Veggie garden planning help needed

[lush_jokes]

Do you think that I could grow something shade tollerant UNDER the trampoline??? It is really high so they wouldn't get squashed . . .

Thanks for those links Donna - I'll check them out

Bron - They seem to have quite strict rules about the front yard . . . must have x plants over a certain height blah blah blah . . . but I think that there is one spot where we might be putting in a producing tree . . .possibly an avacado

Stellaj - do you get a decent harvest from your dwarf trees??

Thanks for all the advice so far - I'm really not sure where to start!! I have a lot of book knowledge, but not much practical lol

[johT]

use the sunniest spot you have if i had room id definetly have 4-5 seperate beds, for easier access to vegies (PITA when its all together IME - i am using containers atm too to help with that) and better to not mix some vegies, you can grow in the proper 'groups' and rotate the crops.
we just got 3 fruit trees in pots(half wine barrels). we just put stones under them - my sisters mil has parsley growing under hers...im not confident enough to have 2 plants compete for the water as still have nfi LOL. i have recently read that strawberries dont do so well in hanging pots as the soil dries out too quick. mine were in the ground, but are now in containers for better access

[Dee]

We have a fruit salad tree (stone fruit with 3 grafts), we've had it for less than a year and it is still small. We had 2 nectarines and one peach last year but I don't expect a decent harvest for a couple of years yet, especially as it is already chockers in it's pot with roots and needs to be transplanted into a half wine barrel.

I have one strawberry plant in a pot that has produced well for a couple of years and it sent out shoots last year and we got 5/6 new strawberry plants self rooting into the cracks of hte paving which have all thrived and fruited well.

[*Tracee*]

We have 4 separate beds.
One is the permanent berry patch - strawberries, raspberries, loganberry and blackberries.
The others we rotate - so cabbage, cauli, brocc in one bed
squash, pumpkin and cucumber in another
And one for other stuff - beans, corn, carrot, chilli, silverbeet etc

We also intermingle a bit and plant things in season together. But we do try and come back to making sure we don't plant the same things in the same beds consecutively.
We usually always have one bed we are harvesting well from, another in seedling to almost full grown stage and one with either nothing or just been planted out with seeds.

3 of our beds are 2.5 x 1.25mts and the other is a C shape that's 2.5 x 2.5 mts but with a 1mt cut in in the C bit to make access easier. We have enough room for the wheelbrrow to fit between each bed and also enough room for us to kneel between the beds for when we're working on them.

Fruit trees will take at least 2 years to produce a good harvest. We have an apricot that's just had it's 3rd season. First season we were advised to remove any fruit it grew. Second season we had about 50 apricots, this season we had well over 150 fruit, enough for me to make preserves from

We have a couple of the Diggers books and DH loves his John Seymour books on self sufficient living, together they cover pretty much everything we've needed to know.

[alineanne]

wow tracee. your garden sounds *amazing*! we have gone down the aquaponics aisle (http://www.backyardaquaponics.com.au/) and love it. very very easy.

[*Tracee*]

Thanks Aline, we're still learning as we go! We'd love to keep adding things but we need to wait til we build a new shed and chook house so we know where to plant things!
Does help that dad has 2 cows so we have access to manure when we want it

[mokster26]

Tracee my Dh would be jealous of your manure
Sorry if my post is overly long - the veggie garden is a big deal here
We are in sunny NQ so some things work for us and others dont. We have one big raised bed - about 6mx3m which we plant vegies in winter and soybeans for a fallow crop over the summer. DH conditions the soil with cane mulch, hay and manure applications when we grow vegies. It is in the optimal position for catching the sun. Like others have said - sun will be very important so see where the best light will be for growing.
Cherry tomatoes are great in pots and even hanging baskets - kids love them too.
We can grow well - tomatoes, shallots, asian greens (eng, pak and bok choy), beetroot, beans, silverbeet, chard, lettuce, corn and snowpeas. With corn you can plant early then use the stalks to grow your beans up to save space. We companion plant basil and tomatoes but we still get smashed with pests and have to spray every year
We have tended to plant stuff that really makes a taste difference IYKWIM - you can't beat fresh - Max eats raw corn straight from the garden, it's so sweet and juicy . We don't plant roomy stuff like pumpkin or capsicum, zucchini that tastes OK from the markets anyway. We also like vegies that can outlast the season - we blanch and snap freeze silverbeet, preserve beets and make sun dried tomatoes.
We can't grow colder crops - cabbage, caulis, brocoli which is a shame.
Hope you have lots of fun planning and growing

[cfgguy]

Hi,

Yes its good to have a rotation of 6 beds, not four or five. bed 1 for root plants, bed two for a green manure crop, bed 3 for leaf plants, bed 4 flower plants, bed five fruiting plants and bed six as fallow with more green manure.

With the rotation its good to think of a bed having a main crop, for example a root bed may have beetroots, radishes, onions and turnips and its inter-cropped with lettuce and beans which are good companions for these plants. Companion planting helps a lot with bug resistance. Flowers in your garden bed that keep the garden beautiful, attract bees, keep bugs away, may be edible and improve soil fertility should also be considered.

Keeping diligent with a crop rotation will greatly enhance soil fertility and ultimately the health of your plants and their capacity to resist pest and diseases and they will taste great as well.

All those plants you listed grow at different times of year, of course its vital to plant in season and there are subtle differences even within cities as to what will grow better at different times of the year and also whether your garden gets more or less shade over the times of the year.

Another factor to consider is using the planets to help with planting cultivating and harvesting times. It can make a very big difference to the success of your gardening.

Happy gardening
Peter

[~*Bron*~]

Gardening Australia has some good info crop rotation (my dream is one day to have enough space to have 4 patches going and rotate the crops. all around a central chook house, that has 4 doors. every season, the chooks get to scratch up a different section).

ALS has a good link to what crops to grow when, and a moon chart. for instance, atm, it is time to plant above ground, green leafies. next week, below ground. i've found that my seedlings do come up better if i follow the guide.

[allyr]

Ooh. Great thread. I was laying in bed last night thinking about vegie gardens.

Currently I only grow basil (with marigolds for the bugs) and chives.

Would now be the right time to plant pumkin and watermelon? I've a bed down the back that has a small fig tree but not much else.

I'm all excited now!