Where are we?
Well, it currently mid summer here in sub tropical Queensland Australia. After the dreadful season we had (as you saw im my last post) and a trip to NZ the garden is worse than ever.
Today's blog
Talking about the mess
Talking about how to go about resetting an overgrown garden - the considerations you might need to take. SOIL HEALTH - The number one advice for all gardeners
My plan to reset the garden back to the food forests that it should be.
in particular i will be talking about the need to choose foods that while are good for your area, but they are also match my criteria for planting. no point putting your heart and soul into the wrong food types.
Anyway lets dive into the blog.
THE MESS
So i'm not dwelling here. you saw it last week. Because we are in Queensland and it is rainly season, i swear weeds can grow 1 foot in a week. Its crazy. and once the seeds are about there is nothing you can do. I'm not keen on poison and i have yet to find a spray bottle than can handle the salt, vinegar and dish soap spray in the quantities i need it. (The nozzles are just to fine for what i need)
Because i knew i was going away, i didn't try and repair the season damage before we went. Why plant things that will not survive while im away. Yes i could have asked someone to come in... but if they didn't do what i needed then they would die again anyway.
this season it seems has been nothing but a repeat season of pulling out the same knee high weeds.
As you can clearly see this is a right royal fuckup. lol
sigh
Its all eaten, nibbled and dying. Again soil health here. the plants are not healthy due to weather. Therefore they get attacked more. also the inclement weather created the environment for the pests.
CONSIDERATIONS IN RESETTING A GARDEN THAT IS OVER GROWN
SOIL HEALTH - Now don't consider me a total nerd here. But i quite like soil science and while i won't go into the details here, there are some things i will need to do to fix the soil in these beds. SOIL QUALITY I SWEAR IS THE NUMBER ONE THING THAT NEW GARDNERS FAIL ON.
FIX YOUR SOIL
FIX YOUR SOIL
FIX YOUR SOIL
Don't buy a bag of the cheap soil at the local store, put it in a small pot and expect a tomato to grow fast and healthy in there. It won't.
If your soil is not good, your plants don't get quality water (as soil wont hold it) and they don't grow fast and healthy so they are more likely to get pests. Pests attack plants that are weak. don't give them poor soil to start with.
And while im not going into testing for minerals and all that, there are actualy kits you can do to check this sort of stuff. For home gardening though i feel unless you are facing disaster, perhaps this is unnecessary.
We’ve all been there—life gets busy, and the garden beds are left to fend for themselves. In Queensland’s hot climate, even a few weeks of neglect can leave raised garden beds looking like a dry jungle of weeds and withered plants. As for mine, they are awful. dry patches of soil. over grown weeds and im sure the nutrients are well sapped out of the soil.
First, im going to clear out the mess. This is the hardest part. Remove any dead plant material and weeds, Next, assess the soil's moisture level. Dry, compacted soil will need a good deep soak to rehydrate it before you do anything else. Remember, slow watering is key—give the water time to seep down and reach the deeper layers of soil. Ill give the soil a good soak, but also i'll need to add some organic matter and re-soak again before i can plant. this first soak is really to try and not kill all the wildlife in the soil. get the worms and other bugs back happy.
Once the soil is a little rehydrated, it’s time to replenish its nutrients. AND get its water holding quality back in. ill be spreading a generous layer of high-quality compost or aged manure across the bed and gently work it into the topsoil. Although nerdy soil science me knows there is lots of research on "not tilling soil". I have access to very composted horse poo and we have compost from the chicken coop. Compost not only feeds the soil but also helps it retain water—essential in our Queensland heat. (like i said you need the compost before doing a big water again) If you can, add a layer of mulch (sugarcane mulch or straw works well) to protect the soil from drying out and to encourage beneficial microbes and worms. I like sugar cane as it does actually look nice in the garden when it is fresh. There is some evidence that it saps nutrients breaking down... but meh... i thing the benefits are better.
Speaking of worms, if your garden bed is lacking these little helpers, I'll be adding some worms to kickstart the ecosystem. Quite likely i'll have heaps still in there, but just in case ill add castings from the worm farm as well. I won't have "killed my soil in two weeks" so i'm pretty sure its still well alive in there. As for the worms They’ll aerate the soil, break down organic matter, and leave behind nutrient-rich castings.
Finally, ill make sure i add some seeweed solution, and organic vegetable fertalizer on the new plants when i get them. a little regular water and away they will go
Feeding your soil is the best thing you can do to improve your plant health.
Here is what i am trying to get back to.
MY CRITERIA FOR SELECTION THE PLANTS I WILL PUT BACK
this is IMPORTANT.
I actually have a fairly strict criteria on plants i grow in my garden. When i bugger this up i pay for it. It goes well beyond growing plants in the right season.
IS IT THE RIGHT SEASON:
Fairly obviously the first one, however here in QLD we have some slight variations due to heat. While cucumber and tomato are summer plants, they grown best in early spring and a later summer avoiding the January heat. I can attest to this with my cucumbers this year. by the time mid summer came around they all died as the pests also came out.
as it is mid summer, i will still plant a few tomato and cucumber and see how we go here. also egg plant which seems to be very resistive to the stresses in my garden.
Does it thrive in my garden and easy to take care of?
again from above, cucumber can be amazing and i had 40kg or so of cucumber early in the season. The tomatos were not amazing, but they can be. its a bit luck of drawer so will be replanting them. Again the eggplant is amazing.
for example capscium which we EAT A LOT OF and would be amazing cost reduction to grow, fails every time i try due to fruit fly and irregular water. So this is well off the list.
Is it expensive in the shops?
herbs are very expensive in the shops. I use loads of them in cooking and as i have heaps in the garden i use lots when i cook. If i bought the herbs that i grew in the garden i could easily spend $30 a week on herbs. These are VERY cost effective. as it the Kaffir lime tree. Even though i use i not very often, when i do i save several dollars. Same with the curry leaf tree. OMG the smell is amazing.
carrots is something i do not grow. A lot of fuss and actaully year round cheep in the shops. its off the list.
DO I USE THE PLANT.
Now this seems silly but really its really not. This is perhaps the most important one. no use everything being perfect above and everyone in my house hates it!! The only laxity to this rule is if good bugs, or my chickens like it for best. However there is not many things in this category. Other than non edible flowers as they are there for the bees. Obviously.
SO WHAT AM I PUTTING BACK / AND WHAT AM I KEEPING
Herbs - most of them survived the season and trip away. Rosemary, Basil, mint, coriander, thyme, oregano, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, fennel and dill. (coriander, fennel and dill are dead) the rest survived, although the mint will need TLC.
as i said, i use these in fistfuls every single day. they are are quality addition and my first recommendation for ANYONE wanting to start a garden.
Aromatic leaves- like the curry tree and the Kaffir lime - both happily survived and we use loads.
French sorrel - hard to kill - great green leafy vegetable. a bit like a small perpetual spinach but tastes of lemon. if you see it BUY IT.
CHILI - while many of these family get hit with fruit fly, thankfully my chili does not and is a STAPLE food in out house. Its expensive to buy and when used i can chop it and sprinkle liberally on food. i would never use so much buying at $20 a kilo.
Eggplant - seems to be very hardy and not keep with pests, however over the trip catepillars have come munching. they choose it last though, so i'm sure with better soil and some good bugs back they will go away. We eat a bit of this and it is expensive. so this is a keeper.
CUCCUMBER - yes. i know it got destroyed. however the first 1/2 season was amazing so i know we can do that again. I will CERTAINLY be buying in some beneficial bugs (ive done a post on that recently too folks) to help curb the biting critters.
We still have the CITRIS trees and i will also be replanting celery, mustard leaves, red onion, raddish and a few other things as well but i'm running out of writing puff.
BIGGEST THING THAT IS OUT!!!
The capsicum... i romantically thought i could try the little ones again. At first glance all seemed positive. but alas the fruit fly and uneven water hit and they were a sorry loss. I won't be planting these again without a greenhouse that i do not have.
Below is the garden when we moved in - green - but nothing to eat
CONCLUDING MESSAGES
Just another very busy week all in all. I will now sign off and start the next video.. lol... as its already late as well
talk later
happy gardening
Sarah
Anyway thanks so much for stopping along and reading my posts I am just loving my HIVE experience so far. Such a fun platform for sure.
For those that don't know my i'm currently focusing on Daily painting and somewhat amusing my self and my family with Acrylic pouring.. lol.. i wish i had a separate studio for that as it is so messy.
My other HIVE interests are:
- cooking
sunset photography (i take photos
of the sky every night)
Art
Graphic Design
Gardening (just a smidgion)
Ballet
SPLINTERLANDS
Here are a couple of snaps of some of the stuff i do outside what you see up in the posts above.
LOVE AND LIGHT
BLINGIT
Hi! Wow, you really have a huge garden haha, mine is very very humble, I like ferns, bromeliads and epiphytes but I loved the love and dedication you put into your urban garden. Best regards.
!BBH
lol. its not THAT big, and i do wish i had the luxury of not planting in pots. However it is what i have got. when it works it works really well. I like ferns too (i come from NZ so i grew up with them) and i have a few bromeliads, around in pots in the side as well.
its certainly handy having food in the garden ( when it works)
thanks for stopping by the blog!
BLINGIT
Nice recovery blog 👍 we are in the winter deep freeze here so perfect time for planning. Planning in the winter is sometimes the best part of gardening lol the best laid plans often go awry. And fighting the weeds and the bugs and keeping up with watering in season can be exhausting. Kudos for making a stand and trying to recover mid-season. Its easy to just let it go and try again next time again.
Yeah mid season is a pain, but i need to fix it before the job doubles in size i think. I won't do a full plant. just focus on a few things. perhaps cover crop one of the beds. but see how we go.
certainly no big freeze here... lol. best we get is a mild frost 3 nights of the year. ( none some years) and only as we are inland. away from the ocean.
BLINGIT
will apologize in ADVANCE for the poor edit here. I am desperate to get out to the lounge to watch an episode of "The boyz" and have a glass of Vino!
BLINGIT