The gardening thread.

[Footy Chick]

Hi Folks

After 10 years I've finally decided to get my back yard in some sort of order - and part of this backyard blitz is to cover an approx 6m x 1.5m area with river rocks.

Anyone know approximate costs of said river rocks?

PS: Feel free to add your own gardening questions here too

[Sheik Yerbouti]

A m3 should give you just over a 100mm depth over the 9m2.
Costs around the $75 odd p/m3 + delivery, again $70 odd depending on where.
Working on the 25mm rocks, also come in 12 & 75mm.

Wouldn't be planting any poofy type flowery thingys in it for the next 2 months, gets pretty warm under them rocks. Rotten shit to use as well, can't get a shovel into them & if your not shoveling off a tray or cement will end up with half of it as crap from the bottom. Bitch to clean if you have any trees around as well, a good blower would do the trick.

If it's a new garden bed you should mulch with Jeffries 'Recover' or similar the first year, then chuck your rocks on before summer next year, help the soil & all that.

[Dog_ger]

Very dis-appointed with my vegie patch this year.

Maybe I have to give the patch a break for a couple of years.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Double dig (two spades depth) over & add compost or a rotted animal manure. Sow a legume (lucerne or alfalfa etc) over the top. Rest over winter & turn in legume crop before planting out for spring 2012. Give the tomatoes a spell next year, growing tomatoes in the same spot in continuing seasons encourages nematodes.
That's if you can be arsed, if not there is a thing called a shop.

[locky801]

Double dig (two spades depth) over & add compost or a rotted animal manure. Sow a legume (lucerne or alfalfa etc) over the top. Rest over winter & turn in legume crop before planting out for spring 2012. Give the tomatoes a spell next year, growing tomatoes in the same spot in continuing seasons encourages nematodes.
That's if you can be arsed, if not there is a thing called a shop.

How much you charging for all of this advice

[Psyber]

My wife was always keen on home grown organic vegetables.
She wasn't impressed the time I added up all the costs, including labour because I wasn't going to do the digging and she couldn't, and demonstrated that it cost about 4x what buying organic vegetables at the local market would. She did suggest that I might provide the labour, and I pointed out that would cost even more, due to the loss of my productivity elsewhere, taking relative hourly rates into consideration.

My plan now is the write, "The Economist's Garden" which I hope will have become a gardening best seller on its title before any of the gardener/purchasers get time to read it.

[Swamp Donkey]

My wife was always keen on home grown organic vegetables.
She wasn't impressed the time I added up all the costs, including labour because I wasn't going to do the digging and she couldn't, and demonstrated that it cost about 4x what buying organic vegetables at the local market would. She did suggest that I might provide the labour, and I pointed out that would cost even more, due to the loss of my productivity elsewhere, taking relative hourly rates into consideration.

My plan now is the write, "The Economist's Garden" which I hope will have become a gardening best seller on its title before any of the gardener/purchasers get time to read it.

Yeah I don't think most people would have a vegie patch to save money. Its a great little venture though. I moved into a new place early in 2010 and this is my second summer growing vegies. Everything got smashed in this heat last year, but I put a surface dripper system with that brown hose that has a dripper every 300mm and things are looking the best they ever have. Overhead watering leads to diseases and fungal issues as well as being an inefficient use of water.

[Psyber]

My wife was always keen on home grown organic vegetables.
She wasn't impressed the time I added up all the costs, including labour because I wasn't going to do the digging and she couldn't, and demonstrated that it cost about 4x what buying organic vegetables at the local market would. She did suggest that I might provide the labour, and I pointed out that would cost even more, due to the loss of my productivity elsewhere, taking relative hourly rates into consideration.

My plan now is the write, "The Economist's Garden" which I hope will have become a gardening best seller on its title before any of the gardener/purchasers get time to read it.

Yeah I don't think most people would have a vegie patch to save money. Its a great little venture though. I moved into a new place early in 2010 and this is my second summer growing vegies. Everything got smashed in this heat last year, but I put a surface dripper system with that brown hose that has a dripper every 300mm and things are looking the best they ever have. Overhead watering leads to diseases and fungal issues as well as being an inefficient use of water.

Yes, if it is something you enjoy doing it is well worth while - it just wasn't, and isn't, my bag.
My theoretical knowledge of gardening suggests you are on the right track.

I'm good at theory..
The one year I was made to do Woodwork - Grade 7 - I topped the class by aceing the theory paper at the end of the ear, having averaged 51% for my practical work all year.
Boy was the Woodwork teacher baffled...

[Alaska]

I have been doing this for decades only because the difference in quality is massive.
I cannot eat shop bought tomatoes, cauli, and capsicum.
Try your own mushies, onion and beetroot and you will notice a difference.
Back to the question, the Shiek is right I buy a trailer of compost each year.

[FlyingHigh]

Agree that it is for the quality and the hobby, rather than economic reasons, though any hobby costs money and vegie gardening is a pretty cheap, postive one.
By comparison though, atm I reckon I'm going to get 50+ tomatoes off a punnet of four that was probably $6, plus a few bucks for a bag of cow manure, $10-15 for a can of tomato dust that will last a few years. At the supermarket, probably buy 10 decent truss tomatoes a week for $8-10, so even if only 40% of crop is up to supermarket size and quality, will still be breaking even.

Couple of things I find for tomatoes - Don't over-water, just one good water about 5-7 days, and maybe a quick splash in-between if a few days like earlier this week. Water in the morning rather than evening.

Can't quite seem to get staking them right. Any tips appreciated.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

If your pruning the laterals (smaller branches that grow between the leaves) out a stake will do ok, old stockings are a good fastening device as they don't bruise or damage the main stem (as with all plants). If you'd prefer to leave the laterals a piece of trellice would do the trick.
Good idea to take out any foliage which is touching the soil, especially after rain as fungal disease will quickly run amok & stuff up all your efforts.

[devilsadvocate]

My wife was always keen on home grown organic vegetables.
She wasn't impressed the time I added up all the costs, including labour because I wasn't going to do the digging and she couldn't, and demonstrated that it cost about 4x what buying organic vegetables at the local market would. She did suggest that I might provide the labour, and I pointed out that would cost even more, due to the loss of my productivity elsewhere, taking relative hourly rates into consideration.

My plan now is the write, "The Economist's Garden" which I hope will have become a gardening best seller on its title before any of the gardener/purchasers get time to read it.

You get paid to post on SA Footy?

Where do I sign up?

[devilsadvocate]

My wife was always keen on home grown organic vegetables.
She wasn't impressed the time I added up all the costs, including labour because I wasn't going to do the digging and she couldn't, and demonstrated that it cost about 4x what buying organic vegetables at the local market would. She did suggest that I might provide the labour, and I pointed out that would cost even more, due to the loss of my productivity elsewhere, taking relative hourly rates into consideration.

My plan now is the write, "The Economist's Garden" which I hope will have become a gardening best seller on its title before any of the gardener/purchasers get time to read it.

Yeah I don't think most people would have a vegie patch to save money. Its a great little venture though. I moved into a new place early in 2010 and this is my second summer growing vegies. Everything got smashed in this heat last year, but I put a surface dripper system with that brown hose that has a dripper every 300mm and things are looking the best they ever have. Overhead watering leads to diseases and fungal issues as well as being an inefficient use of water.

My veggies were copping a beating in the sun over the Christmas / New Year period. So I built one of these:

http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/2006/11/poly-shade-structure.html

I've done mine with white shade cloth, 50% filtered light (NOTE: green shade cloth changes the structure of the light as it pases through and can negatively impact the quality of your veggies) and done it all the way to the ground with a roll up sheet on both sides for cooler days like today.

It was worked an absolute treat. My tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflowers are looking brilliant since this structure went up.

Pretty damn expensive though. $6 per star dropper, $8/m for the poly tube (17 meters used) and about $100 for the shade cloth.

So I agree with the sentiments that it's far cheaper to head down to the local F&V store. But growing your own is so much more fun and rewarding, plus a great way to get the whipper snappers eating their veggies! They grow them, pick them, wash them, cook them and eat them - all without a single complaint!

[Q.]

My cacti are loving the heat, several of them flowering at once over the holidays.

[FlyingHigh]

If your pruning the laterals (smaller branches that grow between the leaves) out a stake will do ok, old stockings are a good fastening device as they don't bruise or damage the main stem (as with all plants). If you'd prefer to leave the laterals a piece of trellice would do the trick.
Good idea to take out any foliage which is touching the soil, especially after rain as fungal disease will quickly run amok & stuff up all your efforts.

Thanks Sheik, try to remove the lower laterals, but always seem to end up with two or thre stalks instead of a main one.
Hopefully some warm but not hot weather over the next week will get them ripening.