I love my vegie garden :)

[Lyn Buffett]

My new vegie garden is AMAZING! All the rain and the awesomely furtile soil has allowed the seeds and plants to grow like triffods (but without the funny sound and thankfully they don't leave the garden to kill people).

My corn and amaranth is chest high - oh and the amaranth tastes good (a bit like silverbeet but better). The NZ spinach I got from the West End community garden is flourishing and huge! My lettuce, rocket, tatsoi and bok choi are all growing so well. I have 4 button squash plants. They are all looking good, but the 2 that have a little more shade are doing better. No powdery mildew yet...cross my fingers, touch wood and all that.

So far I have hardly any pests. I am hoping that is because everything is so healthy and not because it is a new garden and they haven't found their way there yet.

My only difficulty so far have been beans. I think the cutworms keep eating the new shoots. Funny though one bean that I accidently dropped in the middle of the lettuce row, has headed for the sky and has a few lovely yellow beans on it. I think that is whay you would call a happy accident.

Oh it is so fantastic to finally achieve such success in my garden :)

Cheers

Lyn

Check out the upturned black plant pot in the middle of the garden. I cut half of the bottom of the pot off and use it to shade newly planted out seedlings.

Below: Tomatoes, bokchoi (or could be pak choi as I planted both), button squash, butter bean, lettuce, tatsoi, rocket....all piled in together. I will think more about crop rotation when my next garden has been built, but in the meantime I have a happy jungle :)

[Vanessa Collier]

Looking good! Glad to see you enjoying your garden.

[Lyn Buffett]

Good tip thanks Florence. Yes we had the NZ spinach last night for dinner - very nice :)

[Florence]

Sounds great Lyn ~
I plant my beans in toilet rolls ~ blue lake didn't germinate though, but the purple king are doing fine, hope I won't get bean flies too soon... Hope your next batch of beans would do better. Have you tried your NZ spinach yet? They grow really well don't they ~

[Tracy Arnold]

Looking great Lyn. So green :)

I think you should coin the phrase 'happy jungle gardening' - it sounds so nice! Crop rotation is over-rated I reckon.. well it is for me anyway since I never get it right anyway

[Lyn Buffett]

I don't have any vermiculite, but I wonder if sand would stop the cut worms? I have already put new seeds in so it is a bit late to put the rings around. I have planted some beans in different spots too. WIll probably have a glut of beans in a month or so!!!

[Scarlett]

fantastic :)
you might have critters in one spot who are menacing your beans - might be worth trying them in another spot. or maybe start them off in a dissolvable container (like rolled wet cardboard etc)
or you can sprinkle something sharp and nasty around the seed area - like vermiculite

[Donna]

That's great news Lyn, sounds like you have a green thumb! I am still trying to dye mine but it is slow going ;)

I loved that book, and quite often think of the triffids lol :)

[Lissa]

You sound like you're getting so much enjoyment from your garden Lyn :D It feels so good doesn't it to grow your own! So rewarding and happy.

[Elaine de Saxe]

Sounds fabulous, Lyn ... gardens are for fun! An anti-cutworm device is a cut-off small yoghurt container ... or something similar which is a big-enough ring which can be pushed into the ground. Or just plant the beans with the lettuces! There shouldn't be much in the way of pests and diseases if the soil is healthy therefore the plants are healthy and pest and diseases favour weakness - the rubbish-removalists of the plant world.