put on reasonable growth in that time, and we've tried propping it against the wall with sticks and even blu-tac, but it just won't cling!!

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54 tomato plants in the ground and I ain't finished yet 😁💪🍅!!

 

Wow! Do you grow them commercially?

I’ve pulled out the remainder of the broad beans and prepared room for a dozen tomato plants and a dozen sweetcorn plants to put in tomorrow.

According to my mum, climbing figs tend to struggle to attach in spring, so prop them or tie to the trellis with old stockings and they’ll come good towards Christmas.

Good to know re climbing figs! I planted them in the dead of winter so perhaps they are just waiting for hotter weather to get their cling on 😄.


Semi-commercial with the tomatoes. Me and my sisters are going to do a MASSIVE canning/preserving/saucing blitz, I'm seed-saving a heap of rare varieties to sell next year, and there's a posh fruit n veg shop that is willing to take any excess tomatoes off my hands at a pretty good price.

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One of my dogs got behind a fence to eat the old broccoli plants. They were going to seed anyway so I pulled them out and now she's scattered them all over the yard. And no other dog dares go near them, they're her secret feast.

Planted seeds for baby leaves in their place.

My strawberries and cucumbers have flowers, my tomato plants are growing fast after a slow start, my green beans are climbing and my spaghetti squash are coming along rapidly.


I've got 19 tomato plants, there's only two of us and my daughter who is here about 3 nights a week, so we are going to be eating tomatoes at every meal. Amish Paste, Mortgage Lifter and Tommy Toe.

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Yay a gardening thread!


My poor garden has been neglected of late as I hurt my back so couldn't do anything for a couple of weeks.

The grass is so long and grows so quickly. The ducklings ate my seedlings (just replaced those thankfully as the nursery had stock) and everything has bolted so I was waiting until I could collect the coriander seed.


Back in action this weekend! Duck pens built quickly yesterday and I did some weeding and clearing so I can hopefully get some more things in the ground today.


Looks like I've planted a few things too close together so will have to have a rethink. Everything is going great guns, including the slugs! Will have to get some beer traps going and see if that helps.


I really need to get on to removing some grass and mulching. I lost steam last time and didn't get around to mulching and now it's even worse!

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