Many people who are new to gardening don’t realise the importance of soil pH.

In fact I have spoken to many people who have been gardening for a long time and they are not aware of how important soil pH is either!

The wrong soil pH can affect the ability of a plant to be able to access nutrients, even if they are present in the soil!

I’m always amazed when people go into a hardware store, like Bunnings, with a query about why a plant is struggling or showing signs of nutrient deficiency that the first question isn’t “What’s your soil pH” They just sell you the bottled “magnesium”, “iron chelate” or “calcium” or a range of other trace elements.

By not asking you if you have tested the pH, what they fail to let you know is that you may have plenty of trace elements available! Its just the pH is wrong, so the plant cannot access them!

For example, I had an Azalea in a pot that suddenly started to struggle.

Struggling Azalea plant

I tested the pH using a pH test kit. It showed the pH was neutral around 7..

I know Azaleas love acid soils, around pH 5, so it was slightly high. But I also knew, from the symptoms that the plant wanted a more acidic soil.

So I gave it a couple of treatments with coffee grounds, which naturally and gently lower the pH.

The difference was amazing in just a few weeks.

Same plant after treatment

My Azalea plant went from losing its leaves, and struggling with pests and diseases, to being in full leaf and flower bud! This shows the importance of soil pH!

So, how can you lower the pH of the Soil naturally?

As I outlined above, coffee grounds are a natural and gentle way to lower the pH of the soil.

Another way is by using either powdered or liquid sulphur! I was going to try the sulphur solution if the coffee solution hadn’t worked

What would have happened if I didn’t adjust the pH? Well the plant would have continued to struggle and may even have died!

This is because the soil’s acidity or alkalinity, as measured by the pH, affects the ability of the plant to take up the minerals and food it needs. So the plant effectively starves to death!

So, next time you see a plant really struggling in your garden, do it (and yourself) a favour and test the soil’s pH!

Happy gardening from Rohanne, your Edible Garden Guru

Related Posts

Importance of soil preparation

The post What is the importance of Soil pH for plant growth? appeared first on Delectable Garden.

Growing potatoes in the Redlands can be tricky, as potatoes are a cool climate crop. This means they grow well in Australia’s the southern states, but don’t like our coastal humidity!

Potatoes starting to grow

In southern states potatoes are a summer crop because they are frost tender. If you want to grow potatoes in the Redlands, you need to plant them in autumn so that they grow through our winter. Any time from April to June is best as they take around 90 plus days to grow, multiply and produce a crop.

Which Variety?

First you have to decide which variety of potato that you want to grow. And this is where it starts to get interesting.

The great thing about growing your own potatoes is that you get to choose different varieties from those you buy in the supermarket. There are actually hundreds of different varieties of potatoes you can grow, providing you can get the seed potatoes!

I didn’t realise potatoes had suffered a similar fate to tomatoes. As you know, there is a huge difference in taste between the tomatoes you buy in the supermarket and the tomatoes you grow at home. Well the same thing can be said of potatoes and it kinda makes sense, if you think about it!

Potatoes we buy in the supermarket are chosen because they travel well, have thicker skin and can last a long time on the supermarket shelf while they are waiting to be bought! This can mean they are not the best from a flavour perspective, or even from a eating perspective.

While we get to choose between washed potatoes and brushed potatoes and maybe a few named varieties like Desiree or Kipfler, in the UK they have around 20 different named varieties available in their supermarkets!

And these varieties differ considerably in taste, colour and thickness of skin. They also suggest what recipes they enhance the most.

How do you want to use them?

You should choose your potato variety by what you want to do with them. For example if you want to make a great potato salad then you want a waxy potato like Bintje, Kipfler or Nicola. These potatoes hold their shape when they’re cooked, so they don’t crumble and become a watery mess!

If you want to make mashed spuds then you should choose a variety like Yukon gold, red rascal, Dutch cream or golden delight. These are “floury” and easily fall apart, making for a great mash. For a real difference why not try purple Congo, which gives you purple coloured mash. It’s great for an unusual coloured gnocchi.

Floury potatoes also make great baked spuds and potato chips, because they crisp up nicely on the outside but are soft and fluffy when you bite into them.

Seed potatoes

When you start learning about growing your own spuds, you will find a lot of advice about not using supermarket potatoes and how you need to use “seed” potatoes.

You can’t actually grow potatoes from a traditional seed, like carrots or beetroot and other root crops. Seed potatoes look just like little potatoes and that’s what they are! You can eat seed potatoes just like you eat normal potatoes. However, they are a bit more expensive at between $6 to $8 per kilo.

The big selling point for seed potatoes is they are guaranteed to be free of disease. Potatoes can suffer from a number of diseases which you don’t want to introduce into the soil in your garden. As I grow my potatoes in large buckets this is not a major concern. The only other benefit from using seed potatoes seems to be the different and more unusual varieties.

A big downside is that although we can buy more than 20 different varieties of potato to grow in our veggie patch, the potato growing industry is customized to the southern market. When I went online to find what potatoes I wanted to experiment with, all the seed companies say the seed potatoes aren’t available until the end of July!

There were some really interesting varieties, but planting them in August means you are looking at late November for harvesting and that’s really too late. If we get spring rains or a heat wave in August as happened in 2019 and 2020, there goes your crop!

Supermarket potatoes

You can also try growing potatoes from those that you buy in the supermarket or at the fruit and vegetable store.

When we get away from producers and supermarkets not wanting us to grow our own veggies, the main downside of using supermarket potatoes seems to be the potential disease.

Lots of websites claim that store-bought potatoes are sprayed with a chemical to deter sprouting. However I found very few references to this spraying happening in Australia, so I’m not sure how widespread this practice is. I’ve certainly had my share of potatoes sprout in the cupboard!

The general advice seems to be that if you can get it to sprout, then try growing it! The main problem to me is the lack of different varieties.

Buying seed potatoes

As I said, the seed potato business in geared toward the southern market and they don’t plant their potatoes until spring.

I was really looking forward to trying purple congo or royal blue or even Japanese sweet but these aren’t available until late July.

Growing Potatoes – the How?

The good news is that you don’t actually need a huge amount of space!

You can grow potatoes in pots, old garbage bins, plastic paint buckets with drainage holes added or specific grow-bags. I’m growing mine in some recycled paint buckets.

Paint bucket repurposed for growing potatoes

One thing that’s not recommended is to grow them in old tyres. This used to be quite trendy. However, research has shown heavy metals such as lead and zinc can leach out of the tyres into your potatoes.

The actual growing is quite easy although there is some preparation.

Chitting

It is recommended that you do a process called “chitting” for your spuds. All this means is to start the potato sprouting before you plant it. This makes sense to me as then you know that they are viable and going to grow!

To chit potatoes, place them in a warm, moist location for a couple of weeks and they should start to sprout. The sprouts grow from the “eyes” of the potato. You only need a few eyes on each potato to sprout, so remove the others and keep only the strong sprouts.

Chitted Golden Dream potatoes

Keep the potatoes separated while they are sprouting. An old egg container is great for this as you can use the lid to keep the potatoes warm and dark.

While your potatoes are Chitting, choose your container.

Also, at this point, choose your location. Potatoes like full sun in our winter.

Planting

When your potatoes have started to sprout (sprout formation can take 2 – 3 weeks). Grab your container or grow bag and put a several centimetres of compost in the bottom. If you don’t have home-made compost, you can use a premium potting mix. Want to know how to make your own compost? Check this link Compost Bins: Composting Tips for your garden

Place two to three of the sprouted potatoes on top of the compost. You need to take care when handling the potatoes, being careful not to damage the sprouts.

Place the potatoes so the sprout is pointing upward. If you have several sprouts that have grown either carefully remove the excess or else carefully cut the potato into pieces and plant each piece. Plant the cut side down and it should heal and not rot out.

Carefully cover the potato and sprout with around 10 centimetres of compost or potting mix.

As the potato shoots grow, you keep adding compost until the container is full. It’s this continual heaping up that encourages the plant to grow more potatoes. You should get around 10 potatoes for each sprouted potato you plant.

Make sure that you only use really well composted compost or potting mix. Potatoes hate coming into contact with green manures as this can encourage disease.

Water and fertilising potatoes

Potatoes require quite a lot of water to grow big, juicy spuds, so remember to water regularly. For the first week or so go a bit light in the watering, but as the plants grow they need a fair amount of water.

If you want to fertilise, use composted chook poo as this has all the nutrients your growing potatoes will need.

Pests

Potatoes can attract pests so keep an eye out for any leaf damage.

You need to check your potatoes for any of these pests regularly, as they can do significant damage almost overnight. This will seriously impact how many potatoes you get to harvest. The main pests to look out for are the black beetle, potato/peach aphid, potato tuber moth, cluster caterpillar and nematodes.

The best method of treatment is to remove any beetles or caterpillars you find and spray the plants with eco pest oil. Even better, encourage beneficial insects to do the work for you. Want to know more? Good Bugs for the Vegetable Garden

There is also a new pest called the tomato/potato psyllids. These are sap sucking insects and you need to control these using eco pest oil.

Harvesting potatoes

After about 3 months the leaves of your potato plant will go yellow and start to die back. At this point your potatoes are ready to harvest.

By growing them in a bucket or grow bag you can harvest them just by tipping the container on its side and dumping out the contents.

Store in a cool dark place. If potatoes are exposed to sunlight they will develop green patches under the skin. This is caused by a glycoalkaloid called Solanine which can make you sick in large doses.

Potatoes just harvested

Sweet potatoes

You can grow sweet potatoes, particularly the orange kumara using a similar technique, except you don’t need to heap up the compost. I would recommend confining them to a bucket or large bin though as they can become quite invasive.

The post The How-to of Growing Potatoes appeared first on Delectable Garden.

This week I have been asked if I could talk a bit about composting on my BayFM radio program.

We have mentioned compost a few times. However, it seems its one of those things that people are a bit hesitant about.

I can understand this as it took me a while to really get into composting. Once you get started, and see the benefits, you will wonder why it took you soo long to discover this magic!

Composting in action

Why should I compost?

One of the first questions I get asked is “why should I compost”?

And there are soo many reasons!! Getting free soil. Improving the biology of your soil. Growing fantastic veggies without additional fertiliser! And helping to reduce carbon emissions and lower your impact on the environment.

So let’s look at these in a little more detail.

When you first start gardening, it’s hard to imagine all your garden pruning’s and grass clippings could actually be of benefit to your garden.

They just look like waste right? But put that waste in the right environment and it can quickly change into what gardeners refer to as “black gold”!

That’s because worms and microbes break down this waste material. They return it to the vitamins and minerals that it started out as.

So you get the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium and all those other minerals in a form that can be easily absorbed by your plants!

And this is why you can grow fabulous, healthy veggies using just compost as the fertiliser.

Believe it or not, what you buy as potting mix or compost from your local nursery or big green shed is just fancy (or not so fancy!) compost, with a high price tag!

Reducing carbon emissions

So, how can it reduce your carbon emissions?

By stopping all the green waste and kitchen scraps from going to landfill! This is the most important reason to compost in my opinion!

It’s estimated that between 30-50 percent of the contents of our rubbish bins is organic matter that can be repurposed as compost.

A lot of people don’t realise that when organic matter goes into normal rubbish bins it gets buried along with all the plastics, tissues and other rubbish.

And when it hits landfill it doesn’t have the air and microbes to help it break down naturally.

Instead it breaks down very slowly! And, along the way, it releases methane and other gases associated with climate change.

It has been measured that a normal lettuce when broken down in this manner can take 20 years to decompose.

In a compost bin it takes around 3 months and releases little to no methane gas. This goes for any organic matter.

I think some people get confused about the difference between green waste bins and normal waste bins because they think they all go to the same place i.e. the tip right.

However, when they get to the tip they get treated differently. The contents of the green waste goes off to be composted while the contents of the red bins gets buried.

How do you start composting?

It’s pretty easy, but there are a few simple rules.

Before we start, there are two main types of composting: Hot composting and cold composting.

With hot composting you build a compost heap all at once and leave it to brew. Cold composting you add to the compost heap slowly.

As hot composting takes up quite a lot more space, I am going to focus on cold composting. That’s what most people in the Redlands will be doing.

Composting involves pretty basic chemistry. The kind of stuff you learnt in primary school!

Basically you have some organic material that is rich in carbon, and some that is rich in nitrogen.

Your carbon materials are often called brown material. This includes things like paper, cardboard, branches and twigs, straw and sawdust and dried autumn leaves.

Your nitrogen rich materials (often called green material) are your grass clippings, green leaves and kitchen scraps.

Manures like chook poo and horse poo are also included in the nitrogen pile, even though they are brown in colour, as they are very nutrient dense.

To compost successfully you need a good mix of carbon and nitrogen materials.

You don’t want to aim for a 50:50 mix because the nitrogen materials are a lot more nutrient rich than the carbon materials. A ratio of around 30:70 or 20:80 is a good mix to aim for.

So where are you going to put all this material?

Ideally your compost bin should be located in part shade. You can compost in the sun, but you’ll need to ensure you keep the moisture up to your compost heap.

I recommend you buy or make a compost bin. There are all sorts of commercially available bins including tumbler bins and beehive bins made out of plastic.

Or, even better if you have the space, build compost bays out of recycled timber. You need at least two bays so that one can be brewing while you are building the other compost pile.

You can also create a compost heap using chicken wire or similar to contain the heap.

Of course you could just dig a hole in the ground and bury your waste. However, this can take longer to break down and may attract rodents like rats and mice if you bury food scraps.

I know some people who have a compost bin in each veggie patch. This way they don’t have to move their pruning, or the finished compost far!

What’s the process for composting?

Once you have located your compost bin it really is just a matter of starting to put your kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves etc in the bin.

I recommend that you have the bin on the ground. The worms and bacteria from the soil will travel up and start the composting process. It really is that simple.

If you want, you can buy some composting worms. This will help speed up the process.

Every time you add a layer of green material, especially kitchen scraps then you need to cover it with a layer of brown material like cardboard, paper, straw etc. Otherwise it can attract flies and rodents or start to smell.

A good compost heap honestly should not smell. If it smells then something is going wrong.

You need to keep your compost heap moist. You need to give it a sprinkling of water every couple of days.

If your compost gets too dry it will stop working! And the leaves and scraps just won’t break down.

I recommend you get a compost aerator from the big green shed or nursery. This is like a giant corkscrew or bottle opener. It really helps introduce air into your compost heap and speed up the process.

Follow these steps and in about 4 months your compost should be ready to spread on your garden!

This compost will add lots of nutrients to your plants. It will also add all those beneficial microbes into your soil. And the more beneficial bacteria in your soil, the bigger, stronger and healthier your veggies will be.

Is there anything that you can’t add to your compost?

There are a few things you shouldn’t add to your compost heap.

This includes any meat or fish products, dairy or cheese. The average home compost system can’t cope with these products and they will start to smell off!! Also, they can attract vermin like rats and mice or even snakes.

Another thing that you shouldn’t put in your compost heap is any plants or cuttings that are diseased or infested with pests.

This is because an average compost heap doesn’t generate enough heat to kill these diseases. So you will just be spreading them to other, non-diseased areas of your garden.

Also if you have sprayed your grass with weed killers then you can’t add this to your compost heap. The same goes for any pesticides. These don’t break down and will kill all your worms and microbes.

You also can’t compost bio-plastics. Even though a lot of take-away containers, including coffee cups, say they are compostable. Your average home compost heap won’t break them down. They actually need a special system to compost them.

And hopefully it goes without saying but normal plastics, glass and big planks of wood also won’t break down.

Most people wouldn’t normally add these to the compost bin, but I did find a kitchen bowl and a fork in one of my compost bins when I emptied it! Obviously, they had fallen in when I was emptying kitchen scraps and I hadn’t noticed!

Also, you shouldn’t add any dog poo or cat poo! This is because these animals primarily eat a meat diet. So you might be introducing pathogens into your garden.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t compost pet poo! You just need a separate system. I use a worm tube.

This brings me to other ways of dealing with kitchen scraps, if you don’t have enough space to have a compost bin.

What if I don’t have any garden? Can I still compost?

If you don’t have any garden space, because you live in a unit or townhouse, then try a kitchen top composting bin. All you need is a bucket with a lid, food waste and Bokashi composting mix.

You add your scraps to the bin and at the end of each day you cover it with the composting mix. This is rich in all the microorganisms that break down the food waste.

The compost made in these bins is very rich so it can’t be added directly to your potted plants. You will need to find someone who has a garden where the composted material can be buried.

I have a few people who gift me their compost! They don’t have space for it themselves, but have been encouraged to start composting after listening to me!

If you have a little more space, another option is to invest in a worm farm. This is a container system where you use compost worms to break down your food scraps.

They produce a worm tea that you can dilute and use on all your potted plants. Eventually this will also fill up, so you will need to get rid of the compost. However, it will take a fair bit longer than the bokashi bin.

Hopefully this will encourage you to try composting, if you aren’t doing it already.

And a final WHY?

You hear in the news about the need for carbon sequestering to remove carbon from the atmosphere. By composting you are doing your own little bit of carbon sequestering!

The post COMPOSTING appeared first on Delectable Garden.

Ladybeetle lays eggs in your garden

So what do I mean by Good Bugs?

Good bugs are those insects that prey upon bad bugs in your garden. Bad bugs include caterpillars, scale, aphids and mealybugs.

There are plenty of beneficial bugs including lady beetles, lacewings and praying mantis. These good bugs also include the larvae of insects such as cryptolaemus, which is the larvae of ladybeetles.

Encouraging the Good Guys

When you encourage good bugs into your garden, your veggies grow bigger and better, and suffer fewer pest attacks. And you won’t need to use any pesticides to get rid of the bad pests!

In fact, you will have to stop using pesticides before these good guys will visit your veggie patch!

This is because pesticides kill the good guys just as quickly as they kill the bad guys!

My favourite Good guy is the larvae of Lady Beetles, also known as cryptolaemus or the Mealy Bug Killer! And they deserve this title as they eat dozens of mealybug each day!

I once watched a mealybug killer clean up an infestation of mealybug on my lime tree. I had a pretty bad infestation at the start, and by day 3 there were only a few shell corpses.

The Mealybug killer works by disguising itself to look just like its prey. In fact, the only way you can tell them apart, the mealybug killer moves on its own. This is an important distinction, as the mealybug itself has no legs and requires ants to move it around. Mealybugs live on your fruit trees and in your veggie garden!

So, if you see a mealybug that is walking, it really is a good guy – the mealybug killer!

Mealybug killer

You can purchase these good guys online, from places like Bugs for Bugs. However, I find it just as easy to encourage the good guys into your garden. You can do this by providing food for the good guys with plenty of flowers and nectar.

Providing a pesticide-free garden

You also need to provide a pesticide-free garden. When I talk about not using pesticides, this includes those pesticides that are sold as “natural” and “harmless” such as Pyrethrum.

These pesticides are considered “natural” as they have their genesis in nature. The chemicals in these pesticides have been extracted or copied from plants. However, they are made into a concentrate that is hundreds of times more poisonous than that found in plants!

And these pesticides kill all bugs, both the good guys and the bad guys. So instead of spraying your veggies with pesticides why not give nature a chance to use its own predators to kill the bad bugs in your garden?

When you do this you will notice that you have many more insects in your garden, but many of these will be good bugs.

So why not take a walk around your garden and look at all the abundant insect life? Many of these insects are helping you in your gardening endeavours https://www.thedelectablegarden.com.au/good-bugs/. They do this by pollinating your plants, but also by eating other bugs!

Until next time

Your Edible Garden Guru

The post Beneficial Bugs in your garden appeared first on Delectable Garden.

I think of my compost bins as being reminiscent of a witches cauldron. You put a motley assortment of ingredients in, stir it a few times and out comes a magic potion for your garden.

Most things can be composted, although it is not recommended that you add eye of newt, frogs legs or little children to your compost bins!

In fact, all meat and animal products, along with invasive weeds should not be dumped into the compost bin. And, like with witches, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about composting and worm farming.

Why Compost

I’ve always been a fan of composting. Why wouldn’t you take all this waste, normally discarded and turn it into something useful? It’s your own homegrown soil improver. I love my compost bins and worm farms. Worm tubes.are another great option, especially to avoid rodents and to compost dog poo (Can you compost dog poop?)

So what are the various options? 

Compost bins:

Compost Bins

There are compost bins and compost heaps. They can be differentiated by describing a compost heap as “hot” compost, while a compost bin is generally “cold” composting. I tend to stick to cold composting. And I have three compost bins that I use to compost grass clippings, leaves and garden clippings and food scraps. Compost bins are less of an option if you have a small yard. And they are not viable at all if you have no yard, so are gardening in a townhouse or unit balcony. Hot composting is even less of an option for many gardeners. Either they don’t have enough space for a hot compost heap. Or they don’t generate enough garden waste at one time to set up a heap.

Tumble bins are a type of compost bin. I know a lot of people swear by their tumble bins, but I have found them to be hard work. They need to be tumbled very regularly and can break fairly easily, leaving you with a non-tumbling compost bin!

Worm farms:

Compost worms

Worm farms are easy to establish and consist of two or more layers. On the bottom layer is the worm wee thats generated as food scraps are digested and broken down in the worm farm and worm tea is a great tonic for your plants! The second and third layers of the worm farm are where you place the worms and the food scraps that you want them to eat. Compost worms have great appetites and eat up to 10 times their weight in food scraps every week.

Worm tubes:

Worm tube

A similar concept to worm farms, worm tubes are a great addition to your garden. Simply bury a long tube or pipe in the garden, place composting worms in the bottom and keep topping it up with food scraps. Commercial worm tubes have holes drilled in the side, but you can make a worm tube from polypipe and drill the holes yourself. The tube needs a lid and some ventilation holes in the sides to allow water and worms in. And it allows the worm juice and enriched compost out to the surrounding garden. These worm tubes are great for small gardens. And they are also useful for composting weed seeds and stuff you don’t want to spread across your garden. Plus they help ensure vermin such as mice and rats aren’t attracted to your compost.

Bokashi bins:

Bokashi bins are great alternatives for small yards and units. The Bokashi bin is basically a bucket with lid and tap which you place on, or under your kitchen bench. You place the food scraps and peelings from your food preparation in the bin. When you’ve completed your food preparation you cover the scraps with the Bokashi mix. The mix contains bacteria which help the food to break down. When the bin is full, the mix can be buried in the garden where it will feed your plants.

Chickens:

Chickens are the ultimate composters. They will eat pretty much anything and turn it into waste, in this case, chook poo. However, chickens take up space so they are not an option for small gardens, balconies or townhouses. They also take time to care for properly.

Myths and misconceptions of composting

As I said previously, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about composting.

Some of these myths and misconceptions include:

1st Myth: A Compost bin smells! A well cared for compost bin does not smell bad! It should smell earthy, like good soil but it shouldn’t stink. If your compost bin stinks then it’s either too wet or has become acidic. When it’s too wet, it means all the good bacteria have been killed and this allows the nasty, anaerobic bacteria to take over. The other possible reason for a compost bin to smell is that non-compostable’s like meat or dairy products have been added.

Vermin

2nd Myth: Composting attracts vermin: When you care for your compost bin and don’t overload it with too much of any one item, you should not have a problem with mice, rats or cockroaches. It also helps to turn it regularly to speed up the process.

Compost bins should not smell or attract Vermin!!

3rd Myth: Compost bins take up valuable real estate: My compost bin is in a shady part of the garden where very little will grow. I find that the compost bin works well here. As a bonus it saves me having to find a shade-loving, dry-tolerant plant to fill the space. However, if real estate is an issue you could try the worm tubes or worm farms.

4th Myth: Composting takes too long to break down: If you add lots of big, woody items and leave it to slowly decompose, then it will take time to make your beautiful soil. By chopping up scraps, twigs and even larger leaves into small pieces you significantly speed up the process. There are also compost accelerators you can buy which speeds up the process by giving your compost bin a big hit of microbes. And if you turn your compost regularly using a spiral compost turner or fork, you speed up the process massively.

There are things you can’t add to compost bins

While there are some things that cannot be added to compost bins, the list is actually pretty small!

Meat, fish or dairy products, can’t be added to compost bins, mostly because these will stink as they decompose and they may attract vermin. Thinking logically though, is there any situation where you would want meat or prawn heads decomposing in the open in your yard?

You also must not add seed heads from weeds and invasive plants like wandering jew, unless you want to spread the weed through your garden when you use the compost. However, you can treat the seed heads either by drowning them for a few days in water or baking them in the sun before adding them to the bin.

Dog poo and animal poo can’t be added to compost bins. This is mostly due to fear of pathogens. However, I have established a dog poo composting system using a worm tube that works really well.

Citrus Peel

Finally, people keep saying the worms don’t like citrus peel or onion skins. I find both these are fine to add to the compost in moderation as composting is about bacterial decomposition, not about worms digesting the food scraps.

Worm farms and compost bins cost money and take effort

Worm farms or compost bins don’t cost a lot of money to set up. All you need is an old bin or bucket or broccoli box from you local vegetable shop and a handful of worms. These do cost money as compost worms are different from your normal garden variety worm. However, most gardeners are happy to provide beginners with some worm castings from their worm farms for little or no cost!

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, your Personal Gardening Expert

Related Posts

Can you compost dog poop?

The post Compost Bins: Composting Tips for your garden appeared first on Delectable Garden.

That rosemary plant that you love. Or the gardenia that gives such beautiful flowers. Or that Camellia bush with the red and white striped flowers that your friend has and that you covet! All these plants can be grown for free easily using cuttings from an established plant.

Gardenia flower

What You’ll Need to multiply your plants

All you need to multiply your plants are a few standard gardening tools, pots and potting medium. The instructions follow below if you want to try this.

You need a plant to get cuttings from, sharp scissors or secateurs, honey or hormone rooting powder, potting medium and pots plus a plastic drink bottle.

Sharp scissors or secateurs are most important, to ensure you start with a clean cutting that hasn’t been crushed or bruised.

Using honey or hormone rooting powders encourages the plant to grow roots, helping create a new plant. I prefer honey because it has an anti-microbial action. This helps keep the cutting sterile as well as helping provide some nourishment.

Coir peat for potting medium

For the potting medium you can use seed raising mix or create your own potting medium. The potting medium I use is made from a mix of coir peat and washed sand. Potting mix alone won’t provide enough substance to support the cutting.

You need a plastic pot in which to place the plant cutting. Use several pots if you want to take a lot of cuttings. Only small pots are needed to start with because these allow the plant to get established easily. After the plant has grown you will be potting it up into larger pots.

However, if you only have a larger pot, try placing several cuttings together. Just make sure the cuttings are not touching each other.

To finish you need a plastic drink bottle or other clear container. You use this to create a mini greenhouse for your cutting until the plant has grown.

What You’ll Do

The first step is to identify the plant that you wish to multiply. You need to make sure that the plant is large enough and healthy enough that it can live through the removal of one or several stems!

As I said above, this plant is the one(s) that you want to multiply for free from your existing garden. Or it can be a cutting from a friend or neighbour. I have even taken cuttings from plants that I have admired when walking around the neighbourhood. If you do this, it’s good manners to ask the owner if they mind you taking a cutting!!

Heel cutting

For maximum success it is better to take a “heel” cutting, as the plant will actively produce new roots from the heel cuttings.

To take a heel cutting, find a point where a small branch is produced from a stem and gently pull the branch away. A small amount of the stem will come away with the branch. This is what a heel cutting is. A plant is more likely to grow roots from the heel part than it is from straight stem part.

If you can’t get a heel cutting, make sure that you have at least one leaf junction on the stem. This leaf junction or node should be close to the base of the cutting. These junctions are also areas where new roots can easily grow. To increase the chance of root growth carefully slice up through the leaf node and insert a small amount of sphagnum moss into this opening.

Cut the leaves

Then remove some of the leaves on the cutting so only have two or three leaves are left. With plants like gardenias and camellias I also cut the remaining leaves in half if they are large. This helps to minimise moisture loss until the cutting has established its own root system.

Place some of your potting medium in a clean, plastic pot. Dip the cutting, heel end, in the honey and ensure a good coverage. I normally dip at least 2-3cm of stem into the honey.

Using a pencil or some other implement make a small hole in the potting medium, and push the cutting in the hole. Take care not to rub off the honey. Gently push the potting medium around the stem then press around the cutting with your fingers until it is supported. The cutting should not be more than half covered.

Mini greenhouses

Finally take the plastic bottle (soft drink or milk containers both work well) and remove the bottom with a sharp knife. Cover the cutting with the top of the plastic bottle. This creates a mini-greenhouse for your plant. Water the pot gently, attach a label and place in a cool area out of the sun, but with plenty of light.

How You’ll Know You Have Succeeded

You will know when the cutting has taken as it starts to grow new leaves. When they have sufficient new growth they can be potted up into a larger pot.

Some plants like rosemary grow really easily from cuttings. So if you take lots of cuttings, chances are that you will end up with lots of new plants. This is great as you can share these with your friends and family.

Happy gardening from Rohanne, Your Personal Garden Expert 🙂

The post Do You Want to Multiply Your Plants for free? appeared first on Delectable Garden.

Orchid food

I wonder how many people have unrealistic expectations of Mother Nature?

I ask this because I was talking to a gardener the other day who was complaining that none of the orchid fertilisers worked. So, I asked her which fertilisers she had tried and what had been the results.

It turns out that her orchids were flowering on average twice a year, but she wanted them to be in flower all year round!! This is just not realistic!

So I paused to wonder. How many people think that some plant or fertiliser is not performing well, when the plant is performing as it should.

Is it just our expectations that are unrealistic?

Phalaenopsis Orchid

Perhaps we need to get back in touch with nature. Or at least adjust our expectations to be more realistic?

Maybe our expectations have become out of touch with reality. We can buy flowers and fruits all year round and we have become disconnected from the fact that nature works in seasons!

Just because you can buy spring flowers, like freesias, in the middle of summer or Peaches in the middle of winter doesn’t mean that the plants are flowering and fruiting out of season. It means they have been flown in from somewhere in the world where the plants are flowering and fruiting in accordance with the natural cycle.

Like humans and animals, plants need to rest occasionally and not be performing all the time!

We wouldn’t expect a fruit tree to be constantly laden with fruit.Nor would we expect an animal to be constantly producing offspring without a rest. So why should plants be expected to flower without a rest?

Personally, I get a lot of joy when I find a new flower on my orchids 🙂 I wonder if I would get that same joy if there were flowers there all the time?

Happy gardening

Rohanne, Your Personal Garden Expert

The post Are Your expectations realistic of Mother nature? appeared first on Delectable Garden.

Conventional wisdom says that you should not compost dog poop as the poop can contain pathogens that can get into the soil.

Doggy doo

And I certainly would not want to add dog poop to my compost bin, mainly because of the smell and the possibility of generating more flies!

However, I have discovered that it is possible to compost dog poop using a worm tube!

The tube is buried in the ground and indirectly feeds your plants without any of the problems associated with pathogens. And, as it is buried and covered there is no problem with flies or with bad smells!

Worm tube

So, how to do this?

First, you have to select the site for the worm tube.

It is best if this gets some sun, but also some shade. I try and position my worm tubes so that they are located close to trees or plants that would love the extra nutrients.

Then you have to dig a hole. At least 30 cm deep is preferable so all the worm holes are covered.

Also, you want to minimise the chance of flies getting in, so the deeper the hole the better 🙂

Once the hole is dug, position the worm tube and backfill until the tube is stable.

The next step is to put some coir peat or equivalent material in the base of the tube. I know it looks just like more dog poop, but it isn’t!

Coir peat

This provides a good base for the compost worms that you are going to add to the tube.

These are the little guys that are going to do all the work, munching through the dog poop!

Not my idea of a good meal, but apparently they don’t mind!

Compost worms

Next, you add the doggy doo. I am finding it best to do a dog poop pick up early morning, just after the dogs have been out to do their toilet. Because this minimises the amount of time the flies have to find the droppings and lay their eggs!

And in summer it minimises the amount of time the doggy doo can dry out, helping to make sure its enjoyable for the worms!

Finally, top the dog poo with a layer of sawdust and an occasional handful of lime. This helps ensure that the tube does not smell when you open to add more poop!

So, more nutrients for your plants and less waste to the municipal tip. A win-win for everyone!

Happy gardening from Rohanne, Your Personal Garden Expert:)

The post Can you compost dog poop? appeared first on Delectable Garden.

I was down the market the other day and saw that they had lemongrass for sale – 3 stalks for $5.00!

Honestly, if you don’t know how to grow lemongrass you would think at that price that Lemongrass was a precious, hard to grow herb. In reality, growing Lemongrass is easy!

You can grow lemongrass from seed or seedling. It can even grow it by buying one of those stalks and allowing it to take root in a glass of water!

Lemongrass

Lemongrass is not fussy about soil, water, fertiliser. In fact, it’s not fussy about much. I even had a clump growing in a crack in a concrete driveway!

Actually, I would say there are more “Do Nots” when it comes to growing lemongrass!

My list of “Do Not’s” when growing lemongrass include:

1. Don’t plant it directly in the garden, unless you have a massive yard or a corner where absolutely nothing with grow! Always keep it contained in a pot.

2. Do Not plant it in a small pot. I would recommend a fairly large pot as the plant can be large when established so can look top heavy or even break a smaller pot.

3. Do Not plant it in a mixed pot with other herbs. It will smother the other herbs.

4. Do Not let it get out of control! Prune it regularly, and hard. It responds well to being controlled.

5. Do Not let it go to “flower”! Its flowers are more like a fluffy fringe similar to most grass flowers. If you let it go to seed, the wind and birds will disperse the seed and you and your neighbours will have it everywhere. In fact, lemongrass has become an environmental weed in many parts of Queensland.

6. Do Not fertilise it. The more you fertilise, the larger the clump will grow and the more flower spikes it will send up!

7. Do Not ignore little seedlings that pop up in your garden. These seedling are not cute, as they grow into massive clumps!

So Why Grow Lemongrass?

Well, it is fabulous in curries, stir fry’s, laksa and many Thai and Asian-based soups.  And it makes a really refreshing tea!

If you do use it in cooking, then its better to grow it than pay $5 for a small bunch!

To use lemongrass if you are growing it, just go to the base of the plant, find a thick stalk and twist to break it away from the mother plant. It should come away fairly easily. Be careful with the leaves as they are razor-sharp on the edges. Cut the top of the stalk off, leaving about 20-30cm.

Trim the base, peel off the outer layers until you reach the softer whitish centre. This can then be sliced into thin rings, pounded with a rolling pin or crushed in a mortar and pestle.

lemongrass stalk

If you are buying a stalk, choose stalks that feel heavy. Otherwise, it may have been picked too long and allowed to dry out, leaving it less tasty and woodier in texture.

Lemongrass adds a lovely mild citrusy flavour to many Asian recipes, but I find that the woody texture is an acquired taste. It’s better to cut the stalk into 6 cm pieces and just bruise it with a mallet to release the oils.

I then add the bruised lemongrass pieces to the soup or curry early in the cooking process, and remove the stalks before serving. If I want to add it to a stir-fry, I slice it into thin rings and bash it in a mortar and pestle.

It also makes a refreshing tea. Just add the bruised stalks to a pot or teacup, cover with boiling water and let it infuse. Remove the stalks and drink the tea.

Alternatively, use lemongrass to add a lovely citrus flavour to a bottle of vodka for cocktails. Just peel and bruise a lemongrass stalk, put it in a nearly full bottle of vodka, allow to steep for 3-4 days, shaking occasionally and remove the stalks.

lemongrass plant

Like many herbs and spices, it is high in vitamins including vitamins A, C and traces of B group vitamins. It is also high in minerals including magnesium, folate, iron, potassium, copper, phosphorus and manganese. The human body needs the vitamins and minerals to function effectively.

Lemongrass has an extensive history of use in Asian countries for its medicinal properties including its anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties and it is reported to reduce the symptoms associated with colds and flu’s.

It has been called fever grass for its ability to reduce raised body temperatures and is also said to be good for arthritis and joint pain, lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease and delaying age-related chronic diseases!

So why not grow some lemongrass today?

Happy Gardening

Rohanne, Your Personal Garden Expert

The post Growing Lemongrass in Australia appeared first on Delectable Garden.

Are currently lamenting the fact that when you try to grow coriander all your coriander plants bolt to seed. And you are calling yourself a bad gardener, because the replacement seedlings that you bought from the garden centre have died. Stop! Right now!

You see, coriander does not like the hot, humid summers that we have! They are not alone ! Despite what you may read on some other gardening blogs!

This year we had a very warm September in Brisbane, and my beautiful coriander plants bolted to flower and seed! Sadly this is a fact of life when you garden in the subtropics!

Coriander plant in flower

Although you can still buy seedlings and even mature coriander plants at the garden centre, there is little point as they too will either bolt to seed. Or even worse die as soon as you put them in the ground!

If you really want to persist in growing coriander in summer in the sub-tropics, then try growing them indoors on a warm windowsill that only gets early morning light.

I warn you that you will need to really mollicodle the plants, and be alert to problems with mealybug, red spider mite and even fungal disease!

All is not lost though! When my coriander plants bolted to seed, I let the seeds dry naturally on the plant and harvested most of these for use in my kitchen.

I also left some seeds on the plant so that they could sow themselves in the garden, ready for the next crop.

These seeds will probably lay dormant until March or April when they will happily emerge as new coriander plants.

Coriander

I find that they tend to self-seed best in the sandy path next to the vegetable patch, rather than in the garden itself, so I now let them grow wherever they come up 🙂

So from January until the end of March, I will have to rely either on perennial coriander or else I will have to buy my coriander from the markets like everyone else.

Related Posts

Top 10 Must Have Herbs To Grow in Your Garden

Should I let vegetables flower and set seed? How to save seeds for next year’s garden

Growing Coriander: The Tips on How to Grow it in Brisbane

The post How to grow Coriander in the Sub-tropics? appeared first on Delectable Garden.