urban vegetable patch

I though it is about time to write post on our faourite seed sellers! After showing off all our lush, scrumptious looking vegetables it’s only fair to tell our dear readers where we source our seeds from. These seed sellers offer online purchasing and you can pay via credit card or cheque.

• Diggers
• Eden seeds
• Green Harvest

We are in the process of collecting more seed or seedling growers and we need your help! If you are or knows someone who sells seeds and seedlings (via online or Mail order preferable), contact us today!

If you can have only 1 gardening book, this has to be it! This book has been my bible and nightly read for the past 3 months. I like how it’s full of in depth information on almost anything to do with gardening. This book not only tells you about something (say training a grape vine) but it actually shows you with accompanying illustration and really, a picture is worth a thousand words. Although it’s a wee bit expensive but I can asure you its worth every bit of it. And also the fact that it’s from Royal Horticulture Society and DK, we know it cannot go wrong too badly.

RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening

Earwick, also known as Forficula auricularia is a real PEST! I know, I know (*sigh*) there are countless counter argument about how beneficial they are but to me, there are a real pain in the neck. Not to mention they rape my wong bok!

The problem with earwick is that they will destroy your vegetable (especially the leafy ones) in no time. It starts off with bits of holes on the leaves and before you know it, “Houston, we have a problem“.  And the markings (holes) left on the leaves makes it really hard to tell if the damage is caused by caterpillar, slugs or earwick. Frustrating!

The earwicks pulverise my Wong Bok by drilling its way through to the heart of the vegetable and then start eating its way out! Not to mention it invited more friends to party in this earwick’s haven. You can only imagine my horror when I found the mini colony inhabiting within my vegetable. Firstly disgusted then anger! I am going to kill these little bustards!

Found quite a fair bit of post on trapping earwicks in an organic way. Personally I am filling takeaway containers with fish oil or linseed oil and use it as a trap. Result is not quite what I expected; Caught some wondering ones but nothing worth celebrating. If you are like me, plague by earwicks, have a read on these links I found. I would love to hear from anyone who has any solutions that might help.

Generic info about Earwick
Fish oil trap

Well, it wasnt snow, cotton wool or a spiders web.

So what was it?

This was the big question facing vegie patch owners Fiona and Peter and their family.

The even bigger question was, “is it bad”?

Having just recently planted their vegie garden they began to wonder what they had done to cause such a problem.

So after a couple of photos, they began to surf the net for an answer and after just a short while, they found the answer.

And it was all good news, they had done nothing wrong and the white stuff was in fact a fungus, but a good sort of one. Saprotrophic Fungi.

According to the Fungi section of the CSIRO – Saprotrophic fungi (also known as saprobes, saprophytes) obtain their energy and nutrients by breaking down dead organic matter such as in soil, litter, dung, and wood.

And for a bit more info a search of www.environment.gov.au came up with this info: Saprotrophic fungi obtain their nutrients from dead organic matter. There are many forms of dead organic matter—leaf litter, dung, soil, dead animals, wood and dead fungi-to name just a few. Saprotrophic fungi use them all. Saprotrophic fungi feed on and recycle about 85% of the carbon from dead organic matter, with bacteria and animals responsible for the other 15%. These fungi release the locked-up nutrients that can then be used by other living organisms, making the fungi vital to the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems around the world.

The original answer that gave way to further investigation came from Wiki Answers: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_you_remove_mold_from_the_dirt_in_your_garden

The cause may have been due to the fact that the weather had been quite warm and all of a sudden the garden owners received almost 100mm of rain in just a couple of days, and with the weather still being warm, decomposition of the organic matter may have been quicker than usual for that area of Australia.

But whatever the cause, we found it fascinating to look at and we learnt something ourselves.

If you have come across a problem in your garden and then solved, it feel free to share it with us and the readers of the Urban Vegetable Patch.

Hmm...... sweet melons. Quick! Lick your screen.

From a range of 1-5, I give halogen melon a 4.5. Why you ask? Firstly, the melon is mind-blowingly sweet. In fact, I have never eaten any as sweet as the ones I’ve grown. Secondly, it’s the smell from the fruit – it fills the kitchen up with a nice, light scent of melon-ly goodness, ever so lightly reminding me of summer. And the flora fragrant continues to carry through to the fruit – it leaves a nice after taste in the mouth!

Lastly, I really like it because it such a compact melon plant. In urban vegetable gardening, space is a very valuable resource. You really don’t want to grow a crop that slow to grow and takes up a mammoth about of space. In Melon terms, you really don’t want one with lots of runners and produce a few pieces of fruit. Halogen melons are compact and produce quite a good crop of melons. I have 2 main melon growing, producing 9 melons all in different sizes. Xavier is already asking my how many melon plants am I planning to grow next season. And I think it sums up how good the melons are, issn’t it!

P.S: I have seeds to give out for the next season! If you want some just leave a comment and I will get back you.

The Tomato book

I absolutely love this book but if I can only choose 1 thing I like about this book it has to be the first half of the book. Both authors take you through the journey of 160 different variety of tomatoes, all complete with individual picture. I especially like they way they drop tips along the way that only an experience tomato grower will know. A must have for any avid tomato grower but also a great read and reference for all. Not to mention makes a great coffee table book too!

The Tomato Book: How to Grow and Cook Tomatoes

Look at those picture!

There are some juvenile delinquents roaming my neighbourhood at the moment and boy are they sneaky!

My juvenile delinquents are in fact 2 young butcher-birds… I have done the “crazy vegie gardener” thing ( I think much to my neighbours amusement) and waved my arms and “shooed” them, but they hardly take any notice and fly into the large gum tree, pretend to hide and then after a while they return. So what are they doing?

They are sneaking cherry tomatoes… And are doing so through the bird netting…. its actually quite an achievement and I have watched them do it out of fascination for their skill, they put their beak through the netting, latch onto a tomato and then twist and manoeuvre it through the netting, I don’t quite understand how they get a tomato through the netting but they do it.

But the worst thing is they are only doing it as a bit of sport, they don’t eat the tomatoes, they bite them, then throw them on the ground and try for another. I am not sure if my tomatoes just aren’t to their taste or if it is a bit of a game.

Wonder if  I built a scarecrow, if that would work???