I am going to expand my greenhouse to double its size. This will take up many weekends but I hope to have it ready for spring.
Next spring I am going to get into compost and manure teas for the tomatoes and other vegies. I did this the year before last and had much healthier plants than this year when I did not use them.
Will be planting way to many varieties of toms. I planted about 30 varieties this year and the wife said "You are a nutter", I wonder what she will say next spring when 50 odd go in. I always have the comeback of "if I get up to 150 varieties I will be just catching up to your roses"

Mantis

Hi Mantis,

Do you have a particular brew for using on Tomatoes? I've made nettle teas before and your post has just reminded me that I have bucket of comfrey brewing in the shed that has been there for months, oops!!

Unbeknown to you Mrs Mantis checks this forum regularly to ensure you're not planning the demise of her rose collection to make way for more toms, she has noted that thus far you've only mentioned planting amongst the roses and not in place of the roses!

cheers, mudlark

ps: Last year I witnessed the raised eyebrows, shaking of head and muttering under breath of Patrina's husband when she told me how many varieties she was growing...priceless!

...geee...reading the header I was worried you *really* knew what I did last summer! *grins*

Now you have got us thinking Spatz :-)
Mudlark, I usually just put a good double handful of compost in a large bucket (20 litre) of water and stir it every time I walked past. This year I am toying with the idea of getting an aeration pump and putting the compost in some sort of bag in the bucket. The more aeration the better I think.

Mantis

Thanks Mantis, I'd never thought of using compost to make a liquid fertiliser, I'll try it sometime.

Spatz, the mind boggles!

cheers, mudlark

I'm going to be much more diligent with the fruit fly control, I'll put traps up earlier & more of them.
I'll also try & remind myself how big the tomato plants get & give them more space so the air flow is better & hopefully the fungal problems less.
I also need to remind myself that although in the spring there is lots of space in the beds under the fruit trees I really can't plant anything other than herbs there. This year I had zuchinni, cucumber, eggplant & chillies all fighting for space, water & air. Of course none of them really did that well. I may have to put in another bed, then I'll have a good six bed rotation system going.
Sarah

I have added about 3 inches of cow poop to the top of my outside bed and dug it in with some crushed rock fertiliser. Got a packet of green cover crop seeds from local nursery and sowed them in the bed. Hope to dig in in about two months.
Bought a fish tank aerator to try a compost or worm casting tea. Dont know if it will put out enough air to get the brew to froth, which is what it is meant to do apparently if the little microbes start working their magic. My goodness, sounds like I am going all organic eh.

Mantis

I will try to plant more beans. Really missed fresh beans this year. And a lot more snow peas.

Tomatoes - will definitely try to strip off the bottom leaves just so that I can see where the main trunk is, for ease of watering. It didn't matter much this year as I only watered 4-5 times the whole season. I was extremely lucky that we had a mild and somewhat wet summer.
Spacing of tomato plants - give them more room. There was not much room for me to squeeze through the rows. Some less vigourous plants were a bit overpowered, too.

Oh yes, do NOT go on holidays at the most crucial time in spring. Everything was a bit delayed in planting and repotting, etc. due to my spring break.

Other than that, I was very happy. :)

Hello to one and all,
Been an age since I've had access to the internet. Anyway, last year I gave over most of my growing space to the glorious tomato. Result? Disaster after disaster - pests and diseases galore!!!
So it's back to my old gardening method of just growing everything together - veggies, flowers, herbs and yes, a few weeds. One jumbled jungle. Seems to work for me and I do love a chaotic garden - a visual feast!

Great to see you again, Raymondo!
I agree with everything you say. You should see my garden - it's a real mess...uh..jungle. And it works very well. :)

Sarah, good luck with your fruit fly control. I had a bit of a chuckle about resisting the temptation to plant beneath fruit trees, I have the same problem, though I do have some rhubarb which seems to flourish beneath my Almond tree.

Great to hear from you Ray, your experience last season has caused me to reflect on a little area in my garden where I had what was meant to be a Silver Fir tomato growing amongst some rosemary, marigolds and thyme, late in the season these became so big that I could barely see the tomato plant, which was probably the least disease and insect affected plant I had. This contradicts the lack of airflow as being the cause of some of these problems, which is interesting. I might play with the jumgle theme myself next spring/summer!

Spatz, as you probably know I missed out on beans altogether because of the intervention of the rabbit(s) so I will be hoping for more success next year! Ditto also on the holidays in Spring! Your tomato crop is all the more remarkable given the minimal watering, or maybe because of the minimal watering. BTW I heard on the weather report the other night that if it wasn't for the supplementary water being piped from the river Murray, Adelaide's reservoirs would now be empty! Its been an extraordinary dry spell really, because last winter the reservoirs were all full to overflowing.

Mantis, yep, its all sounding very organic! I'll be interested to hear how you go with the aerator. Also where do you get the crushed rock from, it is mentioned in my organic gardening book and I have gotten nothing but blank stares when I ask about it in garden centres etc

Cheers, mudlark

Mudlark, I got the crushed rock fert from a guy at our local spring gardening show. It was a 20 kg bag so it will do me for a while. The label faded over summer so I cant tell you the company or where they are from sorry.

Thanks anyway Mantis, I'll do a bit more searching around when the fertiliser I have is close to running out.

cheers, mudlark

It's been a while since I've had a chance to do more than a quick read around here... hi all :-)

Our lessons learned include NOT growing Amish Paste. They might work in other areas, but did not suit Melbourne conditions, while the Principe Borghese and Tommy Toes flourished. I think I saw in another thread a few recommendations for better cooking/paste varieties so I'll look them up.

We planted our capsicums way too late. Consequently, I'm praying that the last of the sun will at least ripen some of them (yes they're still in and some have changed colour nicely but I know they're on borrowed time :-) Also had a bad infestation of aphids on the caps followed by an explosion of ladybugs who weren't able to quite stem the tide. Some of the caps are pocked with spots and I don't know if they're safe to eat - an all-round disaster for us after a bumper year the year before :-(

Tried an experiment growing cucumbers and mini eggplants by the fence but there just wasnt enough sun and we only got a few fruit.

We're getting ready to remove all vegs at the end of May and turn our beds around to face north/south. Currently two beds, becoming 4 for better rotation, approx 4.5m x 1.25m. About to order the green manure to break up deep clay under the paper/straw/mushroom compost layer we did about a month ago to start preparing ground that was previously path.

Another lesson learned: plant more garlic!. Last year we planted approx 80 and we finished it all about a month ago even though we were very stingy and didn't give much away. Got some "growing" garlic at the Organic F&V stand at the Preston Market a little while back. It was already sprouting and nice fat cloves. We made a new bed with soil, mushroom compost and a cardboard layer to suppress the sad lawn/weed cover that used to be the back yard. Planted the largest cloves (approx 160) and they have ALL sprouted :-) Maybe this crop will last until the next one is ready.

Other lessons learned: Onions are not worth growing at home for me. I can't tell the difference in taste, they take so long to grow and they're really cheap to buy. I Do want to try potatoes at home becasue I've heard the taste is different/better. I have no idea where we can put them though... maybe one of the new beds can be devoted to some spuds.

Here is a link that might be useful: George & Flick's Blog

I agree with you Mabb re onions & potatoes, I usually put in a few red onions for salads but maincrop onions take too long. Mind you I can't get past the saying "he really knows his onions" as an analogy for someone who knows what they're doing, the implication being that if I can't be bothered to grow onions I can't be much of a gardener!!!!!!
Have a go with the potatoes, I think they're well worth the effort & you're left with a bed full of loveley organic matter to grow something else in next year.
Sarah

Welcome back Mabb! It's interesting and perhaps timely that you should mention onions, I was thinking of growing some this season, I have some seed for creamgolds and some red variety (I obviously don't know my onions!), space is already tight at the moment so maybe it will just be a bit of an experiment to compare the taste. You're right they are cheap to buy, and there is a good reliable supplier at my local farmers market, I don't think they grow reds though so maybe I'll concentrate on them.

Good luck with your garlic and spuds!

cheers, mudlark

Hey mudlark :-) We grew Creamgold and they were easy to grow, dried easily and kept well, there just weren't enough of them, LOL. We also grew a red/salad variety which was also v. nice but can't remember the name - it was from Digger's.

I think it's a good idea to try everything and see what works for you. When we get our 5+ acre property in a few year's time I *will* grow onions as there will be lots of room to grow enough to feed us all through the year and of course, the plan is to be self-sufficient when we go feral :-) In the meantime though, unless I have room left after planting the more-expensive-to-buy or tastes-better-home-grown veggies, I'll leave onions for the future.

I am going to experiment with leeks though, for the experience - and because I am 3rd-generation Welsh :-)

Mabb, When did you plant your capsicums? I'm asking because I also had a disastrous year for capsicums, and wonder if it was just bad year for them. I planted Jimmy Nardello and Lipstick seeds from Diggers (which I've planted before and had good success with). I planted the seeds into a coldframe (unheated) in early October so they probably went into the ground in mid-November. I suppose this sounds late, but if I plant them earlier they just seem to sit and shiver. We've probably only been eating them for the last month, and the plants are completely non-vigorous.
Helen

Try leaving them in the ground till next spring. They will shoot again and be much stronger. I allways grow my capsicums for two years.

Mantis

Mantis, good idea. I might cage them too so they don't have to fight the wind as well as produce fruit.

Helen, we planted our caps in December and I may be able to pick one or two today - our first :-(

Summer wasn't particularly hot either, which I don't think helped.

You know I've never been sure with capsicums - is it heat or sunlight that ripens them? And will they continue to ripen (like tomatoes) if you pick them once they start to turn colour? Next weekend, or the one after, we'll be ripping up both beds to sow it all with green manure, in preparation for our big turnaround, so I'd like to get *some* capsicums out of the current crop!

I won't plant Windsor Black pumpkins in the spare ground in front of the new standard roses - LOLOLOL

heehee, someone who obviously had more success with pumpkins than me this summer!

mudlark