The gardening megathread

[Daise]

I'm a complete noob at gardening, but I am keen on getting started and try and have some sort of idea what I'm doing.

My front garden is covered in rose bushes and following some online guidance, I've cut them all back and am now getting some fantastic regrowth and even a couple of buds are coming through. Unfortunately they're currently being raped and pillaged by a plague of aphids, and the blooms aren't looking so pretty.

What's the best stuff to get to 1 - kill the aphids, and 2 - give the roses a bit of a boost? (ie: mulchy stuff)

I also want to start a herb/chilli garden that would be low maintenance. There's a 10x1 weed garden bed that needs ripping out and giving some love. What's the basics I need to get this started? I looked online but would like advice regarding our particular climate.

[rcradical]

My grandma has a garden front covered full of rosebushes she does every year. Sells them @ $5 a bunch.

She swears by soapy water in a spray bottle to keep aphids away.

Seems to work; I haven't seen any on them.

[Slice]

for anything food production related; compost, manure, mulch. then fortnightly seasol. seems to work pretty well for us. oh and lots a water.

Unless your garden bed is in the shade you may have some trouble keeping the herbs alive during the height of summer. It's not so much water related, they just burn in the harsh sun. of course things like rosemary, tyme and other more robust herbs are fine but things like basil and rocket don't do well in full sun here.

I can't speak much for roses but a quick trip to bunnings or a nursery should get you some reasonable advise and products for dealing with aphids and rose food (pretty sure there are some products actually called "rose food").

If you have any snail or slugs I found a good way to get rid of them was to bury a margarine container down to ground level and then half fill it with beer. Snails and Slugs are massive booze hounds and they drown in it. Strong coffee sprayed on leaves gives them heart attacks too apparently but I haven't tried it.

[Aufitt]

Cant help you on the roses.. roundup the lot.

But for the herbs-

Make a raised bed out of whatever you like,
lay poo, paper and straw in layers.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/12_aug10.jpg

Bit of good growing mix.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/12_aug11.jpg

Another thin layer of paper,
dry lawn clippings, scraps whatever Bio's you have and more poo.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/15_aug10.jpg

Final thick layer of paper.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/15_aug11.jpg

Pea straw and 1000 earthworms & let it bake for a month, soli temps rising under that lot as it self composts.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/15_aug12.jpg

Plant.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/3_oct_10.jpg

Watch it go beserk in November.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/13_nov10.jpg

And xmas.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/25_dec10.jpg

Enjoy the tomaties.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/25_dec11.jpg

Corn for everyone.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/15_jan10.jpg

Keep throwing everything in.. all houshold scraps, fish, (everything except onions and citrus peel )let the weeds go mad, then just layer paper and straw over the lot again for the next rotation.
http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/24/31/39/00210.jpg


Mines ready to plant again now.

[Aufitt]

I also want to start a herb/chilli garden that would be low maintenance. There's a 10x1 weed garden bed that needs ripping out and giving some love. What's the basics I need to get this started? I looked online but would like advice regarding our particular climate.

10x1 is ample , that one of mine I just showed is 6x2 and so much food for eveyone.

dont rip whatever is there out, just put hay and paper and eveything on it like my pics..
ending up with paper then peas sstraw on top.. let the 'lasagne' bake for a month then plant
I started with bare lifeless coastal sand.

Border it if it needs to contain it.
Lavender round the outside keeps bugs away.
sawdust outside of it keeps snails out

[likefry]

Yates Garden Guide - Yates products this book has a lot of good info for australia for all climates.

[shmoo]

I wouldn't go for a herb/veggie garden if you want something really low maintenance. The quality of your produce will be directly proportionate to the effort you put in. Also, depending on your area, veggies and herbs can be hard to keep bug/slug/snail/rat/bird-free. Figure out your area - is it shade/sun/arctic/tropical and then decide what will work best. Chuck in plenty of variety this first time and see what works best.

Chilli plants are easy. Plant it and get it really well established but after that the easiest way to harm them is over watering and over feeding. Water once a week and that's all you need to do. I find if you put seasol on chilli's you just promote leaf growth at the expense of fruit. And you've got to keep picking them as they ripen, this encourages more to fruit. Don't be afraid to hack the hell out of the bush after the season. A really brutal cut will just make next seasons crop that much betterer.

[Aufitt]

My herb/vege garden is NIL maintenance, water once a week if it never rains, no weeds, no bugs, no weeding, no digging.

Took one day to put in, and is there forever continually soil building.

[Scoundrel]

White oil will sort the aphids out, or go and pinch a couple of Ladybugs from another plant and put them there and watch them go to town

[razlee]

cool thread. last month i was threatened with a breach notice unless i cleaned up the garden. 30min trip to bunnings and 2 hours in the sun and it looks sweet. Our garden is in full sun so i went with native flowering plants with spare foliage and a good layer of mulch. looks like a desert diorama haha!

I did also pick up an "inferno" chilli plant, some common mint and a lime tree. The mint is getting ravaged by caterpillars but grows quickly. the chilli is starting to flower but not really grow - do i pull the flowers off?? The lime tree has done fuck all... maybe i planted it wrong. it's in a large pot in the sun and gets watered daily plus i added some citrus fertiliser. i heard they take ages to fruit.

wouldn't mind some basil but after struggling with the mint i think it might be too delicate. the mint only gets part sun and i try to keep the area dewy but those damn caterpillars!!!

[Daise]

I'm guessing chilli plants are like coriander - the flowers need to be plucked to promote growth?

My garden bed only gets midday sunlight (it's at the north of the house) but I don't know how much it will get during Summer. I'll get some pics up over the weekend.

[r0gue]

Daise, if you are after mulch, pea straw, soils, manures etc, and you are not too far away, give me a yell and i can give you a good price.
It is what we sell.

[Daise]

I really want to dig everything up ans start from scratch with a good soil, and sink the retic. Maybe throw in a trellis and get some passionfruit going.

Here's the weed bed facing West:


Facing East


One of six chilli plants, desperately clinging to life


Coriander. I remove the flowers and even after a huge cull, it's still thriving (somehow)

[likefry]

I don't think chilli plants need their flowers removed but if you remove the ripe chilli's they'll keep on producing

[Maxo]

LOW MAINTENANCE 'ERBS:

Start with a Basil, Coriander & Mint.

Dig about 20cms down, fill it with poop, blood&bone, some fertiliser and the flies that you will have to deal with doing this late in the afternoon.
Bit of water.
Plant the plants (and beat the shit out of the soil to get the air in).
Bit of mulch.

Bit of watering every second day for a week until they get established.

All the other ones are guesswork depending on where you put them, but the three above will make you feel less useless at gardening.

[Slice]

corn also seems pretty easy to grow, also once they die, instead of pulling them out, plant peas at their base and the peas will grow up them and fix nitrogen into the soil for next year!

[McGoo]

Removing the flowers from chillies isnt that helpful, as the plant just grows more.But if you do it, it forces the plant to grow 'shrubbier'. It's called 'topping'. Lots of chilli growers swear by this technique, I was never that sold on it. Chillies are a very hardy plant, they will grow in most any soil, but they do prefer a slightly acidic soil with good drainage, so sand with a small amount of clay worked in would be perfect. If the soil is just sand, any mulch you put on will break down and simply leach through the soil, if you add clay then you get some retention.

Tomatoes and chillies are both from the solanium (I think) family, and can use the same fertilizer. In the early stages you want something with a higher proportion of nitrogen to phosphorous and potassium as the nitrogen promotes green growth. Once they start to mature, you should switch to a low nitrogen mix as more nitrogen means more leaves and less fruit. This is all a moot point if you are using slow release fertilizer, as what you add now is there for six months or more. If you do go slow release, then use a low nitrogen mix. If you look on the label of the fertilizer you can see what ratio or percentage all the elements are mixed at.

Also, Seasol: dont bother. There was a test done a little while ago that proved it does nothing. It's better to mulch with seaweed than put on seasol. I cant remember who did the study, but I think it was UWA or the Ag department of WA.

As for the aphids, you can use white oil for an organic solution, or detergent if you want. I use fipronyl, a serious insectiside I get from our farm. It kills anything with an exoskeleton, and it is what termite contractors spray around the place. It's not cheap though, a 1l bottle can cost a few hundred dollars.

edit: didnt make sense

[Rhonz]

I really want to dig everything up ans start from scratch with a good soil, and sink the retic. Maybe throw in a trellis and get some passionfruit going.

Here's the weed bed facing West:


Facing East


One of six chilli plants, desperately clinging to life


Coriander. I remove the flowers and even after a huge cull, it's still thriving (somehow)

Gardens are hard work in Perth. You have enough room there to get a good lot of veggies going. I'd pull it all out, put a raised border in, sink the retic, buy a dozen bags of chook poo, a dozen bags of sheep poo, dig it all in, leave it for a couple of weeks (but dont let it dry out) then plant seedlings. You wont need a trellis for passionfruit as you have the fence. Wire will do. Try a grape vine as well. Get 3 compost bins going to continually add nutrients. Wetta Soil is a must. Parsley, basil and mint go berserk in my garden, rocket goes to seed really quickly. Lettuces, spring onions and tomatoes seem to grow easily and are always in abundance. Corn never grows very big and looks retarded (but tastes as sweet as). Trial and error and constant attention will see you through. Not much better than a big salad with the majority fresh out of your garden.

[potato]

pots daise lots of pots ! that was you can control the soil, i'll get some pics up of climbing spinach,english spinach,rubarb,strawberrys tomato's et'al growing here in pots.

[jbb]

Daise I would seriously consider ripping the whole lot out and starting again; well ok not ripping it out and starting again (maybe you could temp xfer the plants somewhere else). You could start one section (say the left 2m) then transfer the plants from the next 2m into the prepared section, moving down the bed like that. That way you get to keep most your plants.

If you can't do what Aufitt did preperation wise, go to your local garden supplier ($ enabling) and ask for a vegie garden mix,. My local does it for $80 a truck (cubic meter) and this will see you off well for this year. Then next year you can go more how Aufitt did that garden bed and just continuing to build it up. I would still put straw under and on top this year though.

With your garden bed:
- Firstly an edging would be the best thing and building the soil up a bit (Aufitt has the idea there). The edge doesn't need to be high, my vegie garden is only a foot high and it is good.
- Seeming you have a long narrow garden watering will be easy. Dripper hose run along the middle of the whole thing, but this should be put underneath your straw layer that goes on top. This way in the middle of summer it doesn't all evaporate.
- If the area is sunny most of the time, you may want to plant your herbs in small pots so you can move them in summer for somewhere more favourable. Or build a part shadecloth area down one end.

Chillies will grow really slowly in soil that is not much chop (well that goes for everything I guess). I had someone give me a chilli plant from their garden and my plant is now 10x bigger, bushier and more fruity than theirs in just a couple of months.