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Australia
I ran away from teaching to the country to grow veggies. There are also some chooks and a pair of troublesome goats who were so much trouble they had to go! My simple green life isn't always as simple or as green as I'd like...but I keep trying!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Automatic vegetable gardening.



I recently prepared a 'no dig garden' so that I wouldn't have to dig, obviously.   I was, however planning on planting it out.  
But look!  It planted itself!  

A large part of it is full of potatoes that I obviously didn't dig up properly last year.  How about that for automatic gardening.  

This garden is inside a large netted cube and I really wanted to use it to plant veggies at risk of bird attack.  So, I did pull some potatoes out to make room for other things but then I mounded up some soil and lots of straw.  I hope they are productive so that they warrant the space they take up.  That gap in the middle is going to be a patch of sweet corn.  Apparently it goes well with tatties.

I have grown lots of tomatoes from seed this year but they are still small and may take a while to get going.  So I brought two larger seedlings.  Both are early fruiters.  This one is a 'Burke's Backyard, italian tomato'.  If you look closely you can see tiny basil and marigolds too.  Both are great companion plants for tomatoes.


I watered them in with Charlie Carp.  This is a liquid fertilizer made from European Carp which are an introduced pest in our waterways in Australia.  I like the idea of a pest becoming something useful.

If you are interested in finding out more about companion planting there is a link in my sidebar to a good site. 
Little baby carrots!


For the record

Today I planted:

  • 1 Burke's Backyard Italian Tomato
  • 6 Grosse Lisse tomatoes (grown from seed)
  • 6 Heirloom tomatoes (mixed - grown from Diggers seeds)
  • 6 Mortgage Buster tomatoes (grown from seed)
  • 6 Big Momma Capsicums (green/red)
  • 1 Chocolate Capsicum (Small fruit/Diggers)
  • 1 Perennial Basil (seedling - never heard of that one before)
  • 2 Black zucchini seedlings to replace 2 eaten by snails (grrr)
  • Basil and marigolds grown from seed.

This is a lot of tomatoes but I have the space.  I plan to do a lot of sauce making and I want to have a go at sun drying some.  If you cut them in quarters, drizzle with olive oil and cook them in the oven until they slump, they freeze well and make a good replacement for canned tomatoes.  And of course, I will be giving lots away to my neighbours and non-gardening relatives.

6 comments:

  1. Nice!!! I once saw Grosse Lisse referred to as Gross Lizzies which made me smile!

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  2. Wow! I've gotta get me one of those automatic gardens :) I think you've got about the right number of tomato plants... got to have plenty for preserving! Hope your chooks are doing better after their bath too!

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  3. Here you are going into spring and we are in for a nasty winter, well at least that is what the forecasters are saying. I don't have problems with birds, my problems come in the form of rabbits, so all my gardens, including the flower gardens are fenced. Although this past week a little black rabbit has discovered how to scale the fence around my front flower garden and has set up residence in there.Sighhhh!

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  4. Hazel, are you going to leave some of the volunteer potatoes to grow on to maturity? The received wisdom is that they will be weaker and more disease-prone than "proper" seed potatoes (sourced at great expense from commercial vendors, no doubt!)It would be interesting to see if this is truth or myth.

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  5. I wish you all the best with your automatic gardening, the potatoes should do just fine. I like the idea of a no dig garden but then I also like the exercise I get from having to dig!

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  6. Von, from now on I will always call them Gross Lizzies!

    Ruth, the chooks have stopped scratching and Irene's back is healing with daily dressings.

    Kee Wee, I will call by through the winter to see how Black Jack is going.

    Mark, Thanks for all the comments. I have plenty of room so I can afford to leave some of the potatoes grow. I will certainly make sure I do a better job of digging them up at the end of the season. Then I will plant a green manure crop and think carefully what I put there next year.

    Hi Growing Veg! Only some of the veggie patch is 'no dig'...most of it is 'much dig'.

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