08/04/2023
Awesome talk and heartwarming gathering at 8-9.30am today in Portarlington at the St Andrews Church hall with guest presenter the wonderful Edible Gardens by Craig Castree. Breakfast was served in between. Cost? $4! Thanks to the volunteers and the duo who played and sang beautifully at the start. Apparently 1/3 of Australians are lonely all the time, 2/3 are lonely most of the time so events like this are gold and happen every 2 months.
Here’s a few tips I picked up from Craig:
Wide leaves plants can grow in shade and under trees
When pulling out a w**d/thistle, plant a lettuce add mulch and water
Plant one plant each day from about 7 different punnets rotating different seedlings
When planting out a punnet use a knife to cut to individualise them rather than pull out by the roots
Garden in 5 minute segments daily
Plant white flowering plants near brassica to deter cabbage moth and only plant one brassica eg broccoli in each place at a time and surround by companions
What goes well on the plate together, goes in the garden together ie tomatoes, garlic and basil. Plant a circle of garlic now and later put one tomato plant in centre in tomato planting season later in the year. Plant different varieties of basil in different places for eg Thai basil, sweet basil to confuse insects with scent and colour/shape.
Plant something blue next to tomato plant to attract native blue banded bee who are great at pollination eg salvia
Plant onion and garlic family under apple trees to deter coddling moth
There are 16 different colours of echinacea
Attract beneficial insects to garden by letting the best plant go to seed
Leave roots in the ground to avoid disturbing microbes when pulling. Cut off top and compost
Plant Lettuce in hanging baskets
Use garden arches to get vertical garden space. Can even grow male and female kiwi fruit up 2
Perennial passionfruit marigold keep in pot keeps sap sucking insects away
Borage is a great bee attractor
Blue flowering plants great for pollination
Feed the soil not the plants
Build your own ecosystem. Ladybirds will clean up aphids
Lacewings, assassin bugs good
No till gardening to preserve soil biology
Create Insect hotels to attract beneficial insects for eg paper wasps
North/west facing walls to grow subtropical like Babaco, avocado
Most fruit trees are grown these days on dwarfing fruit trees so no tap root and safe for plumbing
Fruit trees need to be short enough to net (see photo)
Fruit fly already in many places in Victoria
Over 13,000 apple varieties but most supermarket have only a few
Werribee orchard always there on Fridays to buy heritage trees (check this with Craig)
Espaliered fruit trees are a way to grow just the right quantity for householders (not hundreds)
Rhubarb a good companion for apple trees
Candelabra pattern is particularly good espalier pattern
Grow step over apples
When chooks eat w**d seeds they come out sterile
Put pea straw and various manures into compost and broadcast it and water it and let the soil life take it to the soil rather than digging it in
Fungal network makes solubalised minerals available and delivers to plants
Worms make humus 4 times than any other insects
Every 1% more humus enables an extra 17 litres of water in a square meter.
Most of our soils have about 1.5%. Ideally 5% which would hold 85 litres of water per sm.
25 worms per shovelful ideally
Alternate 4 inch layers of high and low nitrogen in compost
Put worm farm at back door
Dilute worm juice 1:9 for garden
Worms in garden not same as compost worms. Compost worms are voracious feeders but don’t dig deeply
Pests cannot digest healthy plants easily
Grow potatoes in bags using compost with 2/3 potatoes with top folded down and add compost and unravel top as they get bigger or grow above ground in a heap or structure
Copper sulphate for leaf curl, use different one each year as plant develops a resistance
Prune fruit trees about 3-4 weeks after fruiting
A full garden doesn’t grow many w**ds because lack of bare soil
Nothing in nature turns soil over like a human (not desirable!).
Nitrogen fertilisers are a waste of time. We have loads of nitrogen. Need more compost and mulch
Late winter early spring dust ash to drip line of cherry trees to try to prevent cherry slugs
Compost seaw**d in layers eg 100 mm in compost bin
Top tips
1) look after soil
2) make really good compost - a little bit often buy cheap sieve from ?
Make a little every 4-6 weeks if you can
Who flung dung good mulch made from chicken dung inoculated with microbes - 25 mls on top
Plant 3 broadbeans in various places adding stakes. Add.3 corn plants to each planting and add pumpkin/squash for small 3 sisters plantings rather than large plantings of everything.
If we grow in rows like a farmer we will have to spray chemicals like a farmer. Instead mix edible plantings into every garden bed together with flowers. Insects can’t find them as easily and are also repelled by some companion plantings including African marigolds (which have edible petals).
Savannah Rise if you remember anything else feel free to correct/add. 🙂
Watch fantastic fungi documentary!!
