Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Keeping seedlings moist enough is the main key to giving them a good start. Delicate starters (carrots, onions, cucumber, etc) can be kept moist under hessian sacks until the sprouts have unfurled a leaf or two, whereas sturdier types (silverbeet, radish, beans, corn, peas, etc) can be sown in a raised then depressed mound (a mound with a soil edge) to aid in drainage and also to prevent run-off.
[guest]
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Grow vegies: most vegies are not wild plants, but human-dependent plants that need high levels of nutrients. During the warmer days of massive vegetative growth, they have to fertilised every 1-2 weeks and given trace elements (e.g. seaweed tea, worm castings).
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Plan for continuous food with staggered sowing every 2 weeks or so. This means planning how much space you'll need in advance. Don't crowd your plants.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Weed with a sharp hoe: always keep weeds out of your vegie beds with a weekly scrape across the soil surface with a sharp hoe. Weeds are vigorous competition for nutrients that your vegies need.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Some cheap fertilisers: Well-composted poultry manure. Seedmeal (e.g. linseed, soybean meal, coprameal). Dolomite lime and gypsum. Baked then crushed shells and bones. Urine. Adjust proportions to suit your soil type.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Strawberries, blueberries: in early spring, after the new canes and new certified-disease-free strawberry runners are growing well, add pine needles to the bed to lower the pH. Don't add before they're thriving.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Leafy greens need to stay moist and well-nourished to burgeon. As well as a side-dressing of organic fertiliser, spray the leaves of greens with seaweed tea weekly.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Growing herbs cheaply: many cuttings strike roots. Buy some fresh herbs, clip off most of the leaves and trim the base, then dip in weak seaweed tea and place in potting mix. This works for many cuttings. Cover with the top of a plastic bottle to reduce moisture loss.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Using urine as fertiliser: Dilute 1:8 (urine:water) and pour on the soil around plants only when the urine is fresh. Don't use on plants with edible raw leaves or ground-lying berries.
kellyjones00 (593)
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