I had a query recently asking what a white powdery substance was on a grape leaf? They actually said “it looks like powdery mildew, but it’s not on zucchini”! It looked like powdery mildew because it was powdery mildew.

It got me wondering “how many other gardeners consider powdery mildew a disease restricted to plants of the cucurbit family?”

Most gardeners will have struck powdery mildew on their cucurbits (i.e. cucumbers, cantaloupes, pumpkins etc). It shows up as a white or grey powder on the leaves. While it generally doesn’t kill your plant, it can significantly impact your crop as the plant can’t produce lots of fruit while its energy is being drained off and the plant is trying to fight the disease.

Powdery mildew actually affects a wide range of plants, not just zucchini, pumpkins and squash. It can affect both edible and ornamental plants. Edibles that can be affected include carrots, apples, grapes, tomatoes, eggplants, peas and beans and capsicum to name a few. Ornamentals can include chrysanthemums, gerberas, dahlias and roses. In fact it’s probably quicker to write a list of plants that aren’t affected!

So what is powdery mildew? Powdery mildew is a fungal infection. The fungal spores attach to the leaves of the plant where they drive filaments or threads into the leaf structure to draw the nutrients away from the plant. The fungi then develop fruiting spores which can be transmitted by wind or water splashes. The fungus thrives in warm, dry conditions and warm, humid conditions.

Powdery mildew is actually caused by a range of different fungi, some of which are specific to a species of plant while others can affect a whole host of plant species.

Prevention

There are several things the organic gardener can do to prevent powdery mildew in their garden:

• Grow the plants in the conditions they need to thrive. With veggies this means plenty of sunlight. Struggling and weak plants are more susceptible to attack.
• Don’t crowd your plants. Allow plenty of room for air circulation.
• Encourage beneficial insects. The orange/yellow lady beetle actually eats the fungus!
• Good hygiene is essential, as it is with all gardening tasks.
• Clean tools with a weak bleach or hydrogen peroxide solution between tasks,
• Remove infected plant material and put it in the bin.
• Do not compost as the spores will hibernate and can then infect other plants.
• Crop rotation assists by removing susceptible plants from the soil for several seasons.
• Don’t over-fertilise as lush new growth is more susceptible to the fungi
• Morning watering is best. Some say to not wet the leaves, although scientific evidence shows that water can interrupt the sporing cycle.

If you find that you continually battle with powdery mildew then you may need to investigate the range of crops that have been developed to be resistant to the fungus.

Lady beetle feasting on powdery mildew

Treatment

If you find that you have an attack of powdery mildew, there are several organic treatments. These include:

• Spraying with milk. This is the number one organic solution and, surprisingly, it works better than many commercial treatments. The standard spray is 1 part milk full-cream milk to 10 parts water, but I find a 25 percent solution works better. For severe infections you may need a 50 percent solution. Milk can also help to prevent infections if you spray your plants weekly;
• Spray with a sodium or potassium bicarbonate solution. I find you need to add a soap to help the bicarb adhere to the leaves;
• Spray with Neem oil. Again a small amount of soap or white oil will assist it to stick to the leaves;
• Dust with wettable sulphur or spray with lime sulphur;
• Use a commercial biofungicide.

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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!

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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

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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

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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:)

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I’ve been having a lovely time recently, getting lots of new water plants including the Louisana irises and the Water Lotus. And recently I have rediscovered also found out what happens if you’ve over-fertilised your water plants!

Water lotus leaf

Water plants

Water plants are great plants to grow if you have a bit of space. You don’t need a lot of space as you can just use a sealed pot. In fact it is easy to convert any pot to a water garden

I love water lilies and water lotus as they have such beautiful flowers.

Recently I obtained a number of new water irises. I already had some water irises, in the red and purple colours. However my local Big Green shed had a range of different coloured water irises on the take-me-home-and-love-me trays. I could not resist.

I took them home, repotted them and added them to various water pots that I already have growing.

With all the repotting however, I got a bit overzealous with the fertiliser! And a few days later I had a rampant dose of green algae in one or two of the pots! This is what happens when you over-fertilise water plants!

The plants didn’t seem to mind, but I did! It wasn’t just the bright green water. I knew that the algae would reduce the amount of light and oxygen in the water. this would impact on the small native fish I had in the pots. These fish are useful to help eliminate mosquitoes from breeding in the water pots.

So, I changed the water, giving the obviously over-fertilised water to a few of my other plants

There are a few different ways of dealing with algae growing in your water pots. One is to change the water, spreading the contaminated water around other non-water plants.

Algal bloom from over-fertiliising

Another method is to treat the pots a dose of water clarifier. These can be purchased from your local nursery or pet shop. However I figure that it is easier, and less wasteful, to spread the over-fertilised water around a bit so as to not waste it

A final option, one I do not recommend is to pour the over-fertilised water down the drain and into the rainwater system.

The addition of over fertilised water is adding to the growth of noxious weeds in our waterways, so this in not a good option.

Happy gardening

from Rohanne, your Personal Garden Expert

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I was reading a blog on another website the other day about destructive bugs in the garden. Above all, I continue to be amazed at the number of gardeners that reach for Confidor, Bug Killa and other poisons to deal with unwelcome pests in their garden!

White cabbage moth

Being a gardener who is focussed on the Edible garden, I don’t want to spray my plants with anything that I don’t want to be putting into my body!

Even though I know that, Yes, there are “safe” withholding periods, and Yes, you can rinse the stuff off. However, I often eat foods that I pick while I am walking around my garden

Most importantly, the rinse off treatment doesn’t work for systemic poisons that have become part of the plant!

One of my go-to treatments for most bugs is Neem oil!

For those yet to discover this magical solution, Neem oil is created from the oil of Neem trees. I started using Neem oil a couple of years ago and I continue to be happy with how quickly and effectively it deals with many destructive bugs. Because this includes garden bugs such caterpillars, grasshoppers and scale!

Most importantly, this doesn’t negatively impact most of the good bugs in your garden. That is unless you want to attract butterflies into the garden, as its pretty non-selective in taking out all caterpillars! Just be sure that you don’t spray the Neem oil directly on to any of the good bugs like bees or hoverflies!

Chinese cabbage destroyed by caterpillars

As you can see from the photo, the white cabbage butterfly is probably my biggest challenge. And I’m not in a hurry to attract more of these into my garden! The good thing is that Neem oil deals with these critters effectively!

It is also one of the only solutions to the Blue Cycad moth, which can destroy a cycad plant in minutes!

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, Your Personal Garden Expert

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The post How to deal with Common Destructive Pests in the Garden appeared first on Delectable Garden.

tomatoes on the vine

I have a great crop of Black Russian tomatoes just about to ripen, some fantastic Russian Kale and some really yummy honey snap peas among my winter crops.

I find the biggest problem with growing peas is that you have to have to plant a huge crop, for some to even make it to the dinner plate! They are so sweet and yummy, I love eating them straight from the bush

Sugar snap peas with kale

I planted the Black Russian tomato as they perform really well in our climate. They have a great flavour and colour, as long as you don’t mind your tomatoes dark purple! In fact I love that we are finally celebrating the whole rainbow of colours that our tomatoes naturally appear in! Eat A Rainbow of Healthy Foods

My winter crop of green zebra tomatoes has thankfully kept me going for almost a year. But they are between crops at the moment, with me having picked all the ripe ones!

This has meant I have managed to avoid the worst of the store-bought tomatoes, which I find bland and tasteless!

Green zebra tomato

I really can’t wait for more home-grown tomatoes to ripen The tomatoes in the shops are a disgrace to the name. Not to mention the price

As my neighbour pointed out to me the other day, if you wanted to throw tomatoes at anyone, (as used to be done in the theatres of Shakespearean times) and you purchased these tomatoes from the supermarket, you’d brain the person, instead of squishing them with rotten tomatoes!

I hope that you are enjoying growing some of your own vegetables in your veggie patch.

Happy gardening

Rohanne, Your Edible Garden Guru

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