My veggie patch!

As the majority of you are entering winter, I am entering summer!

Today I started one of my many projects since I am not working!

I bought two different kinds of tomato seedlings and a chili seedling!
MIL has a lot of pots that aren't planted, I am filling up her garden with yummy stuff, next i'm getting butter nut pumpkin and cucumbers and lettuce! I am going to have one of everything! If i can

I am so excited! if anyone has any tips on growing these just let me know!!

Good for you I have a patch that I really wnat to sort out but i had an attack of lazyness this so-called summer just gone. It is soo nice to have fresh veg from the garden. I haven't got any tips but whatever you learn on the way could be useful Are you making it organic or are you using sprays and things?

Well I've been veg gardening for years and years!! I know the climate is a bit different than mine but the basic principles are the same. Watering is important especially when you are first starting the plants.

Are the pumpkins and cucumber the bush type plants or vining types?? If the vining types they require a bit of room to grow. The lettuce will grow pretty fast so once it starts you will need to keep on cutting/harvesting it every few days.

The tomato plants will need some sort of support to keep them contained otherwise they can get quite sprawling.

For the plants if you can find some sort of mulch such as grass clippings (not treated with herbicides), straw or hay these will keep the weeds down and hold in soil moisture.

Have fun!!

We just started our first garden a month ago.
We planted Onions,Broc and Artichokes.

Thanks Gail! i knew i could count on you!

I dont want to use sprays or anything like that but i just discovered that we are prone to snails and that the dog will eat the plant and snails so i have to work a bit in their yard! I am a bit afraid as last night there was this massive spider in the house and i am quite freaked out to even go out there!

My dad swears that the espresso coffee left overs are excellent as mulch, he used to grow excellent tomatoes so i am getting a few tips off him.

I am trying to grow organic but i figured that we will need some sort of spray to keep the pests away. Now FIL is going to get me an Indian Duck sp? So it can eat up the snails ect in the back yardi told him there was no rush for the ducks yet because i dont know if i can take them with me when we move

Despite the cool weather my veggie garden is still producing. There are a few peppers I am waiting on to change color. I also noticed last week that one of the cucumber vines had a bunch of flowers on it, but I doubt the fruit will be able to develop before we get a frost...

Yay for a fellow southern hemispherian! lol

We had our tomatos planted about 6 weeks ago and they are going along nicely. We did have them at our other house. They need plenty of water, you need to watch out for the skin splitting open when they get ripe, so having some sort of shade over the garden would be a good idea.

As for pumpkins, we haven't planted them yet, but will do this weekend. We bought a mini pumpkin which is best planted on a slope. When the pumpkins are ripening, you can put a little shadecloth or hession over each individual fruit to protect them from birds and also, if you have any rats, raise each fruit up on something like a milk crate or lower. When the fruit is on the ground they can make a smell that attracts the critters.

For the usual seedlings make sure to put down some sort of slug/snail bait to stop the seedlings getting chomped on. Water at night time so they have time to get cool and soaked before the next days sun.

Cucumbers and zucchinis can be trained over low frames to give more room for other planting and such.

You can also do companion planting to keep away pests. Putting garlic or nasturtiums amongst your other seedlings keep bugs at bay.

Oh yes, mulch, of the fine sort or pea straw is a must to keep the moisture in.

Thats all i can think of atm but i hope it helps

Slugs!!! Bane of my hosta plants. I want to get chickens but Neil won't let me..... I've been asking around and the advice is to get banty's. I don't know if thats a breed or not.

Otherwise coffee grounds will work-BBC Gardener's World just had a small article on using the grounds. Otherwise if you have low tins like the ones canned tuna or small cans of wet cat food-you sink them to ground level then fill with cheap beer. The slugs like the yeasty beer smell, investigate then down. Of course you will have to dump the contents out. Or in a more shady area just lay a length of lumber down at night and in the morning turn it over and slugs should have congregated under the board overnite. Again you will have to handle them to dispose of them.

I haven't used anything like sprays for pest control in my garden as most of the time you will kill the beneficial insects too!! If you me to hunt up some internet resources for you I can do that!!