Killing Ants in Plantpots

One thing I missed when writing about 'Ant Control', was getting rid of them in potted plants. This has been pointed out to me in a question there.

And the solution is dead easy.

Drown them. Take all infected pots somewhere outside. (In case any migrate and builds a new nest nearby to where they were evicted from.

Cover the pot surface with something, even if this is only your hand, (this is to prevent the potting mix from floating away).

Lower the pots into a container of water. So that the potting mix is fully immersed under the water surface. Have something in the water for the pot to stand on if necessary.

And leave there for 15 to 20 minutes. This will kill all ants left in the pot.

Seed Newsvine

Soil Texture Test

How can you work out what the soil texture of you garden soil is, without going to the expense of calling in professionals to do the job for you.

Certainly you can get a bit of an idea just by looking and feeling the soil as you work it. Or you can take into account what you or other people you know and understand of the area. However it is amazing how soil types can change from one place to the next or even from one depth to another.

Though it might look and act very differently when it is moist as opposed to when it is a dry soil.

So here is one idea to give you an approximation of what the type or types of soil you have in your garden.


Note: Do this test at the area just under the mulch surface As well as at points further down in the soil layers. Remembering that what is at the surface may be very different to what is 6 in’ 150mm to a foot 300 mm down below the surface, when it comes to soil types in a garden. Or take an average by taking the same amont of soil from differing depths at the one site.

After all the roots of your plants will not stay in just the top hand depth of soil in the garden, just because that’s where you originally plant them.

You also might want to consider doing this in several locations around your property, if the soil structure is likely to vary from one area to another.

Preparation

Sift some of your garden soil, getting the bulk material like sticks and stones, out of the mix.

Put a cup of the sifted soil into a jar which can hold about 3 cups of material or more.

Fill most of the jar with water.

Method

After filling with water, shake vigorously for a few minutes (5-10), then put it aside to settle.

This will probably take a few days to complete and for all the soil particles to settle out. So relax and give it time to settle without disturbing it.

The heaviest particles, the sand will settle to the bottom, next will settle the silt and finally the lightest particles the clay will settle at the top. While any organic elements are likely to still be floating at the top of the jar.

A good soil will be approximately 45% sand, 35% silt and 20% clay.

Now while you will not be able to gain an accurate percentage breakdown in the soil composition. You should at least be able to gain a bit of an approximation of what sort of basic soil type/s that you are dealing with. And give you a bit of an idea if you might need to be adding either more clay material or more sand to improve your soils.

Though the one amazing thing about soil additives like compost and manures, is that it will improve both clay and sandy soils, with its addition of humus and other organic materials and other broken down elements.


Seed Newsvine

Adventitious Rooting

There are quite a number of species of both container and garden plants which can be propagated by taking cuttings from them. These are ones which already have small roots developing along the trunk or stems of the plant.

I have a double flowering form of Feverfew that I have to propagate every year or it would die out within two years. And I take full advantage of this trait in planting sections of it directly into the garden where it will grow for the next two years. As well as this it also provides extra plants for friends and charity stalls.

Other plants, for which this works as well, include members of the Ficus family, many of the orchids (eg Crucifix), Monstera's, Philodendrons and many of the ground cover type species of plants. I have even known Marguerite daisies to do it in moist weather. The easiest way to find out which ones you have, is to inspect your own plants stems and see which are developing roots from the trunks or stems.

This same idea of taking advantage of the adventitious roots of a plant can also be used to increase the yield of a number of the plants growing in the Vegetable garden.

Vegetable garden plants that put out adventitious roots include the solanum family (potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum, and chillies). As well as plants in the grass family like corn. While you would most likely not want to propagate these plants, you can take advantage of this trait in increasing the yield that you get per plant by increasing the plants ability in taking up moisture and nutrients.

These plants are not averse to having mulch or soil heaped up around the main stems of the plants. And as such will if encouraged will send out the side roots into the growing medium and so help increase the plants vigour and fruit size, quality and quantity.

Another plant in the useful garden where you can take advantage of this trait is a Pineapple top. Once they have been cut away from the fruit. Leave them out in a shady spot to dry for a couple of weeks or so. Then remove the lower portion of dying leaves, (you may even see some adventitious roots already developing. Pot this up in a moist well-drained potting mix, it may need some extra drainage material mixed through though, as they do like a sandy type soil or they may rot. Just treat the new plant like other members of the Bromeliad family.

Seed Newsvine

Comment Feedback Email Problems

Now I have to say that the new system of allowing us to recieve others feedback after we have submitted a comment out there in blog world is greatm and I approve, however... It does have its drawbacks.

The first of which is that it will encourage people to leave feedback comments just for the syndication value of them. So that their bloger names are emailed out to whoever else has left feedback and is getting emails about updates.

Now this is going to majorly increase the workload of many of us in keeping clean our email boxes.

Seed Newsvine

Plant Stamps

A parcel came in the mail the other day. I just had to stop and admire the stamps. The artwork was a couple of depictions of plants. ‘How pretty they are’.

My second reaction though was, ‘Oh no, don’t let me get started on something else plant related’.

It makes me wonder though about how much the commercial world does try to get us into other stuff, simply by sticking on images of our ‘obsessive topics’.

Whether this is images of plants, cats, dogs, trains, royalty, celebrities, movie stars and characters, tourist places, etc. From framed images, to stamps, from teaspoons to plates, from books to DVD’s, they make a fortune out of the normal person’s obsessions and interests. Or at least what the people around you believe are your obsessions.

All these really do though, is provide something for the kids, family and friends to buy you, on special occasions, when they don’t know what to get you. Now if they had asked me about what I wanted. But oh no, what they were getting had to be a surprise…..

These are the presents to get when you don’t get a present.

And you have to act all grateful…. Then someone else sees you happily receiving it and they think, ‘Ah now I know what I can get them next time’. And a collection starts……

Seed Newsvine

Ant Control

Everyone dislikes the little creepy crawlies, wandering around and destroying things in the house, or farming aphids and the like out on your precious rose or something in the veggie patch, sucking the life and health out of the carefully nurtured plants.

So what can you do about it besides spending lots of money on expensive commercial pest treatments? Well here is a few ideas to try out at your place.

Ants Sprays

Garlic/Pepper Spray - 1 crushed clove of garlic, (or a teaspoon of crushed garlic), 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, 1 quart of water. Steep for 1 hour and then add, 1 tablespoon of liquid soap. Spray this mixture, around the house or garden problem areas. This will have to be reapplied after a while.

Orange Peel Spray – In a blender pop some orange peels and water, blend well, and strain. Use the strained liquid in a spray bottle around the house.

Essential Oil Spray - Fill a spray bottle with water and add approximately 10 - 15 drops of essential oil, (eucalyptus, citronella, orange, peppermint, lemon tee tree or clove oil). Ants won't cross the area because they hate the smell. However cats may find the smell of the peppermint oil extremely attractive, though it is not good for them.

Even one of these oils soaked onto a piece of string or a cottonwool ball or a small piece of rag etc, stuck across their path will work

Citrus Spray - Mix orange/ grapefruit juice or vinegar, water and liquid soap together (equal parts) and spray the area. Appears that the acid content is what gets them. You probably will need to repeat this several times to finally stop the ants.

These types of sprays will also work to an extent on other household pests like cockroaches.

Ant Baits

1. - Mix about a half teaspoon each of honey/syrup, boric acid/borax, and sugar/aspartame (artificial sweeteners), (Artificial sweeteners are supposedly poisonous...)

2. - Mix equal parts of boric acid/borax and mint jelly/peanut butter, or some other sweet pasty type product.

Spread either mix over a cracker or onto a jar lid or in a small jar tipped on its side or something similar.

Hide either of these in a small cardboard box and place near where ants are active or coming in, and ants will carry the bait back to their colonies.

These must be kept away from pets and children, and are best used indoors.

Ant Deterrents

Cucumber peelings or slices, left in ant walkways.

Red chilli or dry mustard made into a paste using a little water, wiped over areas. (Tabasco or hot sauce based pastes can also work).

Lemon juice, white vinegar or half strength cider vinegar sprayed or wiped over the areas with a problem or at the ant entrance points.

Use white or yellow chalk to draw lines across ant walkways or entrances. (Other coloured chalks may stain) You could try drawing lines with the edge of a bar of soap, along the lines of a chalk stick. Or drawing the lines with petroleum jelly.

Try using the environmental cleaning products which have an orange oil base in them for cleaning or spraying in the ants way.

Sprinkle

Cayenne or red chilli pepper, cloves, coffee grounds, cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar, bone meal, baby powder (Scented Talcum Powder), table salt, black pepper which is sprinkled around the areas where ants are coming in or travelling to, to disrupt their walkways.

Leaves

Cloves or dried mint, bay, lavender or eucalyptus leaves, either whole or crushed, and sprinkled around in cupboards and drawers. (eucalyptus leaves may be poisonous if swallowed by kids or pets).

With ants aversion to citrus oils you would also expect that citrus leaves or even citrus peel to also have a similar effect, though I have not tried this yet.

Tea bags of mint tea left around are also supposed to be an effective deterrent in confined spaces.

Ant Nests

When you find an ants nest pour boiling water or straight vinegar down the entrance hole/s to try and destroy nest/s, this may need to be repeated a few times to effect the result you want.

If you find multiple nests, you could try digging up a bucketful from one nest and dumping these on top of a second nest. The ants being very terrirorial will fight and kill each other.

Clean up

Clean up spills or drips on honey and syrup jars, sugar bowl, food scraps, leftovers and rubbish.

Clean any spills, crumbs etc. sweep floors etc. In other words do everything you can to minimize attractants.

Place a water tray under pet’s food bowls or keep them clean between the pets using them.
Clean benches with vinegar or orange oil based cleaners.

Caulking or otherwise blocking up any little holes or openings where they are gaining access.

Future Prevention

Grow plants that give out scents of pyrethrum, citronella, lavender, eucalyptus or mint near doorways or at other places that ants are likely to use to gain entrance to your home.

Aussies can probably look at using eucalyptus mulch around entranceways to discourage ant entry. Though don’t expect great control because our ants are used to being in an environment with the eucalyptus leaves….Might be better off trying lemon tea tree (Leptospermum petersonii) leaves, around the home.

Look at clearing stacked timber, or plants growing up against the building. Look at managing insects that normally live in company with ants like aphids and mealy bugs.

Note: Mints are invasive if allowed to actually grow in gardens in many parts of the world. So are often better in a pot or in a garden bed with a root barrier around them.

NOTE: See also posting on Killing Ants in Plant Pots

Seed Newsvine

Chitting

Now that was Chitting not ‘cheating’ we are discussing.

This is simply a way of testing the viability of a pack of seeds you have.

There are times you are unsure of the viability of a pack that has been stored in the shed for a while, or there are seeds that you have collected yourself, so having a way of checking the viability of stored seed can be handy at times. This will not work with all species as some require light to germinate, while others

Sometimes it is possible that the seed companies do put out a bad batch of seeds, though most times it really falls down to operator error for the failure of commercially bought seed to germinate.


Chitting Method

Check to see if now is the correct time for germinating such seed, as there is really no point in trying the seed if it is out of the correct season for that plant to germinate.

Also check to see how long that the seed of that species normally requires to germinate.

Count out a set number of seeds. Preferably only enough that you can afford to loose them if necessary.

Lay them out on a paper towel, roll it up and wet it using a spray bottle, (so that you do not wash any seeds away).

Place this paper towel inside a plastic bag. And store this somewhere in bright shade.

Then check the paper towel every day, looking for the first sign of root emergence.

If you succeed then these seeds may be able to be then planted out if you are gentle.

This method can also be used as a way of showing kids about seed germination, if you are using big seed like beans.

NOTE: This is a term used in the UK and Aus.

In the USA, Chitting is usually used to refer to getting eyes to grow on potatoes, and this system is called Germination Testing.

Seed Newsvine

Seed Organiser

Remember those old floppy disc organisers which we always used to need, way back when computers used to store personal information on floppy discs. Why not pull it out and use it to store your seed packets.

I’ll bet you or someone you know still has one or more tucked away in a drawer or cupboard somewhere. Or you could also use an old Recipe Card organiser, or an old office or telephone organiser, instead. These can even be picked up cheap at markets or garage/yard sales.

You could also use one of those concertina files, or even something as simple as a shoe box with home made dividers.

Why not pull it out and use it to organise those seed packets from the shed. You know the one's, all those already opened packets of seeds, sitting loose on a shelf, or in a drawer out there in the shed, next to the old greasy spark plug from the mower.

How you set out your seeds will be a personal system, though I would suggest organising it by the planting month or season. Make labels for the header cards as appropriate to suit your own system.

This is especially good if you are saving seeds yourself, as paper bags\ or envelopes can be especially hard to keep organised. And this is where good and accurate information needs to be taken at the time of seed collection. (date, species and variety, flower colour and type), any special about the plant, plant size and shape, etc.). Sometimes this can be recorded on the packet or in a separate little book.

Don’t forget to add a small silica gel bag, or a potpourri bag to try to help keep moisture levels down and the insects out.

Seed Newsvine

California Bush Fires

My hopes and prayers go out to anyone affected or even to the families of the people of California affected by the Bushfires. My concerns also extends to the wildlife of the area.

With living in a country that gets similar problems to California, and having lived through a couple of major bushfires over the years. I understand a little of what some of them are going through. They have my personal prayers.

Seed Newsvine

Make your Own Propagation Mix

Because I live in the subtropics, I am lucky enough to be able to strike many cuttings and get many species to grow from seed just using garden soil or potting mix as a medium. Unfortunately not every one is as lucky.

Many people struggle to get cuttings to take, or to grow seedlings because of fungi and bacterial infections. So extra care and attention in hygiene matters are needed to get them to succeed. So to make your own propagation mix for striking cuttings or to grow seedlings, without spending a fortune.


Ingredients

Compost/ and or potting mix,

River sand or a coarse landscaping sand. (Beach sand is not real good because of the salt content, and the grains are usually too fine). (All would have to be soaked/rinsed before using anyway).

Perlite/vermiculite/polystyrene beads (optional for extra moisture retention and openess of mix)

Fine Gravel (optional for well drained mixes)

A sieve of some sort. ( this can be a proper garden seive, a kitchen seive, a colander, a grater or even a garden pot allowing the action of seiving through the holes in the bottom, or even just your own hands cupped together seiving the compost through your fingers.)

Bleach (1/10mix) or Methylated Spirits (1/10) or Vinegar (1/3) or hot soapy water, (Sterilizing Agent)

Boiled or distilled/demineralized water

Oven. (If heat sterilizing)

Old roasting or baking tray for the oven.(If heat sterilizing)

Sterile container to store excess finished mix in.

Method

Ensure that your hands are clean and sterile before begining. Gloves can be used because of issues of handling soil and other products which are possible carriers of Legionella longbeachae a pneumonia type of disease. This is a naturally occurring bacterium that is a normal part of the environment.

Secateurs/scissors/knives and work spaces and storage containers should be sterilized with a diluted mix of bleach or vinegar or methylated spirits and water.

First you need to sieve out a quantity of fines from some well matured compost or potting mix. (or cheat and use coir peat instead). Mix this with about ½ - 1/3 clean sand.

If you are preparing to grow things that require well drained soil eg pineapples, cacti, etc., as plants then think about adding a bit of fine gravel to your propagation mix. To improve drainage even more. You can even add things like perlite and/or vermiculite and/or polystyrene beads when ready to pot up cuttings. This would improve moisture retention in the propagation mix. These will also improve air circulation around the bases of the cuttings.

To kill germs and bacteria in the mix you will have to sterilize get the soil/sand/gravel mix so that you kill most or all harmful bacteria and fungi.

Possible ways of treating the propagation mix, include.

Soaking Treatment - soaking or rinsing the mix in the dilute sterilizing mix mentioned above, (except the soapy water option), then soaking and or rinsing it afterwards in boiled or distilled water. Sun/air dry any excess mix to ensure that no problems grow before you get to use it again.

Temperature Treatment - laying the mix on a tray in an oven for the 30 minutes or so needed to raise and maintain a temp’ of over 60 degrees celcius. If you put the mix in thick in the trays, then the temp at the core of the mix is what you need to be concerned about. Not just on the surface of the mix. This then needs to be cooled completely before using.

So if you do not want to run the oven specifically just for the propagating mix, then have it ready to insert after using the oven for some normal cooking or baking, while it is cooling down.

Mix which has been heat treated to be sterilized may need to be soaked before using with cuttings as it may be water repellent at first and deprive new cutting of moisture till it reacquires the ability to hold and store water.

If you have made up excess propagation mix it can be stored in a sterile container until needed in the future.

Afterwards

When planting up cuttings ensure that the pots, labels, and even the stick you will be using to poke holes in the mix has been washed or soaked in a sterilizing mix before using them.

It also does not hurt to give the cuttings a quick rinse in the sterilizing agent, 9except the soapy water option), and then a rinse off with the sterile water as well.

When watering cuttings you can improve the success rate by watering the cutting for a while with sterilized/demineralized/boiled water. At least untill the cuttings show signs of starting root germination.

Also remember that there is little or no fertilizer content in your mix, so a fertilizing program will have to be maintained at about ¼ plant strength to allow the new plants to have the nutrients they need to start and maintain root and stem/leaf growth.

Most cuttings strike better in a bright shaded environment.

You can also improve the chances of the cuttings taking by keeping the cuttings in an environment away from the general plants in your garden, greenhouse or shade house.

Now while it is expensive to have a dedicated greenhouse just for propagation. It isn’t difficult to ensure that a small separate incubator can be put aside. Even if this is only something like a throwaway plastic cake/sandwich container, or a clear cd storage tower that blank cd/dvd’s come in.

Or even just a plastic shopping/kitchen/bread bag thrown over the container, and kept up off the cuttings with chopsticks, sticks, skewers or straws, etc. and then sealed around the cuttings.

This also helps keep them away from pests and blown in fungi and bacterial attacks while they are establishing. Though once you see signs of them getting established you will need to start opening up the incubator to harden off the new plants.

Window Greenhouses

The cooler months of the year are a great time to sit back with the gardening and remodelling magazines on your lap and dream of all the things you could do with your home. But have you ever been to one of those Home and/or Garden shows and seen window greenhouses on display. If you have contemplated purchasing or building one, there are a number of things you should consider before you go ahead:

Construction Type?

You can get ones made of timber or metal (mainly aluminium). Remember though that timber ones require more maintenance, due to increased moisture levels around the timberwork, and general painting.

Cover type?

Glass: It's the heaviest type, but often best, (use double strength glass or better).

Acrylic: Light and nearly unbreakable, but it often yellows with age.

Fibreglass: Has a lower light transmission level than glass and not so easy to keep clean.

Plastic Sheeting: Fairly short lived and soon needs replacing.

Positioning in relation to the house?

(Editors note:- This article was written for the southern hemisphere.
And as such the House orientation needs to be changed for situations dealing properties in the northern hemisphere. The Northern Positioning can be swapped for the southern one).

North side of the home: Used for some flowering plants, bulbs, cacti, annuals, vegetables, herbs and other plants that require high light levels. But they become very hot in summer if they are not shaded.

South side of the home: Can be ideal for ferns and other foliage plants that tend to grow without direct sunlight.

East side of the home: Good for some flowering plants, orchids and bromeliads and other plants that like part sunlight conditions.

West side of the home: Good for cacti and succulents and other hot climate plants. These often get very hot in summer.

Would it suit your style of house?

This is more of a personal choice because it often comes down to whether you and your family would be able to live with it for years to come.

Does it suit your climate?

In extremes of weather they can be a major source of heat gain or loss, to the detriment of the room to which they are attached.

What sort of microclimate will it create for the plants and the room to which it is attached?

Would it increase the humidity of the room to which it is attached? (usually not a problem except for very small rooms).

Can you put it in an area where it will not get in the way of either indoor or outdoor activities? For example, would the space it takes up detract from space used to entertain outdoors, or gain access to an outside door.

Would it make a good target for backyard cricket/baseball games?

Would it get in the way of young bicycle riders on the veranda/patio? You should think especially of the danger levels of placing it immediately near a corner of the house that the kids of all sizes, could run/ride around and hit into.

How easy would it be to access it from indoors for maintenance of your plants?

What is the ease or difficulty of being able to clean it from inside and out?

How easy or not is it to open and close the window?

What insect control measures are in place, both for the health and comfort of plants and people?
What are the light levels available to the plants, both from inside and out?

Would it make a good entry point for "uninvited" members of the public to enter your home?

Does it add to or detract from your privacy screening of that area of your home?

These displays boxes do not look any good unless they have a number of plants in them; are you prepared to put the effort into maintaining the plants over a long time?

Where would water run to if you accidentally overwater your plants?

If it is a precoated metal type, is the colour going to suit your possible changing of home colours at a later date?

What are your local government authorities' rules and regulations dealing with the subject of home additions?

Are you in a housing estate, apartment block etc., where you have to get approval from the owners/managers/tenants association or whatever for approval?

Just remember that everyone's situation is different, so the answers you give to the above questions will be different. But I hope that the above questions will help in some way in your decision making as to whether or not a window greenhouse would be a suitable addition to your home.





Seed Newsvine

A Father's Letter to Santa

Well it's almost just 2 months before christmas already. Boy has the year flown. So guess I had better get my letter out to Santa now.

There's also a link at the top of the right hand side bar with a no nonsense link to a ebook. With all the highlights so far from this blog. In an easier to read format than poking through all the backlog. No money, no email adress required , no adds and no 'buy me's.... no crap, just like the rest of this blog.


BBG



Santa please help!!!!



I have a big list of things that I would like for Christmas this year.

First up I would like a box of peace and quiet, to reflect on how lucky I have been.

Secondly I would like small amount of spare time to enjoy my family more.

Next would have to be a large supply of sanity, to be able to focus more on the good in people.

Next would have to come a big bag of patience to get over the rough spots. As my current supply is running short.

Another item I really need I’m told, is a new Sense of Humour, and it would be really handy if it came with a supply of fresh jokes, as my little darlings have told my current one’s are past their ‘use by dates’.

A goodly supply of forethought would be handy, to stop those post action regrets.

And lastly some new rechargeable batteries and a recharger unit would be great. The old batteries are wearing out and are taking longer and longer to recharge properly.

While the kids reckon I also need to recharge quicker after work, and in these modern days when you can get quick recharges on everything else, so why not me.

Santa please help.



Seed Newsvine

20th World Solar Car Race

The twentieth World Solar Car Race, from Darwin to Adelaide (3000 km/5 day race) in Australia, starts today the 21st of October, 2007. Over 61 teams from 20 countries driving and supporting strange and wonderful vehicles mostly powered by the sun. Though there is also a catagory for alternative fueled vehicles. More Info here, here

Seed Newsvine

Free Urea Based Fertilizer

Human urine makes an excellent high nitrogen liquid fertiliser for most plants. Dilute it 10 to 1 and pour it over and or round fast growing plants once a week; like vegetables, Green manure crops and sugar cane. Indeed just about anything that you want to push along rapid green growth

Studies indicate that each person’s waste fluids can provide enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to grow a year’s supply of wheat and maize for that person. According to some studies, human waste can be an even more effective fertilizer than animal manure.

Urine, which comprises 90 percent of human waste, contains about 80 percent of our waste’s fertilizer value. It can be applied to field crops without treatment because it is generally sterile. By the way "fresh urine" does not contain any bacteria, unless the person has a urinary tract infection, so you could even use it to wash out wounds without causing any infections,

Human urine can be used as an alternative to chemical fertilizer to reduce pollution in air, water and soil and help avoid or control other environmental hazards which surface due to the use of chemical fertilizer, Human urine contains nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium at a much higher ratio than in commercial fertilizers and is environmentally safe to use.

If you want to use urine to fertilize your gardens, keep in mind that when urea becomes ammonia, it also becomes volatile and part of it strips into the air. Both ammonia and nitrates are also very soluble and if not picked up by plant's root systems can enter groundwater with the irrigation water. So it would be best to keep gardens moist but not over watered, but these are similar problems faced by people who use other forms of fertilizers.

Problems urine causes

Most toilets use between 50 and 100 litres of water daily to flush away one to 1.5 litres of human excrement.

Urine is the largest contributor of nutrients to waste water, estimated as 50% of phosphorus and 80% of nitrogen.

The high level of nutrients in sewerage runoff leads to the consequent growth of algae, resulting in the lack of oxygen and the death of plants and animals on river, estuarine and sea beds.

Problems Chemical Fertilizers cause

Serious environmental hazards are often associated with the use of chemical fertilizers. In industrialized countries, for example, indiscriminate use of these substances has polluted water supplies. Dangerously high levels of chemicals have been reported in nearly one-fourth of Europe’s groundwater supplies.

Advantages of Urine Fertilizer

One advantage in using urine, as a fertilizer is that much of the urine is available in ideal chemical forms: nitrogen is in the form of urea (ammonia/ammonium which is present at concentrations of approximately 3.5 g/l), phosphorus as superphosphate and potassium as an ion. Urine is almost free from heavy metals - for example, cadmium - because even if we ingest them, they will tend to bind to the liver and kidneys, making the urine much lower in such contaminants than commercial fertilizers.

Urea outside the body quickly becomes ammonia and will be oxidized by special bacteria (called nitrifiers) into nitrates. All these 'reactive' nitrogen sources can be used to form amino groups for new amino acids, thus then being made into proteins. So make other steps to encourage the soil life in your garden, eg things lie mulching etc.

It helps conserve pure or town drinking water

Reduces the rate and amount of chemical fertilizer runoff into the groundwater and surrounding waterways

Reduces the amount of sewerage runoff

Reduces nutrient build-up in waterways and estuaries and oceans

Reduces your gardening costs, because of less reliance on buying chemical fertilizers.

Uses

Probably best used for non-edible plants, green manure crops and fruit orchards, though there is some usage being noted for edible crops. Apply in under fruiting plants, not onto foliage and fruits.

In a Hydroponics set-up, use it diluted, probably at a ratio of either 10- 20 to 1(water- urine), but keep a close eye on both the ph level and the level of individual salts of the mix in the nutrient storage container.

Dilute urine is also a good additive to a compost pile. Urea also helps break down lignin, accelerating the decomposition of woody materials. On the other hand, urine from somebody with a urinary tract infection or from unknown sources should probably be pasteurised or put in a long-term compost pile (of a year or longer)before it is used on food crops.

When using a urine fertilizer in container plants, a 10:1 (water: urine) ratio can quickly burn plants in medium to small containers because of the salt and urea build-up, even at a 15:1 dilution rate is very strong for the medium to small containers. While at 20:1 you can use it more frequently (once or twice a week) with good benefits and little danger.

Unfermented urine can supposedly be sprayed as a fungicide. Indigenous people in southeastern Mexico claim that the use of urine as a fungicide was a traditional Mayan practice. However there needs to be a lot more research as to the validity or not of their claims.

While in Korea, they spray the undiluted urine as an insecticide, but again I do not know of any research to prove or disprove their claims.

So why not get out there, and help the environment by assisting in reducing the nutrient flow into the natural ground water and water ways, while saving yourself a bundle in fertilizer costs.

Seed Newsvine

10 Uses for Orange Peel in the Garden

Blue over at 'A Spot with Pots', has put up a great posting about 10 Uses for Orange Peel in the Garden. Including a couple which are new to me. It's good to see another new Blogger getting in and participating. Especially when that Blogger is a local to me...

Seed Newsvine

Water Restrictions in the South East Queensland Area

With the drought holding sway over South East Queensland. And Water restrictions still at the Level 5. The urban Dam levels are sitting now at just over 20%. At least with the recents rains, we have put off the original start date for the level 6 restrictions, for now......

Proposed Level 6 Restrictions are available for discussion. Target 140 (Ltres/perday-per person) still continue being beaten by local residents.

Maybe one day we will be able to have real gardens again. Otherwise we had better start looking at using at lot more desert plants in the garden.....

Seed Newsvine

No Dig Potatoes

You can grow an enormous crop of potatoes without any of the backbreaking effort of digging. Just follow the steps below.

There is no need for fork or spade in any way, shape or form. This is ideal for those who have problems bending and lifting heavy loads. It is also a good project for a school or aged home gardening project.

Mark out an area of lawn,

1. Lay down some weed suppressing material like carpet underlay, cardboard or thick layers of newspapers.

2. On this put a layer of compost and/or earth.

3. Put seed potatoes, or pieces of potato with eyes directly onto this layer of compost, exactly where you want them to grow

4. Cover this with a fairly generous layer of mulch or hay/straw, roughly 30 cm (1ft) deep.

5. Water this in well. Green plant shoots will come through this layer of material.

6. Add mulch as required to cover any tubers, which may grow on the surface of the mulch.

7. Water and treat pests and diseases regularly as required

8. With this method you can pull back part of the mulch to access some of the small potatoes for early use.

9. When the Haulms (Plants) have died back, you can pull back the remaining mulch to find a big crop of clean big potatoes. Which probably won’t even need to be cleaned.

10. Next growing season, lay the seed potatoes directly onto the broken down layer of mulch to start again.
This method of growing potatoes requires little effort, on the part of the gardener. You are able to grow potatoes anywhere from the lawn to a rooftop to a driveway.
It also helps teach youngsters about where and how some of the produce actually comes from and grow, rather than it simply coming from a greengrocer. So why not get out there today, and grow your own potatoes.



Seed Newsvine

Another use for Vinegar

While doing research for the posting today about fruit fly traps. I went and did some research about uses of vinegar. Now while I saw hundreds of different uses. There is one that I was suprised not to see. It is one I learned from an old recipe book that my mother bought in the 70's from a local school in the area.

Now while it is off topic in that it is not a gardening post but a cooking one, here goes.

And that use for vinegar is the following.

Did you know that if you run out of eggs, that in cake recipes that call for them you can replace each egg with a teaspoon of vinegar. And then cook the cake like normal.

Note: Now I've tried this but only with the Packet mix type cakes mixes and yes it does work for me.

Seed Newsvine

Fruit Fly Trap

Reading around on the net of late, I see a number of bloggers complain about fruit fly attacks on tomatoes and other fruit and vegies, in both their gardens and in their kitchens.

So here is an easy to make at home Fruit Fly Trap

What you will Need

Small plastic Drink Bottle

Sections of plastic straw 2-3 inch (50-75mm) long

Something to punch/melt the holes through the bottles.

Bottle of Vinegar

Instructions

Punch 3 or 4 small holes half way up, around the sides of bottle, insert a small cut off section (2-3 inch, 50-75mm) of a drinking straw through the hole, so that it is about half through.

The reason why you use the sections of straw is to move the entrance/ exits away from the walls of the bottles, to make it harder for the flies to escape.

Another thing to consider is that certain colours are more attractive to insects than others. A lot of insect traps are bright yellow for instance. Though in this case you might to experiment around. My suggestion would be to try straws that were a similar colour to the fruit being protected.

Pour about an inch (25 mm) or so of vinegar into the bottle and put the cap back on. Put this near the fruit which is attracting the fruit flies. Or make several and hang in a fruit tree which the flies are prone to attract.

Out in the open garden it will not completely destroy the pests. But it will decrease the numbers of fruit which is attacked. And each year that you do it will help keep the numbers minimized.

Another thing to remember is that after the harvest season is over is to pick up and discard or bury in heating compost all of the fallen unpicked fruit. As any left there till net year will probably be a source of eggs that will hatch next year.

Though there is not much that you can do about fallen fruit in neighbouring properties......

Seed Newsvine

Thank You to Bifurcated Carrots

I would like to thank Pat & Steph from Bifurcated Carrots, for their great little promo of this blog from theirs. And also the very warm welcome into the gardening web logging community.

I only hope that I can live up to their standards. I love reading about other people out on the net who share my passion for gardening. And so many of you make me jealous of the places you take for granted, But I guess I do the same for here.

I only hope that we can learn from each other as we grow.

BBG



Seed Newsvine

The Bug Guide

Another good resource for any gardener is

The Bug Guide http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

It’s a USA based website of Insect enthusiasts who are building an identification base of pictures and descriptions of North American insects.

Now it will not always help those of us who do not live on the North American continent, but there are many insects that we share in common or are of the same groups to be often of help.

It has a clickable guide on the front page to help you search from, with drawings about the types of insect/s being searched for.

Unfortunately for us gardeners it stops there, and doesn’t then go on to describe whether on not they are good garden neighbours nor does it help in describing control measures. However as far as the site is orientated, which is as a method of describing and cataloguing insects, it would be a terrific assistance in starting to help in finding out what ‘bugs’ you.

So it is only a first step in assisting you in figuring out and naming what the ‘bug’ is that is living in your garden.

Seed Newsvine

School Garden Weekly

A good blog I found on the net is School Garden Weekly, which comes from the United States. It promotes the concept of school based gardens, with a week by week gardening activities programme and a growing teacher resources area. It is orientated for the northern hemisphere seasons and the USA school year, it based around several Californian schools, but with news coming in from school issues around the globe.

It would be a benefit to any school or home-school programme, that wants to encourage the love of gardening in kids.

Seed Newsvine

Recycled Paper Jiffy Pots

Looking around the net, I spotted a wooden roller to help you roll your own newspaper based ‘Jiffy’ pots.

These pots are based on the idea of those 'Jiffy Peat pots' we use for propagating cuttings and growing seedlings, and then transplant them directly into the soil or plantpot without distrubing the roots on the plant.

Now while the idea behind the pots is good. The $33 (au) plus postage and handling..., cost is just plain exhorbitant. Especially when you can use a lot of things around the home to get the same result without the cost.

I will not claim to be the first to start using the newspaper based jiffy style pots. But they are a brilliant little idea, and have been described by various bloggers out here on the net. Including ways of making them without incurring any cost on the part of the maker.

Round ones can be made with newspapers rolled around such things as a toilet roll, a spice or tablet bottle, or even even something as big as a softdrink can or an aerosol can. It all depends on just how big you want the finished pots to be across the centre.

Or even how deep you want to make them will be decided by how deep a scetion of paper you use. Both of the tagged sites above have good detailed instructions of how to make them.

The main issue is that whatever you use as a roller has smooth sides, to ensure that the pot can be slid off the roller after you have made it. They really are easy to make, and will save you money from buying those commercial jiffy pots.

Another great little page that shows you how to make some square ones, ‘Origami Style’ at WiZeR » Blog Archive » How to make Newspaper Pots. This page has detailed instructions and easy to follow pictures on how to make them. Without the use of any sort of special wooden tool or anything other thing to roll them around at all.

The finished size will again depend on the starting size of the original piece of paper. This also has the added benefit of alllowing pots to fit more neatly in a tray together being square.

Piccie’ stolen from that page.

So why would you go out and spend money and buy a wooden roller to make your own newspaper jiffy pots, when you can easily find things around the home to roll the paper around.

This also allows you a bigger variety of choices as to what size the finished pots end up being, as well.



Seed Newsvine

Garden Tools from the Kitchen Drawer

Why go and spend a fortune at the nursery on new tools, when there is probably a wealth of unused stuff tucked away unused in your own kitchen, or someone you knows kitchen that will more than adequately do the exact job you want, without having to spend a cent.

Just make sure that anything taken from the kitchen really is not wanted there. As well as the fact that such stuff is on a one way permanent trip out to the garden shed.

Here are just a few suggestions of stuff that are useful kitchen refugees,

Old dinner knife for digging weeds out from between concrete sections or pavers.

Old kitchen fork for light weeding in around tight places or where you do not want to disturb root systems that are close to the surface.

Good sharp kitchen knife or a pair of kitchen scissors are great fro dividing up clumps of plants, or for taking cuttings off of a branch.

Kitchen tongs can be used to pick up thorny cuttings or to help you repotting thorny plants like cacti.

Serving tray or placemats to keep things organised or for carrying produce, cuttings or even weeds.

Potato Masher for pushing past a thorny plant or rose.

BBQ or Carving Forks for digging out stubborn rooted weeds and root vegies.

Kitchen funnels for pouring various liquids into containers or for accurate pouring around plants. or to get seed or even small screws & nails into storage packets or bottles.

Chopsticks make great little pot stakes (metal and wooden skewers work too), or construction sets even for some jobs.

I've seen bamboo placemats and chopsticks cut down to make scenery pieces for bonsai planters, along with old aquarium ornaments.

Set of measuring cups and measuring spoons are great as scoops for fertilizers and potting mixes.

Icecream or soup scoops for measuring and scooping potting mix in around new potplants.

Egg rings and biscuit cutters for shaping growing fruit just for fun, or as a simple handheld hoe for light weeding in around plants.

So theres a few things which can obtain a second life out in the gardenshed and garden, nstead of being stored for years in a drawer, or being thrown out or passed on to a charity store.

Seed Newsvine

Repairing Your Garden Hose

With the old familiar variety of garden hoses as well as black Poly irrigation systems, there are two major problems that occur along the length of the hose or pipe, one is cracking and/or splitting of the hose/pipe and the second problem is the familiar kinking of the hose/pipe. So what can you do about it besides going out and buying a new hose or roll of poly' pipe? Well there is at least one repair method that should help with either problem. Without the cost and problems of putting expensive joiners into your watering system.

Split Hoses/Pipes

What do you do once your garden hose or irrigation pipe has developed a crack or split after your son has mowed over it or you've managed to drive over it once too often?

With either type of system, you could cut out the section of the damaged hose or pipe and put in a joiner, but sometimes this is impractical or impossible. Then why not look at repairing it instead of replacing it. Use the same method as you would for a kinked hose. Which is listed below.

Kinking Hoses/Pipes

Once a garden hose or irrigation pipe has jack-knifed back on itself at a particular spot, it will continue to do so for the life of the hose/pipe. This is because it has become weakened at that point. Again you have the option to cut out the weakened area and join the remaining parts of the hose. Or you will have to look at repairing the weakened area to stop it kinking in future, you can do this by bracing the weakened area/s by the following method…

What you will need to repair split/kinked hoses or irrigation pipes

An excess section of garden hose or irrigation pipe
A Sharp knife or blade
Container of hot water


Measure and cut off a small section of hose/pipe, approximately three inches long, or as long as is needed to cover over the weakened or broken area. Cut this section down its length on one side only.

Soften the hose or pipe section in hot water. Open it up and wrap this like a bandage around the weakened section of hose/pipe.

This acts like a splint over the weak area, strengthening it so that at that point it will not kink or fountain out water anymore.

If you are repairing a split area of the hose you may have to look at sealing the hose with something like a silicon sealant. But you will find that simply putting the hose splint will greatly reduce and/or stop the leak.

The hose or pipe splint will not move off of the weakened or split area because it rehardens fairly quickly as it cools, this tightens its grip over the weak part of your hose/pipe.

Repeat this procedure for other areas that are split or are prone to kink of the garden hose or irrigation pipe that you are using.

So if that garden hose or irrigation system of yours is split in one or more places or is kinking all the time, and it is frustrating you no end, then do something other than throwing it out. Either repair it or at least keep the old hose or pipe to repair your future watering systems.



Seed Newsvine

Blog Action Day

Well its Blog Action Day for the Environment, October 15th. When a lot of your posts are a environmental bent, what can you do when it's a environmental day. With one of our areas biggest concerns these days being water conservation. I decided to put up a posting about repairing garden hoses as that is a large water waster around many homes.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment.
One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

Seed Newsvine

To Esther Deans & Ruth Stout

If there is two real people (apart from my mother), to be credited with my love of gardening, then I guess those people would be Australian Esther Deans, more info available here, and a compatriot of the time American Ruth Stout. More info available here, and here.

Both ladies were both avid gardeners and garden writers. They both also championed 'No Dig' Gardening in the 1970's and 80's. I have Esther's 'Leaves of Life', But am still looking for a copy of her other book/s and any of Ruth's. They are on my watch out for list of old books.

Esther Deans also encouraged therapy gardening for the elderly and disabled even then. And assisted in setting up many such gardens. This included raising gardens up so disabled people could work in them, themselves. These gardens were made on such things as old bed frames, to get them up where people in wheelchairs could work on them.

While growing up I thought gardening was ok, and I helped my mother when and how I could. Mostly with the hard digging, weeding and watering chores. This probably broke my childhood dislike of veggies though.

But my fascination really started when my mother introduced me to the 'No Dig' gardening style of planting. In 1981, my mother set up a 'No Dig' veggie garden at her new house. Much to my disgust...

The plants were gonna need real soil for the nutrients..., gonna have to be watered constantly because of the openness of the hay... , even if by some miricle we managed to get some to grow they were gonna need support to stop blowing over.... , the grass will grow through...Were some of my initial objections I remember. Ah the 'know it all-ness' of a teenager...

But things did grow. even despite my constantly checking out what was happening above and below the gardens surface. The weeds didn't come through, the veggies were harvested, mulch did become soil, soil life flourished...

My fascination was born with trying to work out how you could throw some old newspaper down on a lawn, add some hay, a pocket full of soil, water in some seeds, and stand back and watch the plants grow.....

I don't know if any of these ladies books are still available on the retail shelves, but keep an eye out for them on the second hand shelves of your favourite recycled booksellers.

This posting was inspired by a posting at My Spot with Pots about Lasagna Gardening, which brought back the memories of my first 'No Dig' gardening experience. Thanks Blue.

Seed Newsvine

The Manufacturing Plant

Can you imagine an engineer who had the job to produce a delicate and complicated piece of machinery or even a manufacturing plant, which was reliable in all forms of weather (sun, wind, rain, storm, hail and snow)?

Every process was to be totally mechanised and automated, as the labour and maintenance budget available for the production line was nil.
Worse still, administration and management staff would be totally absent.

Everything would have to be totally automated, self correcting and governing. The system would have to have work no matter what, and production guarantees would have to be able to be given.

The basic reason for making the mechanism is that its sole purpose would be to convert simple elements like hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and potassium etc., into complicated sugars and package them in a form that was palatable and interesting for human and animal consumption.

As well it would have to manufacture its own packaging systems and containers, these would have to be tough enough to handle all sorts of transport situations while still arriving at their final destination as a product, that looks good enough to eat.

It would have to produce its own energy, and convert various atmospheric gases and pollutants into their basic elements of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen, etc.

It would have to provide it's own transport and storage systems to handle the manufacture, transport and storage of these products. It would also have to provide its own methods of acquiring its own basic resources without bothering or harming its neighbours or the environment.

As well as being able to provide the starting and ongoing capital for its own maintenance and expansion programmes, it would assist in the production of starting kits and seed capital to help subsidiary manufacturing plants to be set up elsewhere, and also provide methods of assisting in relocating these subsidiary manufacturing plants.

This all of course would have to be done on a cost neutral accounting system, with only the absolute basics of starting capital being able to be provided in the first place. It would also have to be able to be set up in a way so that it could be mass franchised out to many different environments, and in many different locations.

Add to this, there would be environmental constraints put on them, about pollution levels. They would have to assist in removing more pollutants than they produce. They have to assist in reducing water table levels and ground salt levels around their plant.

As well as make efforts in reducing soil erosion in the environment. Improve soil structure around their plant. Provide mulch and shade and protect the soil and protect soil life. They have to provide food, shelter and homes to local animal and bird species.

There would be zero tolerance for any pollutants escaping into the environment. Which is for example, no polluted water, soil or manufacturing residues are to escape from the site or be transported away by others for burial or destruction. There is to be no adding or contributing to the problems of landfill sites already under strain from others' excesses.

The local community would have absolutely nil tolerance to any visual, light or noise pollution coming from within the plant site. The plant would also have to be visually pleasing to the eye.

Finally, the plant would have to fit into an extremely small area, ie a few square feet.

How do you think the engineer would go, even today with all the computerization and microelectronics, available to them?

Well, all of this is already available to us everyday in one of our own everyday plants, in our own everyday gardens.

Seed Newsvine

Belt Loop Racks

Do you have some broken or out of Fashion belts lying around in a wardrobe somewhere?

Indeed even some old webbing material, or the handle off a handbag or sports bag, a tie, a folded over bandana or any other sort of material can be pressed into service here.

Why not make use of them to help you store things up off the ground or bench in the shed.

Nail or staple a belt along a length of timber. Leave it loose enough in between the nailing points to slip your various tools between the belt and timber. Nail this to a wall of your shed, and you have an instant rack to place your hand or garden tools or other small pieces of equipment up off the bench or the floor in the shed or garage.

This way you will gain more bench and floor space as well as always knowing where your equipment should be unless someone else has borrowed it…

Seed Newsvine

Freecycle Network of Groups

“The Freecycle Network™ is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots and an entirely non-profit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.” -- Quote from their website.

These groups are voluntary, and the goods that are being offered are for free, to any and all, who can use them and pick them up. They are based in your own local communities, so what is being offered is never too far away for you to make use of.

And if there is no local group, then maybe it’s time that one was started in your area. All it takes is a few locals who are community minded enough and frugally inclined to start one.

One of the joys of this type of programme is the surprise at some of the things that you find being offered, and you’re being innovative enough to figure out ways of making them useful for a second life.

This can be a great source, of obtaining supplies for either your garden & home or for assisting in making up activities for the kids or people in care.

If you know of any other websites of interest to the frugally inclined please let me know as it’s an extremely big cyber-world out there…
http://www.freecycle.org/


Seed Newsvine

Plant Ladders

Old or even broken timber ladders can be put to a number of new uses around the home, shed or garden.

Among the ideas you could explore are potplant or storage stands, climber frames, storage racks and potplant hanger racks.

If using it for a set of shelves for instance, it does not even matter if the old thing is missing a rung or two, this can either add height to one shelf or just add to the charm of the finished product.

But before you deck your old ladder out for its new job, inspect it carefully. Repair and/or strengthen any weak or cracked areas. Smooth or cut back any dangerous edges or exposed splinters, as this is for your’s and other peoples safety.

To paint or not to paint is up to you, depending on the effect that you are trying to achieve. But bare unpainted timber will last longer if you soak or paint some form of preservative product or oil into the exposed timber, especially if it will have to survive the effects of weathering.

Also if you are going to use it around the garden or elsewhere outside the house, you will need to consider whether undesirable people might use it as a means to enter your home, so securing the ladder to the surrounding supports may well be an important issue.

Potplant or Storage Stands/Racks

A Frame Ladders

Stand one of these ladders in a spare corner of the home, patio, pergola or shed; add some planks of timber of whatever you have around the place, and you will either have a rustic display stand for your plants or for the gardening accessories out in the shed.

Or separate the two halves of an A Frame ladder, and make them the end supports of a set of rectangular shelves, the choice are up to you. Though this set of shelving will need more cross bracing to support the expected loads that it would carry.

Stepladders

Hung or fastened parallel to the shed floor well above your head, one ladder would make an ideal hanging storage rack for things like garden hoses, spare hanging pots, watering cans etc. Whereas, one fastened up outside your home, above head height would easily accommodate a fairly big collection of hanging pots.

Whereas if you hung or fastened one parallel to the shed floor at about knee height, one single ladder will make an ideal storage rack with dividers, for all your big garden tools to stand upright in; like spades, forks, rakes, hoes, garden stakes, spare lengths of timber, fishing rods, oars etc.

Climber Frames

A Frame Ladders

Use a freestanding A Frame ladder out in the open garden as a climbing frame for a rose or something similar.

Or separate the two halves and mount them against a wall, either at an angle similar to the original freestanding model, or flat as in a stepladder, as a climbing frame.

Stepladders

Mount a ladder against a fence or shed/house wall, either vertically or horizontally and you have an effective trellis or climbing frame for your climbing plants. From as simple as using hanger hooks to actually screwing it to a supporting frame you can grow just about any plant over this sort of climbing frame.

So don’t send that old ladder to the hardware store in the sky, as there are a number of new lives it could find around your home once it can no longer be used as a ladder.

Seed Newsvine

Sustainable Frugality

Many people who are new to sustainability or to being frugal worry about whether or not they can be as good at it, as other people who they read about who appear to be doing so much.

But these people are simply those who are sending back a travelogue of their trip so far. The things they have discovered the hard way, or have been told about by still others in their turn.

What they have to remember is that it is not a destination in itself, it's a journey, and each and everyone of us is going to be making a different path towards that end in their own way. Along the way they will find that what steps are right for some, are the very same options that will not be suitable for others. It is not a situation where you have to follow the exact footprints left by any other person ahead of you.

For each of us, we will choose those little things that we can do, only at that particular time and place in our lives, to help our ownselves lessen the impact we have on both our own area and bank balance. No two journeys will ever be exactly the same. As no two of us will ever have exactly the same life stories or set of circumstances or bank balances.

There will be times when being frugal will be at odds with trying to live sustainably, because for example there are times when the sustainable options costs more.

Other differences will come in areas like,

Personal Expertise & Knowledge- like in cooking and or in reusing and modifying recycled plant and equipment, everyone has a different set of knowledge, experiences and unerstanding to start with and expand on

Physical Abilities - like in bending and lifting

Labour Value - each of us will value own own labour differently, eg are you willing to labour in your garden or kitchen for 2 hours to save 5 dollars in cash?

Bank Balance - some people just can't afford to put out the cash necessary to seed some project or another.

Time - different people will have different time constraints like work, kids, commuting etc.

Space - Some people will live on acreage or houseblocks as opposed to those who live in spaces like 1 room flatettes or even with other flatmates.

Inclination - There are people who will by personsal preference be inclined to put their efforts more into some areas than others

Dietary & Cultural Considerations - For some their medical, religious standings, beliefs or personal tastes will bend their goal targets.

So as you can see there are just far too many variables for any two people to be compared together as to who is doing enough, all you can do is your own best.

Besides any effort has to help, especially for the hundreds of people who do nothing out there in the world.
Seed Newsvine

What is your garden costing you?

It can be a scary exercise to sit down and work out exactly what is spent every year, on the average home gardens and lawns. Try adding up the costs of plants, weedicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilisers, petrol, mower and trimmer maintenance, weed eater cord, garden mulch and even water costs. Even the time and effort we go to in order to maintain a good-looking environment for our families and ourselves can amount to a substantial price.

So it is no wonder that many people are looking at ways to save money for more important causes.
One of the first things that you can do to save money, is to make use of as much of that organic matter that many people throw in the bin or wash down the sink.

For instance do you throw out your lawn clippings?
Do you dutifully wrap up and throw out those old veggie scraps?

Are you one of those people who regularly get the trailer out and make trips down to the landfill with a pile of branch prunings?

What about those pile of leaves you threw in the bin last autumn?

Do you realise that all of those things can be turned into a wonderful form of plant food, as well as being used as a barrier to prevent the soil from loosing moisture and therefore increasing the amount of time between watering your garden. An organic mulch will also improve the soil structure, increase the good animals like worms while assisting in decreasing the nasty pests living in the soil.

By keeping these sorts of things within your own garden you are also assisting in reducing the effects that city living is having on the environment in landfill problems and costs.

There are a number of different ways that you can recycle these piles of organic matter within your own yard. One is to apply the bulk organic matter directly to your garden beds, ensuring that you don’t pile the material directly up against the trunks or main stems of the plants. A second idea to get a worm farm and recycle your kitchen waste that way; the worms provide you with a very strong and nutritious fertilising liquid for the garden as a bonus. This liquid is so strong it has to be diluted 10-1.

Don't, by the way, put meat products, citrus peels or onion and garlic in with the worms. A third way is to purchase or construct your own compost pile/bin/tumbler and recycle the material that way.

So just by composting your old leaves, soft cuttings, veggie and fruit scraps, chipped branches, lawn clippings etc., you can do a lot to reduce your costs that you would have spent on such things as garden mulch and fertilisers as well as assisting your plants to last much longer between watering periods. So as you can see there are a number of reasons for not throwing away all that organic material.

Seed Newsvine

Recycle Retriever - Silica Gel Bags

The item I'm pulling back out of the rubbish bin, for re use around the house this time is the Silica Gel Bags.

These are those little moisture absorber bags that come in packaged goods like shoes, handbags, electronics etc.

One suggestion for recycling them, rather than throwing them out in the bin is to reposition them into other boxed stored or valuable goods as a drying agent, like




seed storer boxes

paperwork storage boxes

book boxes

bookcases

recipe card boxes

toy boxes, (as long as the kids are old enough to not interfer with or eat them)

stored electronics

stored games

electronics carry bags

Laptop bag

stored kitchenware

jewellery boxes

photo albums

collection albums or boxes

photo/picture frames, (tucked into)

spare medication boxes (especially in moist areas like bathroom's)

cosmetic's cases

eye/sunglass cases

specialist toolboxes

binoculars cases

suitcases and bags

good crockery/cutlery boxes/drawers or cupboards

filing cabinets

tax and/or receipt files/boxes

furniture upholstery (tucked into)

cushions (tucked into)

wine storage areas, (helps protect labels)

etc, etc


Another use for them is, as a potpourri bag, where you put a couple of drops of an esential oil on it for either just its smell factor or as a way of discouraging insects from lurking there.

clothes drawers

wardrobes

food cupboards

bookcases

Mabbe even leave them in goods like handbags, cause goodness knows what can be at the bottom of some of them. If I thought we males could get away with keeping some in our trouser pockets, for the same reason I would.

I'm sure that even with just this list, let alone any other idea's you might have. You will forever be scrounging these useful little bags off everyone around you.

If you can come up with any more suggested uses for these little bags then let me know please, as it always good to hear others ideas. Thats how we learn after all.

Seed Newsvine

Snail & Slug Control

Here are some simple ways to assist you in getting better control of those pesky but slow moving pests of the garden world

Snail Baits
Beer Bait. Place one or more shallow trays around the garden and fill it/them with 3cm (1 ¼ in) of stale beer. Slugs and snails crawl in and drown. Adding a pinch of sugar will make it even more attractive.

Yeast / Sugar Bait Making up a dilute mixture of yeast and sugar in water is also supposed to attract them. Aussies can substitute vegemite & Poms can try marmite as a yeast substitute product.


Note: Mr Brown Thumb suggests cornmeal as a bait in a jar or lid bait.

Snail Traps

Mirror Trap. Get an unframed mirror or mirror tile, (aprox’ 600 x 600mm or 2ft x 2ft) is a good size. Lean it over, but not flat on the ground surface (Reflective side down), in a shady area of the garden. The snails seem to like to collect on the reflective surface, making collection easy by daytime. This method I found by accident when renovating a house.

Flower Pot Trap. Turn an old flowerpot upside down, while propping up one side, in a shady part of the garden as an efficient trap for slugs and snails. Collect by day.

Citrus Shell Trap. Remove the pulp from half a citrus fruit or use ones you have squeezed. Put it open side down in a shady part of the garden. It seems that slugs and snails like the taste of citrus fruits. Collect them by day.
Destroy the snails by whatever means you prefer. e.g. try mixing up a container of very salty water to drop the snails and slugs into. Then move these traps around the yard as required.

Snail Sprays

Try a spray of equal parts of vinegar and water, to kill them.

Snail Barriers

They do not appear to like copper, so try partly burying a 3cm (1 ¼ in) foil strip around tender seedlings or plants. Or lay a barrier around a garden bed. However remember not to let the copper get into contact with plants as it might damage or poison plants over the long term as it corrodes.

They do not like to crawl over rough surfaces, so you could try to spread a layer of sawdust, wood ash or crushed eggshells around tender seedlings and plants. Unfortunately these only work when dry, so you may need to reapply after wet weather.

Note: Mr Brown Thumb suggests bran as well as coffee grounds either on its own or mixed with the egg shells. He states that his research suggests there are neuro-toins in the coffee which affect the slugs.

Other Points

Remove decaying vegetation, empty pots, rocks and other debris from the garden. This eliminates alternative daytime hiding spots.

Ducks, chickens, some wild birds and/or lizards could be encouraged into the garden to assist you in eating the snails and slugs.


Seed Newsvine

Mulch and Feed Your Gardens for Free

In Today’s throwaway society, there is absolutely no need to go out and purchase mulch material for your garden, unless it is for the particular aesthetic appearance, “The Look”, sake of the mulch material.

Were you aware that there are a number of mulching materials that you can obtain from around your own community that are free, and some of which can even be even delivered to you for nothing as well.

Impossible you might say. Well I mulch my gardens fairly heavily, and I never pay a cent for the mulch material. As a matter of fact, most of the mulch is willingly delivered to my home for nothing. As the former owners are only too glad to see the back of it, as it would cost them money, time and effort to find other ways of getting rid of it.

I also combine these outside sources of mulch with my own compost, weeds and other organic matter mixed through to achieve a great result in my garden, and so all that it costs me is time and effort.

So what am I talking about? While some of the below list is delivered free, other items I pick up myself, depending on time, circumstances, importance etc.

Grass Clippings from other people in the area or from lawn-mowing contractors.

Wood shavings from local wood turners and carvers, ( Do not use shavings from treated timber).

Small amounts of solid fill from friends who are excavating. This is to assist in raising garden beds, in my heavy clay soil.

Light prunings from shrubs which is shredded by me or put whole into garden

Heavier sticks and logs, which are turned into trellis, garden stakes, garden edges, seats, frames, log planters etc. while they slowly decay.

Newspaper, cardboard, non-rubber carpet underlay, and even carpet and carpet squares. Which is put under other mulch to prevent grass and weed regrowth

Animal manures sometimes mixed with straw from places like Racetracks and Showgrounds, Pony Clubs, Stables etc. I contact them well beforehand to see if any is available.

To this I also add my own weeds, throwing away some which can still be a potential problem, or burying them below the bottom most layer of mulch material to stop them regrowing.

Another item I add is any old potting mix from deceased plants or when repotting plants.

Being a fairly lazy gardener, I throw the material around a bit at a time, as they are available, and let nature mix them for me. On a couple of occasions I have received a bit too much wood shavings so these became path material between some of the garden beds, with a heavy underlay of newspapers. People even tell me that it looks and feels good underfoot.

Never put a large amount of fresh animal manure on any garden, as it will burn any plant around it. Be extremely sparing or let it age first for a few months before applying it to the garden.

I have been living in my new house for about fifteen months, and the mulch layer in all my gardens (there were no gardens originally), is about 10 cm or 4 inches deep. None of which I have paid for and little that I have had to even pick up for myself.

People are even starting to comment on how fast the plants in my gardens are growing in the local heavy black clay soils, and they are surprised when I tell them that I have never bothered to fertilise the plants. The reason for this is that the earliest laid mulch material, is now broken down into plant nutrients and is now feeding my plants as a plant nutrient soup aided by the soil life which has suddenly started appearing in my gardens.

Another benefit that has started to appear in the last few months is the arrival of insect eating wildlife into my garden. Predatory insects and birds are now visiting my gardens on a regular basis, where I saw none this time last year. Bees and butterflies are also starting to visit many of the plants, which have come into flower for the first time this year.

So what can you do to start locating your own supplies of free mulch material, well here are a number of suggestions.

Put a little sign near your gate, something along the lines of ‘Organic mulch required’, or ‘Lawn clipping wanted’. There are sure to be a number of local people who are currently throwing theirs away in your community or even local area. Never mulch solely with grass clippings as they form an impenetrable layer that air and water cannot get through. Always mix it with other things to stop it ‘thatching’, just like a roof over the soil.

See if you can get into contact with local people who are into woodturning and carving, or even local sawmills. And come to some arrangement about unpreserved wood shavings.

Check the local phonebook for local showgrounds/racetracks/stables etc, to find out if any have stable or manure waste to give away, for people willing to pick them up

In other words, start talking around the place that you are after mulch materials and they will soon start coming to you.

The only caution with using other peoples waste material is the chance that you might also import other peoples pests and weeds. I have rarely found it a problem because of heavy mulch on mulch routines. But it is possible.

One point being that when you first start applying mulch to your garden you may see some nitrogen deficiencies occur in some plants. This is because the organisms that are breaking down the mulch material are using up all the available resources of it during the initial breakdown. Once you have gotten past this time the old composted material provide more than enough nitrogen for future processes.

Another thing to be careful of is not to bury or mulch up against the stems of wanted plants, as it may cause further problems for your plants in rot problems around the collar of the stems.

So get out there and talk around the community, find the contacts, believe it or not they will be as grateful as you to solve their particular problems of waste reduction. As well as that, you may start making some new friendships out of the deal; I know I have.



Seed Newsvine

Protect your Seedlings from Animals and Birds

No matter how much people try to encourage the wildlife to visit and live in their gardens. There will always be occasions and/or parts of the garden where we do not welcome them. This being mainly when we are planting young seedlings or a crop of edible plants is getting close to harvest. So we have to strike a balance between encouraging the wildlife as well as being able to discourage them at other times or from certain particular places.

There are four ways of protecting your plants or crop from the ravages of birds and animals; these methods include fences, scarers, covers and sprays. Here we will deal with suggestions for the last three of these ideas.

Most of these ideas though will only provide a temporary solution, because most times the birds or wildlife, while scared off at first will eventually stop being frightened and will return and ignore or bypass that method in future. So it is an idea to only use each idea for a short time, and then later switch to a different system of control.

Scarers

Scarers usually rely on something to surprise the wildlife's vision or hearing, to frighten them into leaving.

Bell Scarers

If you have some small cheap bells lying around or you can pick some up cheap, then string them along a length of twine over your plants.

Bottle Top Scarers

String a series of metal and or plastic bottle tops between stakes driven into the ground at the outside of the area to be protected. Make sure that they can move easily in the slightest breeze or at the gentlest touch. It also helps if some of them can rattle together to add a bit of noise.

Tie one off every so often so that it cannot move, this will stop them all migrating to the lowest point of the length of string.

Drink Bottle Rattle Scarer

Partially fill some drink bottles with a fairly light product like rice or dried peas, put enough in to make it into a rattle. Then tie them along some twine tied over your young plants. If animals tap them or the breeze is blowing they will make a noise, to frighten the small critters away.

Drink Can/Bottle Scarers

Tie some cans or bottle along some twine so that they can bump together to make a noise if tapped or moved by a breeze, to frighten the small animals or birds.

Whirligig Scarers

If you have one of those little whirligigs (little windmill) that have a blade that goes around in the breeze, why not set it up near your plants it will scare the birds away as long as the wind is blowing.

Hawkscarers

Unless you are fairly good at both art and woodcraft and can make one yourself, you will probably have to go out purchase one of the commercially made Hawkscarers and set it up following the directions in the pack, to frighten away the birds.

Kites

Here you can either go out and purchase a small cheap kids kite or look at making your own kites.

To cover your kite, you can use anything from material through to old foil wrapping paper, kitchen foil or even plastic shopping bags.

Even kites made to be only a few inches across, can be an effective scarer, if you hang them to blow in the breeze.

Ribbon Scarers

Rip or cut some scraps of brightly coloured or reflective material into small strips. Tie them to twine over the plants to be protected, leave enough dangling to flap around in the breeze, to scare the birds.

Scarecrow

Have a go at making a Scarecrow, it may or not be effective at scaring the birds, but it almost be guaranteed to become a piece of landscaping art and a talking point around the neighbourhood.

Silver Foil Scarers

Aluminium foil or used Foil wrapping paper, which is cut into strips to hang on twine through the area will scare the daylights out of any creature which moves it, or sees it moving in the breeze.

Or try wrapping polystyrene or ping-pong balls in the foil, and hang these through the area.

Water Hose/Sprinkler Scarer

Position a garden hose either up into a strong branch of a fruiting tree. Or tie it to a garden stake in the middle of your young plants. Leave a few feet loose above the top point at which you tie it off. When you notice birds descending on your plants. Turn the hose on as hard as you can. This will result in the end of the hose flapping around rather wildly gushing out a strong stream of water. This is usually enough to frighten anyone let alone the local wildlife.

Repeat this a few times and the birds or wildlife will soon not bother coming back.

Wind Chimes Scarers

Why not try and hang your old wind chimes in the area that you want protected.

Wine Cask Bladder Scarer

Take the nozzle out and use like a box kite. Or blow them up like balloons.

Tinsel Scarers

Use some of your old tinsel, or buy some up cheap in the post Christmas sales.

Allow plenty of loose material to permit the tinsel to move around in the breezes.

Sails/Pennants

Material, foil or plastic set up to flap in the breeze like either a sail or pennant, can be an effective scarer.

Windsock Scarer

Try your hand at making your own miniature version of an Airport's Windsock to frighten the birds and animals

Clothesline/Airer Scarer

If you have the type of family that has clothes drying on a clothes line most days, then place your young plants in pots around the base of the clothes line or set up a movable clothes airer near your delicate plants filling the lines with clothes and linen which will flap around a bit will also be an effective bird and small animal scarer.

Plastic Snakes

If you have an old plastic snake at the bottom of the old toy box, why not try putting it in amongst your plants. While I have never tried this method myself, I have heard of others who swear by this scarer. Move it around every so often.

Toy Animal Scarers

What about the idea of strategically placing a realistic looking toy dog or cat near your young plants. The theory being that the birds or small animals will already have had experience with real cats and dogs so will avoid any area with them.

(This is theoretical suggestion, which I haven't seen tried but is based on the supposed success of the plastic snakes). So if anyone has the opportunity to try this one, let me know the results, please.

Protective Covers

Whereas putting a cover over or around the plants physically stops the animals from reaching the plants.

Glass/ Hard Plastic Covers

If you have a pane of glass or an old window that is not being used put it over your young plants, lift it above the plants using whatever is available to you, eg bricks etc.

Milk/Yoghurt Container Covers

Cut the top and bottom out of cardboard or plastic containers and slip these over young plants to stop birds and other animals from digging them out till they are established. It helps to bury the bottom of the container slightly.

This idea works just as well with any round or square material that will go round your young plants, from drink bottles to small sections of plastic plumbers pipe. But always cut them down one side to make removal easier once the plants have grown a bit.

Plastic/Shadecloth/Bird netting Covers

Make a framework of stakes around the plants that you want to protect, and place over this a shadecloth/plastic or bird netting cover. Shadecloth or plastic can be purchased by the foot/metre from nurseries or hardware stores. Or you can even just throw the shadecloth or bird netting directly over the plants/shrubs or small trees, if the plant is strong enough to support the weight of the material.

Stick and String Covers

Whether you are trying to protect a pot of seedlings or a bigger area out in the garden. Make up a framework of sticks or garden stakes around the seedlings, and then tie them loosely together by weaving some string, cotton, wool or twine between the sticks/stakes.
Wire Mesh Frame Covers

Wire Netting Covers

Support some of that light flexible fencing wire, mosquito mesh or even plastic mesh over your seedlings of fruiting plants, and support it with garden stakes to keep the birds away from your plants.

Hard Wire Frame Covers

Try supporting some hard wire mesh over your young plants to protect them from the ravages of birds or animals. You can use things like light concreting mesh or fencing panels, or whatever else you can access around the place.

Support them up off the ground with garden stakes, bricks or even soft drink bottles filled with water.

Sprays

The reason for applying a spray is to make the animals think that the targeted plant or fruit is not as tasty as they at first believed it should be. But it usually takes a bit of experimentation to find what will work with particular pests. As each have their own likes and dislikes even within the one species.

But try mixing hot or unpleasant but safe ingredients together to make a spray diluted with water to spray over your seedlings or fruiting plants. Try to avoid spraying fruit that you will eat, or rinse such produce well before consuming.

Some ingredients you might try include,

Tabasco sauce
Garlic
Onions
Chillies
Etc.

The above list of ideas should be enough to provide you with at least a few alternatives that you can try to combat those ravenous critters that are bombarding your young charges.

Seed Newsvine

Aussie’ Magpie Season Again

Well it’s magpie breeding season again, and we are again defying harm with the feathered aerial force again dive-bombing anyone silly enough or unaware enough to get too close to their territory. But remember that the magpies have good reason for interpreting man as a threat to their nesting areas. From kids throwing sticks and stones at them or their nests to our cars trying to kill them while they feed on other dead animals, to man destroying their natural habitat, to replacing their nesting sites and feeding areas with strange structures which are useless to them, (buildings, roads etc).

Having been a victim many times over the years of them, while growing up in this area, I know too well the damage that they can do. Many people have ended up at the doctors or the hospital either directly or indirectly (falling, tripping, or direct pecks etc), because of their attacks.

Not enough people take them seriously, but they can scare the dickens out of especially younger and/or older people.

Other people sadly take matters into their own hands and retaliate for the aerial assaults and raucous noise. By shooting or poisoning the birds. Sadly this can lead to fines from the wildlife protection authorities.

Others try the usual methods of avoiding attacks by wearing hats displaying big eyes on the back or putting up umbrellas, in an attempt to distract the birds from attacking.

But what we have to remember is that we are taking more and more of their natural range away from them for the modern urban sprawl.

These amazing birds actually help keep many other pest species under control. Just today I witnessed one magpie stealing eggs out of a feral pigeons nest. They predate on small cane toads, insects, grasshoppers, mice and rats etc. They assist in cleaning up road kills, thereby minimizing the spread of diseases as well. They also love pecking over a lawn after mowing or after a good downpour of rain for lawn-grubs and other insects that are exposed at those times.

Tomorrow I will do a post on ‘Bird Scarers’ which is methods of discouraging certain birds which you do not want visiting or living around your garden.

Seed Newsvine

Compostable Garden Planters

Would you like a more natural alternative to using those plastic planter containers? Well, here is a project for you, where you can have an interesting planter during the growing season, then throw the container out in the garden for mulch, without having to add to the world's landfill problems.
These planters can be used and grown anywhere you can provide good plant growing conditions, including on a patio, pathway or even a roof top. The main criteria being enough sunlight for the plants chosen, easy access to water and an ease of access to maintain the planter/s.
Just follow the steps below.

What you will need

· One or more rectangular bales of hay, (One per planter).

· 4 to 8 seedlings or small plants per planter.

· One to two good handfuls of soil/compost/potting mix per plant.

· Small garden hand-tools.

· Hose/watering can.

· Liquid fertilizer.

· Area chosen to provide enough light for growing conditions required by plants selected.

Steps

· Take one rectangular bale of hay; flip it on its side so that the straps are around the sides not over the top and bottom.

· Moisten the hay bale thoroughly with a hose or watering can.

· Using the handle of a hand tool, dig four to eight holes in the new upper surface of the hay bale, these holes have to be big enough to hold a good handful of soil.

· Into each hole, place a handful or two of compost, soil or potting mix.

· Plant up your choice of annuals, herbs or short-lived perennials.

· Water the plants in well and fertilize them with a liquid fertilizer.

· Because of the air gaps in the hay, this type of planter can dry out more quickly than a normal planter, so regular watering is essential.

· Also remember that your planter is actually decomposing while you are using it so remember to regularly fertilize the plants growing in it. Because nutrients may become temporarily unavailable during the decomposition process.

After you have finished growing your plants, move it out to the garden, take the straps off the bale, and use it to mulch/fertilize a part of your garden. You will find that the centre of the bale has decomposed into compost nicely by this stage.

Seed Newsvine

Budget Veggie Gardens From Kitchen Scraps

It does not matter whether you put your kitchen scraps in the compost or the bin, did you know that you could grow many of your favourite fruit or vegetables from those scraps. Indeed, unless your compost is very well matured you will find stray veggie seedlings may appear wherever you deposit the compost.

Take for instance those potato peelings, if it is a fairly thick section of peel with an eye (shoot), then you can often get these to grow into full potato plants. Another indication that a potato is only good for planting or throwing out is the colour. If the potato is starting to look fairly green on the skin then *DO NOT EAT*, as it is an indication that it is producing a poisonous substance common in the nightshade family to which it as well as the tomatoes, chillies and capsicums belong. You can also get sweet potatoes and taros to grow from sections of the tubers.

Have you ever tried to plant or thought about trying to plant the seeds from a particularly nice tomato, capsicum, chili, watermelon or pumpkin? While any plants grown from such seed may vary quite a lot from the parent fruit, you can still achieve fairly good results from them if you are on a tight budget.

The plants grown from seeds of many of your kitchen scraps will not produce fruit to the same high standard as the original fruit/vegetables because of the complicated interbreeding programs put into place by the big seed companies. However the progeny can give a very wide range of resulting offspring. But if you come across one or two particularly good plants in the resulting season, then reuse the seeds of that and always-in future pick the best fruit from the best plants for your future propagation material.

Though there are some veggies in the kitchen where it is not possible to grow them from the seed in the fruit. These are those vegetables where the edible fruit is still in an immature state and the seed is not yet viable. These fruit/veggies include the cucumbers, okra and squashes to name just a few. This is because the fruit when it reaches a stage where the seed is viable is just too big and coarse for human consumption.

If you leave the top of a pineapple out in a shady spot for a week or so during warm weather, then strip back the lower dead leaves. You may even notice some small juvenile roots already forming at the base of the plant top. One thing to remember with pineapples is that it is a species of bromeliad. And as such it requires the same moist but well drained growing conditions.

When the garlic cloves are starting to get a green sprout coming out of the top, it is a pretty good indication, that it might be a good idea to plant them out individually for a good harvest in about 8-10 months time of this fairly expensive herb plant.

Treat it like any member of the onion tribe, because they like moist, well drained soil and a fair amount of feeding during the growing season. Harvest as the tops are dying back. But let them dry out in a cool but airy place, before you try to use them back in the kitchen.

Another fruit/vegetable along a similar line is corn, try leaving a fresh, uncooked cob of sweet corn in a shady dry spot for a couple of weeks, then you can strip the kernels away from the cob and plant them. A quicker suggestion is to grab a handful of corn kernels out of a packet of popping corn, The only comment would be that corn grown from these seeds would not be as sweet or juicy as sweet corn, and in reality would be better dried and used as popping corn.

Why not try growing your own peanuts? Always only using the raw nuts, and only choosing those nuts, which are still whole and encased in the brown skin. Peanuts can be grown during warmer weather in most parts of Australia. One of the fascinating things about peanuts is that they are one of the only plants which flower set fruit and then bury and pre plant their own seed ready for later germination. Yes the peanut, which is dug from the ground, is actually a fruit buried by the parent plant, after flowering.

You can always grow your own ginger; all it takes is a section of the root, purchased from a greengrocer. Plant it in a well drained but moist soil. Allowing plenty of room for the plant to spread out. You can be harvesting your own ginger roots within about 8-12 months.
Whether you have got a long fence, chook pen or an unsightly shed to cover, why not try planting a choko. The Vine can be very prolific, as long as you keep the moisture and fertilizer up to it.

Though once it is established, it can be left to fend for itself, and will still produce a steady supply of fruit for the family. If you have a few dollars why not look at purchasing some of the heritage or heirloom seed ranges of Fruit and vegetables. Many seed firms as well as organizations like the Seed Savers Network have many fascinating and unusual varieties of plants available for the home gardener to grow.

Of course once you have various plants growing in your veggie garden don't forget to keep some propagating material back ( whether it is root sections, seed or divisions), for future plantings. Also you should think about letting certain plants like lettuce, parsley and basil go to seed, for planting later. I regularly have to weed my lawns around the gardens for rouge seedlings of the above plants. Such spare seedling weeds are easily replanted or swapped with other gardeners for plants I don't yet have, or given to school and/or charity plant stalls. It is useful to have weeds that other people want and are willing to pay for.

While it usually not a good idea to try and propagate most of the tree fruit, simply from a time perspective and again because the results can also be very variable. It is still interesting to try even if you only end up getting a pot plant out of the results. It is possible to grow the seeds of such trees as mangoes, citrus, avocado, apple, pear, etc. While the fruit of some species simply have no viable seed at all eg, bananas. There is however a few, which readily lend themselves to home propagation eg, pawpaw (papaya), tree tomatoes, unroasted coffee beans, etc. I remember as a child, accidentally germinated a coconut palm, from throwing the mostly eaten out shell onto a garden bed for a few months.

Another suggestion for those of you out there, who are visited by birds to your garden, why not take a handful of birdseed and plant it out in an out of the way section of your garden. These bird friendly plants like Sunflower, oats, sorghum, etc, can be a real bonus for many native birds to supplement their diet. Many of the seeds in any packet of birdseed are very viable.

When my kids were younger and I was showing them such wonders, I used to have trouble convincing them that I could not do similar things in growing and multiplying with a variety of items of importance to them at the time, from toys to chocolate, lollies and even coins.

Seed Newsvine