http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/index.php EN Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:21:46 -0600 Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:21:46 -0600 CFG Forum Phorum CFG Forum 60 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?20,355,385#msg-385 kritty
hope this helps(as i have never done this myself nona told me about it:) not 100% if it would work or not. - there are white oil chemicals in the shops but organicaly would be better :D

cheers KT:)]]> Fruit trees http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?20,355,385#msg-385 Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:21:46 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,384,384#msg-384 Mike Container growing http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,384,384#msg-384 Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:39:45 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,382,383#msg-383 Peter
Corn is certainly a heavy feeder but it does depend on the quality of your soil to start with. I tend to follow a rotation cycle of crops in the garden which helps soil fertility. Here are an article on it http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=106

I find that in growing corn the best crop to precede it is a green manure crop which gives nitrogen to the soil and corn likes lots of nitrogen. If you have not done this and to minimise the use of fertilisers another way to give the corn nitrogen is to grow beans or a green manure crops (legume)around them. Climbing beans could be grown in between the plants ns they will climb up the corn stalks, give you more food and fertilise the corn at the same time. You can find out more about growing green manure crops here http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=101

Using the fertilisers you mention are OK, but its important not to over fertilise as this can deplete the soil. We also use biodynamic soil preparations to stimulate life in the soil.]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,382,383#msg-383 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:02:38 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,382,382#msg-382 Danielle

I understand that corn is a heavy feeder. I recently planted corn into a corrugated raised garden bed that had contained zucchini. After removing the old zucchini plants and before planting the corn, I dug some slow release fertiliser into the bed and watered with seasol. I then planted the corn and have fed them twice in the two weeks since planting, with worm tea. Is there anything else I should be doing to ensure they get adequate feed? Is weekly to often to feed, should it be fortnightly?]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,382,382#msg-382 Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:50:11 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,378,381#msg-381 Peter
The answer depends on your goal. If it is to use the space under your fruit trees to grow food, then having plants that do not affect the roots too much are important, as ell as being plants that do not need full sun. This could be shallow rooted greens such as lettuce, Asian greens or warrigul greens. Root crops are not advisable as they go deeper and harvesting of them will affect the tree roots.

Your idea with the potatoes in a wine barrel sounds like a good one. Potatoes do not need full sun.

If you goal is too fertilise the soil under the fruit trees then growing crops to to made into green manure are ideal as these will greatly help that plant vitality. You can choose legumes where the leaves are edible and pods, such as cow pea.

Planting instructions on all these plants are in our Gardener subscriber site.]]> Garden planning http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,378,381#msg-381 Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:28:13 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,379,380#msg-380 Peter
You asked that question in mid November and I posted a reply to the questions same day. Its here http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,44

Or simply look at the bottom of the strawberry group of postings in the form category Plants.

Please review and if you want to ask more question, please ask.]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,379,380#msg-380 Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:03:05 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,379,379#msg-379 Dean Have 4 plants which have given us some delightfully flavoured (although small) berries and would like to try and get some more plants going.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Dean]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,379,379#msg-379 Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:34:22 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,378,378#msg-378 R Garden planning http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,378,378#msg-378 Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:29:49 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,44,377#msg-377 Peter
Yes its ideal to snip off the strawberry runners and keep multiplying. I will give you an example. In my strawberry patch which is now 8m wide and 20m long and has 4 rows, I started 3 years ago with 12 strawberries plants from my back garden. I planted them in row 1 and after the first crop was finished, I got about 5 runners per plant (60 runners). I then moved those runners to the bed 2 and left the original ones in bed 1. After the next crop I got 5 runners each from bed 1 (60) and 10 runners each from bed 2 (360). After the next crop I then moved runners to bed 3 and so on.

By the time plants in bed 1 had produced 3 crops I pulled them out after the third crop because after 3 crops the root gets woody and fruit gets smaller. So its important to not leave them in for too long and to make sure they have some space around them. If you keep in mind that you always get the biggest strawberries from the newest runners, this helps with thinking in managing your patch

My beds now have about 400 plants in them and at the end of last season I gave away sold or composted at least 1000 strawberry runners. We get to crops per year so we produce a lot of strawberries and runners.

There is a short movie and blog on the site with more info9r on strawberries here http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=105]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,44,377#msg-377 Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:06:47 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,44,376#msg-376 Dean Good gardening to you all.
Dean Shipman]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,44,376#msg-376 Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:16:18 -0600 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,375,375#msg-375 Jacqueline
It is not totally clay soil as I have been trying to improve this garden bed the expensive way....with importing new organic soil, bags of soil improvers, bags of compost, sand, gypsum, blood and bone as well as chicken manure pellets. However, it is still not as good as I would like, and the PH was tested a few days ago and it seems to be extremely alkaline around 9/10.

Having said that, I am not wishing to invest any further funds as far as soil improvers or fertilisers are concerned because I am aware of green manuring.

We do have a worm farm but it is really slow and it will be another 6 months I think before we will have any soil from this. So my thoughts are to green manure but I don't want to pull out my existing seedlings.

I am wondering if bush beans or mung beans would be a suitable green crop as I have these seeds already on hand. The beans have not been inoculated.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Jacqui]]> Garden planning http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,375,375#msg-375 Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:29:29 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,370,374#msg-374 Peter
Cold compost bin should have a mixture of food scraps (not meat), grass or hay, preferably some manure like chicken manure and a little bit of dirt. Ideally it should be turned to keep it from becoming anerobic. That's where it gets too wet and goes a brown colour and is goey.

Important to have air. If I get a bit lazy and do not turn my bins (I simply tip them on the ground fork them and bit and then shovel them back into the bin, they will become anerobic and be full of greebilies and it is at this stage that I then tip the mixture into the chicken pen, they clean up all the crawly things and I then shovel the mixture back into the compost bin. Its surprising how much food starts to grow out of this patch in the chicken pen.

There is a lot of content on composting in my Food Gardening guide in our Gardener subscriber site.

Happy composting.]]> Composting http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,370,374#msg-374 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:57:57 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,373,373#msg-373 jane I started my compost heap about 8 weeks ago and put in all the vegie and fruit scraps as well as some pea straw and weeds from the garden. The bin is about half full now but I have a big infestation of ants. Should i do anything or is this normal? The compost bin is one of those green bins and its in a shady spot. It also has those tiny flies too. Any advice would be welcome.]]> Composting http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,373,373#msg-373 Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:25:01 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,372#msg-372 Peter
Worm fertiliser if excellent for vegies, dilute it 1-10.]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,372#msg-372 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:39:49 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,371#msg-371 Danielle
The zuchini's are growing well and no sign of a mould yet. I live in the Redlands Area, QLD, we have quite a clay soil so we have built up garden beds with layers of good compost, mulch and fertiliser. I have planted them in the same bed as purple capsicum and carrot, as this is my first veggie garden and I am trying to keep it simple to start with. I hope they will companion ok with these two veg?
Is worm liquid fertiliser ok for veggies and what should the mix to water measurement be? We have a worm farm and so far have only used it on garden plants, no veggies yet.

Thanks
Danielle]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,371#msg-371 Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:57:52 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,370,370#msg-370 Scott I have justed started my own compost, I turned a plastic garbage bin into a compost bin by just putting a few holes around and underneath. All seems to be going well, its smell musty and of dirt and it been going for about 3 weeks, but I have notice a lot of little flying insects (no maggots) inside the bin.
Is this normal and ok? or if not what should I do to get rid of them?]]> Composting http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,370,370#msg-370 Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:07:08 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,5,369#msg-369 Ray Composting http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?6,5,369#msg-369 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:48:12 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,232,368#msg-368 john Container growing http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,232,368#msg-368 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:35:24 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,241,367#msg-367 Peter
With growing in containers that are not connected to the earth, you are limiting the potential flow of minerals and life into the growing box. One of the ways to improve growing in containers is too change the soil each year. You could compost this soil and put newly composted soil into the container. In this way, you are renewing the soil.

You could also put extra fertiliser on the soil and this is what a lot of container growers do. They fertilise quite a lot and eventually where there is too much fertilisation the soil sours.

The aim with food growing soil is that you have progressively increasing fertility. Changing soil each year in your container will work OK, but you are disturbing soil life each time, so its like going back to first base each time you do it.

So I am not saying to stop using containers, but if you experiment as well using dirt beds and give them the same amount of attention I am very confident you will find better fertility and plant quality in the bed connected directly to the dirt.

Its easy to become tricked by plants looking big because of over-fertilisation (but they are not particularly healthy) and this is especially a trap with containers. I wrote a blog about this recently]]> Container growing http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,241,367#msg-367 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:40:25 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,241,366#msg-366 Ray Container growing http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?15,241,366#msg-366 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:35:29 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,365#msg-365 Peter
Glad to hear your zuchinis are growing well. They may not be hit with mould and you could have a great crop. Some of the factors which cause mould are:

1. Too much watering on the leaves so make sure you water the base and not the leaves or if you are watering the leaves do it in the morning rather than the evening
2. Very high humidity and lots of rain. In my sub tropical climate, these plants are very challenging from Jan to April even though the temps are good, the humidity and rain is very high, whereas growing them now is great as its getting warm and its still not high humidity
3. High moisture levels at the time of the full moon, especially if its in perigee (closest to the earth in its monthly orbit), will very likely bring mould to many plants in the curcubit family, zuccini being one of them.
4. If you have very thick mulch around the plant or mulch that has a lot of mould spores in it such as spoiled lucerne, you will encourage the presence of mould.

Mould on these plants is really a very rapid reproduction activity which thrives on moisture. Once it gets hold of a plant, its often quite challenging to stop.

If you are adopting appropriate watering and have a loose layer of mulch and you have planted them at a time when humidity is low, but its still warm as they love the heat, then its unlikely you will have a mould problem. Also, if the space you planted them in has had mould in any previous crops, then this makes it a bit harder so make sure you rotate your crops to keep this in check and wait at least 4 cycles. One of my recent blog on crop rotation will help with that. The other matter to note is that if you start them in good compost and your soil is healthy, then they will be robust and more likely to resist mould.

If you know a lot of moisture is coming and the moon is nearing perigee and full moon, then from a biodynamic gardening perspective, you can cut the rapid reproduction activity of the mould by spraying either equisetum arvense (BD508) or BD501 which is silica. Milk can also be used, but personally I have not had much success with milk, I prefer to use biodynamic gardening methods when I know a risk time is approaching.

Like most things in successful food gardening, there is never one answer and your task is to be as objective as possible and experiment so you can work the solution through you own thinking and doing.

Enjoy your zuchini's]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,365#msg-365 Sat, 08 Oct 2011 05:45:39 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,364#msg-364 Danielle Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,225,364#msg-364 Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:55:37 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?9,362,363#msg-363 Peter
I make biodynamic tree paste which works a treat on all fruit trees. It is a mixture of cow manure, sand, clay, water and BD500 (a biodynamic preparation you can make or buy from the Biodynamic Association of Australia. You can also buy the paste from them as well, but because its quite heavy, you pay a lot for freight. I prefer to make it myself as its not that difficult.

The tree paste is applied normally after the plant has fruited and you are cleaning it up for the next year. You can also use it when the plant is being weakened by pests which sounds like your situation.

When the tree paste is made right, (I use an old bath or large bucket)it turns into a smooth paste and it is put onto the tree trunk and branches with a brush or your hands. Its helpful to clean off moss from the trunk before applying it and this can be done with a wire brush.

Larger orchards working with biodynamic methods will dilute it to a level where it can be sprayed from the air. Its OK to go on the leaves.

Further instructions on BD tree paste are on our site here http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/biotreepaste.php and I also teach people how to make and apply it in our biodynamic gardening courses.]]> Pest Management http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?9,362,363#msg-363 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:27:05 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?9,362,362#msg-362 Jacki
thanks, Jacki]]> Pest Management http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?9,362,362#msg-362 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:18:13 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?22,358,361#msg-361 Nola Teachers are noticing postive changes in children which had not been obvious before. So good luck, we love it and a hoping for good harvests ( produce and funding!)]]> Growing food in early childhood http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?22,358,361#msg-361 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:14:48 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,243,360#msg-360 Bev
I had this exact problem when I was trying to source untreated hardwood for a child's sandpit.

I ended up buying ironbark which is apparently a natural hardwood. A bit more expensive but worth it for peace of mind. Not the right side of town for you, but I got mine from Tradeware Building Supplies at Capalaba West. I imagine most timberyards would stock it though. I had mine sanded to avoid splinters for the kids in the sandpit, but it would have been less expensive un-sanded.

Regards
Bev]]> Garden planning http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?3,243,360#msg-360 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:04:04 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?9,124,359#msg-359 Graeme Pest Management http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?9,124,359#msg-359 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:09:27 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?22,358,358#msg-358 Peter
Its a very interesting project and its certainly heartening to see how motivated the organisation is to work with food gardening. I have often observed the impact on children of being in food gardens through the work I do and my own children. Its wonderful to see how easy it is for the child young to have a feeling of wonder and reverence for the garden and these are very important ingredients for successful food gardening.

What experiences do any of you have to share about gardening with children?]]> Growing food in early childhood http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?22,358,358#msg-358 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:03:24 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?21,357,357#msg-357 Peter
Are any other gardeners using Lemon Myrtle for other purposes?]]> Native food plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?21,357,357#msg-357 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:55:52 -0500 http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,354,356#msg-356 Peter
I have purple and white flowers peas close to each other and have been growing them like that for a few years now. I have not seen cross pollination and from my knowledge is quite unusual for them to cross pollinate as peas are self pollinating. But that is not to say that cross pollination cannot occur.

You have said the taste is not so good. If I was you, I would save some seeds and persevere with them over a few seasons, they may improve with age, just like most of us!

regards]]> Plants http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/cfg-forum/read.php?4,354,356#msg-356 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:20:39 -0500