Weekly Garden Discussion Thread Dec Week 2, 2023

I have (little green) passionfruits!

Exciting! I have some passionfruit seeds in pots that are not doing anything at the moment, and a long history of dead passionfruit vines, so you are way ahead of me.

I am pleased with the garden's progress at the moment. I picked my second zucchini of the season, and the raspberries are still producing. The climbing beans are beginning to climb their supports, and a couple more snake bean seeds have sprouted so I have hope for those too.

Unfortunately the jalapenjo in the front yard looks like it has given up on life, possibly because my dog peed on it.

Yer awesome, Gonna try and save the jalapeno?
- I think the jalapenyo is past saving - it is only a young seedling and has completely wilted. I do have another seedling planted that is growing well and another that overwintered and is regrowing strongly, so it is not a great tragedy.

Hey thumbs of many colours(it's 2023 I'm not gonna assume it's green, or even a thumb, you grow you). What kinda set up you running,? Whats your dream setup? Are you worried about global warming doing weird things to the climate making it harder to keep things alive? What kinda of future proofing are you doing?

Just a few herb and vegetable seedlings in little pots, spinach/parsley/Paris Market carrots and such. The yields are barely going to be anything, it's just an enrichment activity.

I'd love to have a proper vegie patch but it's not likely I'd be able to maintain it.

I'd imagine a greenhouse would help avoid things drying out but it would get very hot and humid in there. Perhaps some people have tropical fruit in their future as the weather warms
- Pots are great, easy to move and maintain and you can just keep adding them till you reach your limit.
  
  A well maintained garden is nice, but a wild outta control one is more fun, however if your doing what you can with what you have then that's all.you can ask for really
  
  Are you having trouble with stuff drying out?
  
  I've probably got a few years before my fruit trees start producing but there in
My current setup is every available bit of space in my small yard being used to grow food. I have just pulled up some brick paving to put in some raised garden beds, and am pulling up a narrow strip of brick paving to plant alont the side of my house. I'm also trialling growing pumpkins up onto the shed roof and carport this year.

My dream garden would be much the same, but bigger. I'd like space for a few more fruit trees and a chicken coop, as well as a small native habitat area for birds etc.

I think climate change is already making things a bit harder, as it makes the extreme events more common. I think it makes less direct impact on the plants with a food garden as they are mostly annuals which already need a lot of extra care like water and shade. There are some areas that the range of fruits that can be grown is decreased as some need sufficient hours of cold weather over winter. But the impact on insects and things which the plants rely on is a big concern, both the decrease in pollinators but also the increase in pests - this year there was a big increase in cabbage butterflies due to the early warm weather, and Qld fruit fly is getting steadily closer. I may need to look into insect netting for some plants in future. Some of the summer plants that need a long growing season may be more productive, so a lot of "future proofing" will be more a matter of altering the mix of plants and varieties. I think increasing the number of varieties is also important, as the increased variability in the weather means that different plants are likely to be more successful than others depending on the exact conditions each year.
- Arrr yes the ol pumpkin shed plan, just keep an eye on those pesky runners, or you'll be know as the crazy person with the pumpkin plant roof lol.
  
  Yer awesome, its a fine line between growing stuff and still having some room to move. I'm a believer in everyone should have at least 1/4 of there yard as a vege garden, then just have whole towns with thousands of square metres of like shared micro community gardens, but that's probably asking to much of humans at the moment.
  
  Can't have chickens in your yard ?
  
  Yer that pretty much sums it up, the challenge is what kinda weather are we gonna get? How how bad will it be? And how will we adapt to it without making the situation worse? Questions, questions, questions, and mother nature will give us the answers if we can't get out shit together globally.

The thinned carrots I transplanted still look a little sad. And they had tiny hair roots on them from letting them dry out a bit much (trying to combat damping off).

Come on cat grass...

There was a big fat snail approaching my pots. Mystery of the carrot tops solved. I picked him up and gently but firmly yeeted him over the fence

The wind in Melbourne is pretty wild at the moment. My biggest tomato plant has been blown over, but fortunately it looks like it's not broken the stem so it should be ok once re-staked with a stronger support. Fingers crossed everything else holds up ok and nothing gets flattened when the rain arrives.

Gardening update!

So I've been mainly posting my last updates in the Melbourne DT, but I'm going to start posting here instead.

I started growing herbs on the 20th of sept, starting with Basil, thyme, oregano and parsley (in 1 box) + mint in its own box and rosemary also in its own box

My last update was 2 months ago on Oct 8 when it was looking like this

Today I decided that the herbs were going well enough that I want to try my hand at growing strawberries

The main herbs box is basically a jungle now. I feel like I need to trim things back, but I can't actually eat any of it as fast as it grows, so I've just been leaving it there so I can keep picking away at it a few times a week when I pick stuff

I almost killed the mint from a combination of watering it too much, then freaking out and not watering it enough (god I'm hopeless)

The rosemary is just chilling. We haven't picked any of it yet, but it's slowly growing and has sprouted new stems (?)

And the strawberries, they're so cute. Don't judge the number of them, I really like strawberries...

On the advice of a Bunnings man, we grabbed a bird net thing so they don't steal my fruit, but it was intended for covering a ground planting, so I have to return it and change it over to one that's designed for planters

Also, one of the roomies is super into gardening too, and he's got some tomato's growing, and they are SO CUTE

Nice, they're all growing wildly