Gardening Fever

I try and keep things simple, mostly perennials, peonies, day lilies, echinacea, daisies, etc.
My eatsbles are asparagus and basil

I’ve got a few bags of seeds on the counter waiting for a warmer spring, simple things like nasterium.

l love the look of Caster beans, large and exotic. In a big yard like mine and with many deer and other critters, they don’t get eaten (well not much).

Rob

 

I’m a gardening contractor, I’ve grown many different things and installed many raised beds over years. Many different types of food gardens.
What’s your climate?

 

If you like okra it's a large edible with beautiful blooms, but it'll keep you busy picking the pods if you want to keep it bearing; freezes well and makes excellent pickles.

 

Lol, the Aussie most likely knows about 'dry heat',,,

 

OK.. so in NJ I’m planning on Onions, Broccoli, Mesclin (salad mix) and peas, that is when the temps stop going to the 20’s. Those are early crops. In May & June will put in tomatoes (early girls and big boys) and sweet peppers & zucchini. Later pumpkins and then more cold crops and bush beans. I used to put in spaghetti squash and winter squash but nobody eats it but me… and they take up room.

 

My dog takes care of the critters! Even moles!

 

And beer!

 

Grew it once. What’s with the sliminess, it didn’t compute, never really appreciated it myself. Maybe I did it wrong or something.

 

What makes you say that?

It’s the driest inhabited continent, next is Africa. But there is a lot variation. In the tropics you can get enormous amounts of water.

 

One of my bucket list of things to do was to go to America and shoot those big cactuses with an 8 inch barrel Colt 45 while driving big red Cadillac 70’s model convertible. It was a dream, till I heard a nasty rumour they were protected. It was just devastating.

 

I lived on some acreage south of Tucson, and we had those big cactus growing wild, but we did our best to nourish them, rather than kill them. And they provide homes for birds.

 

Interesting. I made organic soil with one of my suppliers, Western Australian soil has the reputation of being one of the most depleted of minerals and difficult to grow in. So really you have to create your soil and really work to build it up.

In New Guinea you could throw a half eaten vegetable over your shoulder into the dirt and you could grow and harvest another one minutes later. Beautiful volcanic soils, no major inputs made it a real pleasure to grow things.

A famous eastern states gardener came to Western Australia and was absolutely disgusted with the soils. It broke his heart.

We half fill the raised beds with pea hay bails to keep the costs down for customers, the organic vegi mix soil we use is expensive. People would be better off buying premium organic produce at the supermarket otherwise.

 

I’m starting to think my dream was unreasonable and slightly infantile.

 

It's like anything else one develops a taste for. It's great roasted in an air fryer, makes outstanding fermented pickles, and I keep it frozen on hand to toss into soups and chowder, and it helps thicken.....and it's a fruit, not a vegetable...

 

Where's Dundee's place?

 

Northern Territory.