A walk through my garden.

[tripsis]

Thought I'd share some pics of my garden. I've only been where I am since late April, so much of the garden is still being established and new beds are still being put in. Still, I've been busy, so have plenty of useful plants throughout the property now.

We first started by building raised beds with corrugated steel. Most of the property is sloping, with bed rock either exposed, or very close to the soil surface, so raised beds were preferable. We built three initially, each 3m x 1m. Afterwards, with the last remaining sheet of steel, we made a fourth bed, but only half the height of the others.

Shortly after planting out the first bed with seedlings I had grown in tube pots:

Later...

Recently:

As can be seen, we planted a little too densely. We planted Romanesco broccoli, purple broccoli, Russian red kale, English spinach, leek, a couple of different 'purple dragon' and yellow carrots, parsnip and maca in that bed. The maca and leeks were totally overrun and consequently are still tiny.

In the other beds we have several garlic varieties, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli, yellow and orange carrots, onion, mizuna greens, maca and mustard greens.

Some other shots:

A small maca (Lepidium peruvianum) wilting in the sun:

In the lower bed we're growing yacon, Jerusalem artichoke and oca. The Jerusalem artichokes have not yet sprouted shoots, though they have roots.

The yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) beginning to put on some growth:

Oca (Oxalis tuberosa), both white and pink :

More recently, we built a bed directly on a sandstone outcrop. We built it up with soil, composted manure and sawdust treated with liquid fertiliser for a couple of weeks. The results (in terms of the mix) were amazing.

Being built:

The finished product with several varieties of potato and two varieties of sweet potato. We were planning on putting yams in there too, but ran out of roon. Fortunately, the yams haven't sprouted yet, so still have time to make something for them.

Our newest beds, just built in the last few days.

The seedlings which are destined to the beds:

(cucumber and basil)

(heirloom pumpkins, tomatillos and two heirloom varieties of tomato)

A jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus) seedling, just after germination:

I'll post some more photos of other plants around the garden later.

Edit: fixed double image.

Edited November 10, 2011 by tripsis

[Shroomeup]

Wow! you've done well, thats a real nice setup and your plants look like they're doing great this early.

I've really got to get mine more organized sometime soon. Its sort of been controlled chaos the last few years.

[ErraneousHerbalist]

Lovely garden Tripsis! Always wanted to grow purple broccoli never got around to it though. Any plans for some rhubarb in the future? Call me old fashioned but I love a rhubarb pie/jam.

[Rabaelthazar]

I'm not sure if you've done it intentionally or not, but you've really captured some awesome shots demonstrating the mathematics of plant growth.

That second shot of the cauliflower is a prime example, but heaps of great angles in there. Nice work (both on the photos and on the garden).

[GoOnThen]

Looking good Tripsis

There are some great photos in there the color of the flowers against the blue green leaves is really cool. I have never looked at veggies like this before. Normaly to me they are just something to eat.

Have I got that right they are flowers? As you can tell I’m not up to speed with my vegetables

This is when we need those popcorn eaters

Cheers

Got

[tripsis]

Thanks guys, many more to come!

It's more chaotic than it looks, Shroomeup. Easy to organise photos to make a place look good. There's always so much to do, that it's hard to get time to clean up. The greenhouse full of seedlings was an impromptu response to them getting hammered by rain immediately after sowing.

Haven't thought about it EH, but there's not a lot I don't want to grow, so it will probably happen sometime down the line.

Are you talking about the Romanesco broccoli, Rabaelthazar? It really ought to be called fractal broccoli. I've not sought out to capture the mathematics of plant growth, but it's difficult to miss with that one.

[tripsis]

Yeah, veges are awesome Got! Plenty of enjoyment to be had from growing them.

Have I got that right they are flowers?

They're almost flowers. Flower buds in those photos.

[Rabaelthazar]

Are you talking about the Romanesco broccoli, Rabaelthazar? It really ought to be called fractal broccoli. I've not sought out to capture the mathematics of plant growth, but it's difficult to miss with that one.

 

Yeah, the fractal broccoli is what I'm talking about. Assumed it was an earlier snap of the cauliflower which elevated its status enormously in my books.

Sorry, cauliflower... you're back at slightly boring level now.

[Alice]

Awesome garden Tripsis. But how the fook do you keep cabbage moth caterpillars off your brassicas? I don't even grow cabbages and cauliflowers any more because they just get destroyed by grubs

And thanks for IDing that little mushroom, always wondered what they were.

Nice spade, how tough are Cyclone garden tools!

[random]

Your food choices are awesome! And I wanna eat all of it hahhaha!!

That Russian red Kale looks great, and so so cool to see the Oca and Maca seedlings considering I missed my chance to grow some this year due to not knowing where I was going to be living in Spring, oh well hopefully there's next year to try them.

I enjoyed taking a stroll through your garden and seeing so many of my favourite vegies growing so nicely.

Thanks for sharing, loved the pics, you've done a great job both of you!!

I'm jealous of your Kohl rabi btw!!

[DeadStar]

nice work tripsis

home grown veg tastes so much better than supermarket veg.

my favorite is eating raw asparagus, carrots or corn straight from the garden

[tripsis]

Thanks folks.

But how the fook do you keep cabbage moth caterpillars off your brassicas? I don't even grow cabbages and cauliflowers any more because they just get destroyed by grubs

By planting in autumn/winter. The butterflies are not very active then, so you stand a good chance of getting the vegetables you're aiming for. If planting in spring or summer, I would expect them to be ravaged. We had to pick the odd ones off, but there were very few. We don't use pesticides unless completely necessary and then we used an organic one targetting only the specific plant or part of the plant that needs it (e.g. aphids tend to go for flower/seed heads on Brassica spp., so if we want the seeds and we don't want to snap off the flower head to get rid of them, we'll spray the specific flower head with natural pyrethrum; so far we have only done that to one plant).

And thanks for IDing that little mushroom, always wondered what they were.

I didn't ID it. The Jicama (yam bean) refers to the seedling below the pic of the mushroom and basil seedling. Anyway, the mushroom is either a Coprinellus or Parasola species. Gorgeous little things and very ephemeral - as soon as it heats up they shrivel away.

The Russian red kale was one of our favourite crops for sure meeka. Really good to eat and absolutely beautiful. Will surely grow more this autumn. Will start the maca earlier this season too. Mine have barely grown, especially the ones under the dense canopy of the brassicas. I'll leave the ones already growing as a perennial crop though. The oca are doing great now it's warmed up! Looking forward to harvest time. Only got one kohlrabi seeding this year, but it's so beautiful so will definitely grow more again in autumn.

Will try to get some more pics uploaded tonight or tomorrow.

[7baz]

damn it , i have wanted to do something like this my whole life.

well done , simply stunning.

i dream the day i can walk outside into my garden and dinner is served....

[Mt.B]

Very cool, thanks for taking the time to post and share

[TommyChesnutt]

whoa!!!

nice garden tripsis!

[tripsis]

damn it , i have wanted to do something like this my whole life.

You should just do it! Even a couple of small raised beds could give you a bit to eat and plenty of satisfaction. I reckon everyone should grow as many vegetables as they can. Be creative in the places you can do it and the ways you can do it.

Some more shots, ordered somewhat randomly...

New growth of yellow jaboticaba (Plinia glomerata):

One of my favourite plants, naranjilla (Solanum quitoense). No fruits yet, think I might get a tuning fork to aid pollination (buzz pollination).

A young cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylandicum), being sheltered by the naranjilla:

An even younger cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum):

Bay rum (Pimenta racemosa):

Apparently allspice (Pimenta dioica), though looks and smells identical to P. racemosa.

Australian finger lime (Microcitrus australasica), the variety "Rick's red":

Black jaboticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora) - small leafed:

Large leafed:

Strawberry guava (Psidium littorale):

Queensland arrowroot (Canna edulis):

Pepino (Solanum muricatum). After watching the slowly fruit ripen over the entirety of winter, the possums beat us to them.

Water chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) and duck potatoes (Sagittaria sagittifolia):

Bay (Laurus nobilis):

Papayuelo (Carica goudotinana). We have two, but unfortunately both are males. Will have to get another one to get fruit.

Chinese pear guava (Psidium sp.):

Common fig (Ficus carica):

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale):

Pomegranate (Punic granatum):

Cardamon ginger (Alpinia calcarata):

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) from seed collected in India:

Kaffir lime (Citrus x hystrix):

Kerriberry (Rubus rugosus var. thwaitsii):

Stevia rebaudiana:

A tiny liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra):

Lawn chamomile (Anthemis nobilis):

Mother of herbs or whatever common name you want to give it (Plectranthus amboinicus):

Winter savoury (Satureja montana):

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis):

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus):

Golden pineapple sage (Salvia elegans):

That's enough for now. More later if people are interested.

Edited November 10, 2011 by tripsis

[sapito]

great garden and pics to boot

just a heads up the kaffir lime and cardamom are the same pic

how do you, or do you plan to, deal with fruit fly in some of the fruits?

[tripsis]

Thanks and thanks for the heads up. Fixed now.

I've not put a lot of thought into that yet, but I guess I'll bag them as they start to develop, either in a mesh fine enough to stop the flies getting to the fruit, or brown paper bags. But I'm not really sure, never had to opportunity to grow fruit trees before, so don't have much experience. Have to find a way to stop the possums getting everything too, though so far they've not touched the strawberries.

[planthelper]

mon, you got a lot of exeptional plants!

[DeadStar]

I could never get sick of looking at plants, so keep the pics coming.

If your looking for anything else edible to grow

I have a few ROSELLA, Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds left over if you wont them.

[fydesvindico]

Damn I love checking out other peoples gardens/ plants!

awesome collection!

[Marcel]

Good God, Trip. What a collection. It makes my food garden look so pedestrian and boring. I thought my Salvia hispanica, tamarillo and pomegranate were exotic! You've got shit my horticulturist friends have never heard of!

Well done on your effort, especially while studying (and posting here as much as you do)!

[woof woof woof]

awesome garden Trip! makes me wanna go home right now and grow some things!!

[saguaro]

great plants! I like that naranjilla, always wanted to grow them but never got around to it. Looks like I'll have to now nice fuzz

[goldfinger]

Beautiful plants tripsis.... very inspiring.