What a big fortnight it has been!
Moving house has really taken it out of R and I, but the enthusiasm to garden is coming back. Below are some photos of our new back yard, there is some framework for a huge tropical oasis garden. I think I counted 11 palm trees in the yard!

What was a kids sandpit area will now be extended and made into a dirt vegetable garden to supplement my aquaponics system. I look to grow the bulky or large quantity vegetables such as pumpkin, onions, tomatoes etc and leave the AP for herbs, lettuce and other nutrient hungry plants.

Zero garden down the side of the entertaining area. Will be filled with horse manure and planted with large shrubby palms and hibiscus.

Shot of the entertaining area.

An existing garden bed with a huge Cycad and cardboard palm.

Back door garden. Needs some tidy up and a prune back.

This is going to be a great adventure for us both, now to get back to work!

After watching the tops go yellow for a week, today was the day to do the big harvest. Who would have thought that four months had passed since the build stage of the potato tower?

Above you can see the yellowing stalks and leaves, a sure sign that things are coming to an end inside the bin.

A gentle shove, and a few potatoes spill out onto the ground.

My total harvest, not as big or as productive as I had hoped.

A whopping great 1.5kg of potatoes…

What a learning experience this has been, I have a long way to go before I catch up to my grandfather who grew bulk potatoes for wholesale. Not bad for a half arsed first try.

While the total cost to produce these potatoes was $12/kg (not too bad considering they can be as much as $6/kg in the supermarket), there are some simple things will do next time to increase my yields:

• More dirt / compost in the bottom of the bin
• Water more regularly
• Fertilise more regularly (including seaweed extract)
• Put straw on top in small regular amounts instead of 1ft every three weeks
• Build the bin higher as the leaves grow
• Insulate the inside to prevent too much heat transfer

This was a really worthwhile experience that I would recommend to any one, especially people with young children. I did get a tad excited picking them and I’m well over half way to 50, must be a big kid at heart.

In December I started two tomato plants growing as seeds in Jiffy pots. After having them crop prolifically for many months, they were left to the elements and mealy bugs. They haven’t had any water, love or attention since March, and now being the end of July there are two distinct differences between them.

One is a heirloom tomato called Principe Borghese I got from Diggers Garden Club, the other is a Yates hybrid called “Small Fry”.

^ Principe Borghese

^ Yates “Small Fr”

This makes me wonder, not only do heirloom varieties taste better than hybrids, but they do not require as much water and chemicals as the hybrids that are so readily available.

Have you had any experiences with heirloom varieties?

The potato tower has grown really well, although I have been lazy and not built it as high as I would have liked. Next year I may opt for a round bird mesh bin.

My aquaponics setup has cycled, which in short means that there is enough bacteria converting Ammonia from the fish into Nitrite, and from Nitrite into Nitrate. So far we have been able to make 4 salads from the Cos lettuce. I am still having some trouble with the pH being too high for the plants to absorb Iron, so I have been dosing with vinegar to bring it down.

The rhubarb and garlic are coming along slowly, possibly due to being in the shade most of the day over the winter months. Living in a climate that does not get below ~5 degrees C, the rhubarb will have to come out of the ground each year and be put in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Doing this encourages growth during the warmer months.

A lime tree has been planted, with the hope of enjoying some Vodka Lime and Soda drinks at some stage. The lemon has been dug up and put into a pot as the tree was not growing. Soil pH is fine, maybe some time in a pot with some TLC will bring him along!

For those of us who have not been made redundant due to the slow down, how is it really affecting our lives and the choices we make every day?

For myself there have been a number of changes to my lifestyle as a cost saving exercise rather than a distinct need to reduce overheads. Things such as brewing my own beer, increasing the amount of veggies I grow in the garden, buying seeds or seedlings for the garden rather than more mature plants and frequenting Garage Sales.

The classifieds in our local news paper have had a distinct increase in the number of garage sales, a couple of our friends usually come along and we go for a tour. A lot of the time we come home with nothing of great interest, but every now and then a sale may have gardening gear for sale. My collection so far is a set of iron wall mounted plant baskets, four large glazed pots with plants, 5 small bird of paradise plants, a wine rack and a couple of palms. To buy these new at a retail outlet would have cost me a couple of times the prices I paid for them, but the real value is in spending quality time with our friends without spending a fortune.

As for other choices the Home Brew is going along fantastic. Since dusting off the kit a three months back I’ve only purchased a six pack of beer, saving me around $50 odd a fortnight in packaged beer. Not only is it a large cost saving measure, the beer tastes great and I love experimenting with different recipes and techniques to get to find that ellusive perfect brew!

For Christmas I got given a membership to the Diggers Gardening Club. Diggers send out a magazine / catalog 5 times a year which gives me something to read and access to club discount heirloom seeds for the garden. Most times the club price is around 20% cheaper than retail prices for seeds, live plants come at varying discounts. A bonus to the subscription is the 8 free packets of seeds that each member gets each year. Heirloom seeds provide far more variety and interest than the stock standard hybrid varieties at supermarkets.

When you buy seedlings in punnets from the garden center, it gives you four or six relatively healthy little plants which will make an instant impact on your garden. But when thinking about the economics of it all, the $3 you spend on the seedlings could have bought you a packet of seeds that gives you the opportunity to grow 50 plants. In simple terms the seedlings cost $0.50 each where seedlings grown at your house will cost less than $0.05 each.
No doubt that there is some effort involved in doing so, but two important traits of a gardener is patience and perseverance.

My most revcent purchase has been the Aquaponics kit, while there was fairly significant outlay in cost to buy, my aim is to reduce the amount of reliance we have on the supermarket for our vegetable supply. At present we spend around $40 per week on “fresh” vegetables that have been kept in cold store for three months. Growing high use vegetables such as lettuce, tomato and herbs along with high cost items such as capsicum, zucchini, chili and spinach should save us around $30 per week and also give us better quality. The aim of the Aquaponics is to improve the success rate of my plants than I have had in the dirt garden, as in the past they have been mutilated by pests and disease. An added bonus is the fish that will be grown for table eating, and my wife does not eat fish, so they are all mine!

I am really interested in what people have to contribute to this topic, I know that Daniel over at SmallKitchenGarden has some great information in regards to successful tomato gardens.

What do you get when you cross a tank full of fish and a vegetable garden?

You get a very productive food producing system called Aquaponics!

Over the weekend I ducked down to my local nursery and ordered a Balcony Kit aquaponics setup. I wish I had the balcony to put it on, but the kit is small enough to fit comfortably in a small space. Measuring only 2.7m by 1.5m and 97cm  high there are three grow beds that have the capacity to feed three people consistently (both fish and veggies).

Aquaponics works on the theory of growing plants in an inert media such as expanded clay pebbles with an ebb and flow water system, as is done in an hydroponic setup. The similarities of the two systems end there. Where hydroponics requires the regular addition of nutrients to the water, aquaponics uses fish to create nutrients.

The system works by adding fish food to the water, the fish eat the food, their by products are pumped into grow beds where natural bacteria turn ammonia into nitrogen which plant roots suck up and grow prolifically. Nutrient free water is then drained back into the tank for the process to start again.

Not only do you get a supply of vegetables, but as the fish grow to plate size you can take them to the kitchen as well!

So why am I giving away growing most of my vegetables in dirt you ask? Living in a tropical environment there are many problems I have found when growing in dirt, I’ve had more than my fair share of fungus, mealy bugs, weeds, birds, ants, weeds etc to deter the most enthusiastic gardener from even trying to get their plot growing to any kind of respectable standard. Not to forget over watering, under watering, over fertilising, under fertilising, digging the soil, conditioning the soil… the list goes on!

Call me lazy, but given my hectic work schedule these days the time to spend in the vegetable garden is getting limited (especially in the cooler months with less daylight hours!). I’ve see aquaponics as a way of getting the best food home grown food for my family as I can with less time input, or working smarter instead of harder!

So you can only grow leafy greens in aquaponics?
Not at all, many forums such as AquaponicsHQ and BackyardAquaponics have members that have had great success with root vegetables such as Beetroot & Carrot. Other popular vegetables include Corn, Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, Cabbage, Chili, Capsicum, Lettuce, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Egg Plant, Celery, Strawberries… Murray from Aquaponics.net.au has even grown a PawPaw tree!

Added Nutrients:
As the system is almost closed, the fish food is the only main additive, there can be times where plants become stressed due to nutrient deficiencies. Iron, Magnesium and boron deficiencies can be common, especially when your plants are getting large. Cheelated Iron, Epsom salts and borax can all be added safely (in small quantities) to the water without detriment to the fish. To reduce the need for additional nutrients a high quality fish food with a full range of minerals should be used.

Pest control:
Unlike dirt gardening, where you can get away with a squirt of insecticide now and then, any form of pest control in an aquaponics system must be organic. Should you go through with a dose of insecticide there will be a tank of floating fish. White oil, chili and garlic sprays and diluted milk will be you new best friends.

The planting density in an Aquaponics setup can be fairly thick given the even spread of nutrients from the water. Reports from forums state that you can plant most things at around half to 1/3 of the spacings that are recommended for dirt gardening. This won’t apply to plants such as cabbage or possibly tomatoes which spread to a large size.

Right now, I’ve got the area measured up, some seedlings getting ready to transplant, and another week or so to wait till my kit turns up!

No garden is complete without a Nasturtium plant growing somewhere, thats why I planted some the other day…

This fast growing annual originates from Peru and has fascinated gardeners with its long stemmed large green umbrella shaped leaves for many generations. For those who are getting their kids involved in gardening, the Nasturtium is a great plant to grow as the seeds are large enough for small hands to plant. They are also great for young children as they are completely edible!

Expect bright orange, red or yellow flowers, some with semi-double or double blooms. There are also some verrgiated foliage varieties that will add to the interest of the garden.

Prepare soil in a sunny position to be friable and free draining, Nasturtiums will handle most soil conditions but having too much nitrogen will give huge leaf growth at the expense of flowers. Plant them in the spring time for cool climates, or from spring to autumn in warmer climates (like mine!).

They need total darkness to germinate so plant them deep, at least 12mm down (that’s half an inch in the old measure), so they are completely covered.

Expect them to poke their heads out after two weeks, and get ready for flowers about 10 weeks after sowing (that’s eight weeks after they pop up). Enjoy their lush foliage and bright flowers!

Here are a couple of videos to get you excited about growing Nasturtiums

With the abundant supply of horse manure I have at my disposal there has been some creativity in alternative uses around the yard over the weekend.

A trial of overseeding lawn and top dressing with horse manure in a slow growing area has began. The area is quite sandy and bare with only some boring weeds and a little couch grass growing. After a spray down with wetting agent, a generous dose of lawn seed was spread, two wheel barrows filled with lumpy horse manure were dumped and spread to cover an area of about 9 square meters.

Should I have had a garden mulcher on hand I would have run the entire ute load through and spread evenly across the lawn. Not to be easily deterred, a quick hit with a low blade on the lawn mower (no catcher) pulverised the hell out of it and spread it evenly across the area, nice.

A good water with the sprinkler and we’ll wait and see how it all grows!

I’m keen to hear the tips have you got to get an old lawn onto the path to a greener future.

Its been three weeks since the build stage of my potato tower!

After removing a heap of weeds that popped their heads up early, the potatoes began to show through and have developed well. Keeping in line with the plan I’ve put down a layer of hay on top to cover them up so they will continue to push through and grow clean potatoes amongst the hay.

At the base there is a micro irrigation dripper that will deliver 4 litres per hour to the base of the plants, but I expect that over time I will need to add some water to the top to ensure the spuds grow to a good size. A good liquid fertiliser from time to time will also give the plant a much needed boost.

Here is an alternative to my Potato Tower that I found on YouTube.

Living in a tropical environment has its benefits such as lots of rain, plenty of warm weather and great lightning shows, the best of all is the great weather during the ‘Dry Season’ or winter as it is more commonly known in all other parts of Australia.

Being a long weekend the garden has had a lot more attention than usual with weeding, pruning, composting and most exciting of all planting. While at the nursery on Friday the wife picked up a punnet of Snapdragons and a punnet of Seaside Daisy.

Seaside Daisy is pretty drought hardy once established and is a fantastic ground cover which only requires 3 to 4 plants per square meter to get great coverage. It produces the prettiest little daisy heads which are around 10mm in diameter.

I’ve never grown Snapdragons before, but my wife assures me that they are quite pretty and will grow quickly and to around 80cm in height.

The seed bin got rummaged through again and following were direct seeded into growing location Cornflowers, Cosmos, Gypsophila, Nasturtium, Spring Onion and Kohl Rabi.

On the pruning front the blue salvias got a big hair cut, all of the old wood was removed to allow the young growth coming from around the ground to get some sunlight.

All the prunings and weeds will be thrown into the compost tumbler for a bit of spinning action. Speaking of compost, all of the seeds and seedlings were planted with a good dose of the compost from the compost tumbler.