Vege's you should never have to buy

[kindness]

ah hah

I had a bunch of basil from the shops sprout roots this week, it had been sitting in a glass of water on the bench lolz.

I love gardening! man.

[mescalito]

Keep tipping the buds off and break off any brown stems

[random]

My new fave vegetable now is loose leaf endives

In the tropical weather we've been having here lately they have gone CRAZY and are big curly masses of leaves atm

I grow them for my pet guinea pigs n rabbits HAHA but i'm sure they'd taste great too.

And o.m.g I think my tomato plants doubled in size overnight, they are huge and loving all this humidity and rain here.

But my fave plant is mint - grows like a weed and so many uses, currently on the hunt for some mentha australis seeds if anyone has any pls let me know!!

[IceCube]

Anyone into heirloom varieties of veges? I am so keen to start growing things like purple carrots and beefsteak tomatoes, ordering some seeds now!

[San Rainbow]

There was an interesting section on heirloom veges on better homes and gardens on Friday night... wow, I think I'm getting old

[kindness]

I've got beefsteaks growing in the back yard atm. They are pumping after the rains.... as is the rest of the garden

[Alice]

My beefsteak tomatos are getting devoured by those green grubs

Interestingly, I also have tomatoberries (cherry toms size but shaped like a heart) growing too, and the grubs will only eat the leaves, leaving all the tomatoberries untouched! Don't think I'll grow beefsteaks again, same thing happened last season too.

[niggles]

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Edited June 2, 2011 by niggles

[Zen Peddler]

Hi

im in the process of trying to work out what crops will be best for bulk grows on my half acre block. the challenge with the block is that its at altitude amd its a south slopping block with a pretty heavy cover of massive eucalypts. the soil quality is still quite good to about 2 feet and then its clay.

Last season which was pretty wet I had great success with silverbeet, tomatillos and cape gooseberry. Some of my cape gooseberry plants are still alive now in the dead of winter and frosts.

Winter has been the biggest challenge. Limited light and constant damp has meant that really all I can get to grow well at the moment are greens like sorrell and a pretty dodgy looking spinach.

I actually thought about trying to instal a mirror up a tree to reflect light down. Sound crazy? Summer is fine as we get heaps of sun then, but in winter it just gets too low.

The guy next door said he mainly grows cabbage and greens all year round. He said an old guy uesd to grow skirret in the cold but no luck with seeds for that yet...

[Frank Costanza's Lawyer]

Don't know your climate zone and have no experience growing in areas with frost so I'm essentially 'speaking out my ass' but berries sound like a good option, Tino on gardening australia did a segment about pruning and training them that'll probably be available on their website, heavy producing, extravagant price at market. If it's for yourself maybe try and find someone who still holds some knowledge of native foods in your region and see if they'll help you out. Another possibility could be edible bamboo, rhizomes can grow through practically anything given enough time and they have a million uses.

To contribute to the topic, atm I grow all my own beans and peas, asian greens, macadamia, banana, herbs, lemon myrtle, vietnamese mint, nasturtium, sweet potato, lettuce, lemon and limes, spring onion, chives. Trying out Kohl rabi this winter aswell Normally I would have tomato, chili, pumpkin, corn, chard, strawberry, cucumber but a combination of living in an expensive neighbourhood where everyone builds massive houses that take up practically their whole blocks surrounded by nutrient sapping 'easy care' trees who's roots I constantly find sneaking into my vegie beds and who's ridiculously large canopies overhang my gardening eliminating practically all of my winter light and high amounts of lime from dumped mortar killed off a lot of what was planted (I feel slightly better post rant). I think their karma has arrived now though, they haven't been able to rent the massive overpriced house next to me for over two months, probably because no-one wants to spend so much for the right to live next to a scary dreadlocked couple who are constantly ranting loudly about how "they" are against us and civilisation is doomed (cackles loudly for an uncomfortable length of time).

Gardening Australia shits on Better Homes & Gardens, and BHG are too retarded to realise that shit would make primo fertilizer. I miss Peter Cundall, when it comes to poo, that man loves it. (no homoeroticism intended, the mans 80 something for fucks sake).

Namaste

FCL