Roger Clark's Blog (29)

Well Susan I don't think the pumpkins are winning this war! What do you think? They have climbed onto the fence in places to try to escape, but my money is on the TRAD to catch up and smother them.…

Work while in isolation

Like everyone else on this planet we are currently in self enforced isolation. Thnak goodness we have a large garden to keep us busy. The rain that came a while back has produced incredible growth, mostly of grass and weeds. Unfortunately the rider mower is out of action and all the repair shops have a very long waiting list, so much patience is required, I can hand mow the areas close to the house but the rest of the 5 + acres will have to wait.…

Brenda and I would like to prove once and for all that WE grow the best, tastiest tomatoes in Greater Brisbane. So we are proposing to run a blindfold test at the Christmas event at Park Ridge.

Pretenders to the throne will need to bring along their best 1 or 2 varieties, and we will also buy some commercially produced types for testing as well. Those wanting to take part in the tasting, will need to have a friend to assist them. We will sit people down blindfolded at a table and the…

Wanted,

Your weeds could be what I need!!

Do you have Oxalis in your garden beds? You should know this weed, it is the one that sends up large clover like leaves and has pretty pink flowers around at this time of the year. It is almost impossible to get rid of, as when you pull it up it has tiny little bits which break off and these start new plants. I am after the purple Oxalis, also known as Purple Shamrock. I have plenty of the Green leafed type. It is edible, and has a spicy…

Fruit Fly talk by Professor Richard Drew

Fruit flies have spread down to Victoria and now some have been discovered in Auckland.

We used to treat with systemic cover sprays but these are not used very much now and growers now have had to turn to less harmful (to human health) methods. These systemic sprays would be ingested by people eating the sprayed fruit as the insecticide travelled into and through the fruit

Adult Fruit Flies can travel 20 to 90 kilometres to…

Back to the world of the living!

My summer hibernation is now over, the weather is so much kinder, and I am able to get about outside without frying in the horrible hot sun. The jobs to do outside are many and varied but at least I have some enthusiasm back, which enables me to get stuck in.

My cousin's wife in the UK suffers from SAD, (Seasonal Affective Disorder) - which is caused by a lack of sun in the northern hemisphere. Here we get far too much sun, and while I…

Lance Percival, an English comedian, of a bygone era (That was the week that was), brought out a song about veges, that has long been a favourite of mine.

Some of it went,

My sister Jean's always eating Beans

My little brother Leeks

I just saw Ma eat a piece of Garlic

Everybody duck when she speaks

So, Lettuce get us to the church by half past two

and if you like Beetroot I'll be true to you

There is more but I'll spare you, I…

With the weather now much more bearable, it is becoming a real pleasure to get out in the garden and come out of summer hibernation. A holiday in Tasmania in late summer saw us enjoy a few weeks of much cooler weather, but on return, it had obviously rained quite a bit while we were away and the rampant growth everywhere has/is taking a lot of work to get under control again.

The weedy TRAD has grown like Topsy and covers a lot of ground. It will take all of the cooler months to clear…

BLF seems to get a huge range of people interested in growing veges, herbs, etc. The great majority of people have a suburban context where the garden size is very manageable,…

G'day,

How are things at your place right now in the garden? I have noticed the garden changing - drying out for a while now with no rain to help. The difference between raised beds which are in  full contact with the ground and my containers which are either set up as a wicking bed or simply separated from the ground e.g. sacks, baths, laundry tubs, etc. is most marked. A few weeks ago everything was flourishing, there was moisture in the ground and  watering needed to be minimal.…

My Palagonite experiment

You may remember that I planted out two identical "Rouge De Marmande" seedlings, each in a wheelie bin with identical growing mixes, except that in 1of the bins I mixed in an amount of Palagonite mineral powder as well.

 …

Palagonite, is the mineral mix I wrote about recently after a talk at BOGI. The ratio recommended is 1kg per square metre of garden bed with a similar amount of compost mixed in. You may remember that most of the discussion from my post was centred around the fact…

You could say that I've got the hump because of the slump! Yeah I know, I'm not making any sense as usual, but bear with me. The Slump, is that annoying thing that…

I made it along to BOGI on Thursday evening for once, It is an hour plus drive from downtown Park Ridge and I often don't make the effort, but I'm glad I did this time. Some of you might have seen the ABC news on Saturday where they also had a segment about the same subject - Palagonite. They showed Polo fields in Qatar, which have been treated with Palagonite and have great results getting grass to grow there.

Palagonite is a mineral mix formed by very specific volcanic activity. Mt…

http://abc.net.au/news/2016-10-11/new-fruit-fly-trap-will-save-fresh fruit-crops-inventor-claims-... Read the article about this. I wonder how much it will be. Surely as it is a product of a respected Uni it should work. It would be a huge boon to not only Organic Gardeners but also the general public, as conventional farmers will be able to grow fruit, etc. without poisonous sprays and this will not only make the…

This bed has been in place for a few years now and has never hit the…

This year has been most unusual. Not only has it been a very late start to the cooler conditions, but it has also been unusually wet. Now we are getting what looks like a very early start to warmer conditions again.

This is the season when we can out in the garden all day and not be lathered in sweat, when the pests are usually in hibernation - no fruit fly, no cabbage moth, etc,…

This year I have tried growing Green Zebra tomatoes for the first time with good success. The above plant was also a departure from my usual practice of starting from seed. Although I did start the parent plant from seed, but this plant was started from a thinning out of leaders which I did to produce a tall original plant, devoid of lower growth. So as the original plant was…