It's tragic, and it's running out of control. It starts with a swelling idea in the head. Within two days of the infection, it appears in your throat and causes you to say "now that we are stuck at home in uncertain times, maybe it would be a good idea to make a veggie garden." By next day, you will be putside, sweating and suffering from sore palms and a bad back. Once you start thinking of compost, your doom is sealed.

There are only two cures - move to a flat and suffer Cabin Fever, or catch Coronavirus ASAP so you can spend time lying in bed instead of sweating and cursing with a shovel and planting mix. I think they are both better than dealing with worm poo.

Gardening is quite frustrating. For a while I've had good results but in the last year or so I'm struggling. These little bugs known as pill bugs keep on eating my plants, especially when the seeds shoot up. These bugs are actually crustaceans that somehow worked out how to live on land.

My garden beds are home made compost that invariably have many of these bugs in them. They hide during the day and come out at night. I've seen them attacking a small plant, cutting it down like a tree feller cuts down a tree. They then consume the plant. I'm trying to remove them physically but it doesn't make any difference.

Online people say these bugs don't attack living plants. They are wrong.

I think I got lucky. I moved into a new house a few months ago and bought some tomato plants. They are doing well, but I fear that the weather will turn cold and that will be the end of them, and there is only so much attention 3 plants can get!

Why couldn't Covid19 happen when it was windy every day in summer... oh God why have you forsaken me! New kites too!

Hahaha, only yesterday we made the outline on the lawn where I'm cutting in the new veggie patch.

It's painful just thinking of cutting out such nice lawn. Does anyone need patches of prime Sir Walter?

Gardening ,noooo tried that once ,everything died so left to misses.However Today wash car ,take down venetians and wash . Wed mow lawns. Thurs. drive straight to boat ,do not stop, do not go past whitworths, hop on go sailing solo for a few hours ahhhh.

Got a few kilos of butternuts just about ready to harvest from a self sown vine. Pumpkin seeds don't get destroyed by composting.
When they come off, broad beans and snow peas go in for a winter crop

Bucketload of cherry toms.

Select to expand quote

Harrow said..
Hahaha, only yesterday we made the outline on the lawn where I'm cutting in the new veggie patch.

It's painful just thinking of cutting out such nice lawn. Does anyone need patches of prime Sir Walter?

Yeah, can you just ship it to me in Perth? I need some.

got mine up 2 weeks ago... harvest is in 3 years, pain is still dicipating.

Avocado:


Citrus/Herbs:


Did a lawn patch too:

Was in Bunnies today, thought I'd get some broad beans in for winter as per usual. But not a vege seed to be seen - just empty racks - the locusts have been. Was funny to hear that there is also a run on guns and ammo. We're all preppers now.

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..
got mine up 2 weeks ago... harvest is in 3 years, pain is still dicipating.

Avocado:


Citrus/Herbs:


Did a lawn patch too:

it looks like you've grown avocado from seed. Good luck with that. Unless you grow from graft, most avocados are duds. If you do pull it off, you can patent your variety and start making some serious coin

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..
got mine up 2 weeks ago... harvest is in 3 years, pain is still dicipating.

Avocado:


Citrus/Herbs:


Did a lawn patch too:

I was annoyed to find out that Mango trees only take a few years to fruit in WA. I have had one in NSW for more than 10 years and its still not grown much and definitely not fruiting. A work colleague in WA had his fruit in the 2nd or 3rd year.

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

Select to expand quote

FormulaNova said..
I was annoyed to find out that Mango trees only take a few years to fruit in WA. I have had one in NSW for more than 10 years and its still not grown much and definitely not fruiting. A work colleague in WA had his fruit in the 2nd or 3rd year.

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

Just discovered a mango tree hanging over the side fence of a house nearby and into the street. Loads of large fruit not being touched by the owner. Unfortunately, the white cockies know all about it and eat a big hole in each one.

You'd be very lucky if the mangos in Sydney get ripe. They are a tropical fruit. But you can make green mango chutney if you have enough motivation

Select to expand quote

Mobydisc said..
Gardening is quite frustrating. For a while I've had good results but in the last year or so I'm struggling. These little bugs known as pill bugs keep on eating my plants, especially when the seeds shoot up. These bugs are actually crustaceans that somehow worked out how to live on land.

My garden beds are home made compost that invariably have many of these bugs in them. They hide during the day and come out at night. I've seen them attacking a small plant, cutting it down like a tree feller cuts down a tree. They then consume the plant. I'm trying to remove them physically but it doesn't make any difference.

Online people say these bugs don't attack living plants. They are wrong.

Get more heat in you pile by watering and turning regularly, alternatively spread the compost in a thin layer on a tarp in direct sunlight and leave it there to dry. The bugs will bail out quickly.

You poor bastards. You've got the bug bad, and you're sinking fast.

There's no hope. Next summer you'll be sitting around thinking "oh damn, a perfect seabreeze just when I wanted to spray my choko vine".

living in NQ i have unfortunately had a mango tree (or multiple) in almost every house i've lived in untill now. They suck. They drop heaps of leaves and purposley kill the grass underneath them, full of greenants, and the bats get all the fruit beofre you get near them.

Select to expand quote

Chris 249 said..
You poor bastards. You've got the bug bad, and you're sinking fast.

There's no hope. Next summer you'll be sitting around thinking "oh damn, a perfect seabreeze just when I wanted to spray my choko vine".

I got all excited when I bought my first house and went nuts with tomatoes. It was only a few months later that I was getting more than 16 tomatoes a day that I realised I had overdone it. What ended up putting an end to it though was that the possums learned that they liked tomatoes and would eat a little bit out of every one.

There is something therapeutic about gardening.

Select to expand quote

FormulaNova said..

I was annoyed to find out that Mango trees only take a few years to fruit in WA. I have had one in NSW for more than 10 years and its still not grown much and definitely not fruiting. A work colleague in WA had his fruit in the 2nd or 3rd year.

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

I put in a couple of avocado trees a few years ago, no sign of fruit yet. They're a long term prospect.

If anyone's thinking of putting in veggie beds, do yourself a favour and google "Wicking beds". They are the best thing ever. No really. Do it. They're easy to make, require watering only once a week even in the height of summer (where your normal garden bed needs it every day) and the results are outstanding.

Select to expand quote

nebbian said..

FormulaNova said..

I was annoyed to find out that Mango trees only take a few years to fruit in WA. I have had one in NSW for more than 10 years and its still not grown much and definitely not fruiting. A work colleague in WA had his fruit in the 2nd or 3rd year.

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

I put in a couple of avocado trees a few years ago, no sign of fruit yet. They're a long term prospect.

If anyone's thinking of putting in veggie beds, do yourself a favour and google "Wicking beds". They are the best thing ever. No really. Do it. They're easy to make, require watering only once a week even in the height of summer (where your normal garden bed needs it every day) and the results are outstanding.

Avocado production is tricky business , every farmer has a theory as to what went wrong or why his/hers didn't.
There's a chap up norff who has an interesting strategy , placing desired rootstock variety ' reed ,guatemalan etc ' in a minimally disturbed hole as a complete avocado , about 20 units , peel and all still unripe .
Covers the hole surface with compost and waits patiently for germination . As time goes by he then selects the strongest plant to perform a graft on and removes the rest.
His grafting technique uses pre performed 'cuttings' in 8inch pots , leans the potted/established cutting against the desired part of the sprouted root stock and performs a living graft. Which of course has the highest chance of survival as both plants are still growing.

This was done many years ago with no mortality and has the unique advantage of early cropping , hand chosen specimens with an undisturbed root system.
It's funny how you can lean on a 2-3year old grafted avo and the thing falls over , yet try and pull out a newly sprouted avocado sappling from the ground ?!
Yummy looking broccoli
Wicking in general is an interesting technique . Netafim now have .5L/hr emitters which are fantastic for really dialing in your requirements if you don't have abundant water .
I've been trialing them in pots with various plants and great results so far with buffered CoCo

Select to expand quote

nebbian said..

FormulaNova said..

I was annoyed to find out that Mango trees only take a few years to fruit in WA. I have had one in NSW for more than 10 years and its still not grown much and definitely not fruiting. A work colleague in WA had his fruit in the 2nd or 3rd year.

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

I put in a couple of avocado trees a few years ago, no sign of fruit yet. They're a long term prospect.

If anyone's thinking of putting in veggie beds, do yourself a favour and google "Wicking beds". They are the best thing ever. No really. Do it. They're easy to make, require watering only once a week even in the height of summer (where your normal garden bed needs it every day) and the results are outstanding.

Wow zero pests, how did you do that?

Queenslanders use the same setup for their Herbs.

Select to expand quote

Cobra said..

Wow zero pests, how did you do that?

Strong plants, that's it.

I know why you're asking -- I've tried growing broccoli many times, and usually end up with a big ball of swarming black insects all over it. But this time we used really good quality soil, mulched with straw, kept the wicking beds topped up with water, and the plants did the rest all by themselves :-)

No chemicals used.

Select to expand quote

nebbian said..

FormulaNova said..

I was annoyed to find out that Mango trees only take a few years to fruit in WA. I have had one in NSW for more than 10 years and its still not grown much and definitely not fruiting. A work colleague in WA had his fruit in the 2nd or 3rd year.

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

I put in a couple of avocado trees a few years ago, no sign of fruit yet. They're a long term prospect.

If anyone's thinking of putting in veggie beds, do yourself a favour and google "Wicking beds". They are the best thing ever. No really. Do it. They're easy to make, require watering only once a week even in the height of summer (where your normal garden bed needs it every day) and the results are outstanding.

+1 on that one! They rock.

Select to expand quote

psychojoe said..
it looks like you've grown avocado from seed. Good luck with that. Unless you grow from graft, most avocados are duds. If you do pull it off, you can patent your variety and start making some serious coin

Na, all of my small trees are graphed.

FormulaNova said..

Select to expand quote

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

Supposedly the avo (hass) needs cool shaded + well drained until mature... mine only gets morning sun and seems pretty happy.

Only things I've grown so far are Bassil, Tomatoes, Lemons and Oranges... I reckon they cost me about 30x what store bought costs, but the oranges and lemons are SOOO good, tomatoes OK, but just 4 of them after a years work.

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..

psychojoe said..
it looks like you've grown avocado from seed. Good luck with that. Unless you grow from graft, most avocados are duds. If you do pull it off, you can patent your variety and start making some serious coin

Na, all of my small trees are graphed.

FormulaNova said..

It seems they need long hot dry summers to develop like this. Maybe your avocado will be the same?

Supposedly the avo (hass) needs cool shaded + well drained until mature... mine only gets morning sun and seems pretty happy.

Only things I've grown so far are Bassil, Tomatoes, Lemons and Oranges... I reckon they cost me about 30x what store bought costs, but the oranges and lemons are SOOO good, tomatoes OK, but just 4 of them after a years work.

4 tomatoes after a year? I bought seedlings from Bunnings a couple of months ago and have gotten one small Roma from one of them, and the other two are putting out heaps of fruit, just not big enough yet.

I repotted these twice and I was surprised at how much the roots had grown from when I repotted them the first time. Maybe that's a problem?

Select to expand quote

Marvin said..
Was funny to hear that there is also a run on guns and ammo. We're all preppers now.

No such thing as a run on guns and ammo in W.A. - it is better called "smart buying".
We have learnt the hard way that you have to buy whatever you can get your hands on as soon as it is available.
For serious service rifle shooters , "exotics" like .303 can be frustrating as ammo supply is so ruddy inconsistent.
Reloading is the only way to get consistency, but components are just as hard to find - I have even considered trying to get projectiles CNC machined from solid brass - but don't know any local machinists with the right tooling for the job.
The last powder order into W.A. was supposed to be 5+ tonnes, only 1 1/2 arrived.
The powder is made in Australia - but most of it goes to the USA, and with the Americans on a buying spree the priority will be to fill the USA warehouses and shops before we get a look in, prices have been rising over 10% every year, but with the current exchange rates, we are expecting a minimum price increase of 30% very soon.

Love this guy's channel...

Bunnings here at Gosford made a daily sales record of $1 million in one day no paint left at all

Off topic, but I've been deemed essential so my kind is working as per usual. Aaaanyway, am watching some tv for the first time in a while and already I've noticed how our lives have changed in the way that I feel unnerved when I see peeps on the box in close proximity or hugging. Inside I'm screaming, " get some distance between you you idiots!".

Select to expand quote

Buster fin said..
Off topic, but I've been deemed essential so my kind is working as per usual. Aaaanyway, am watching some tv for the first time in a while and already I've noticed how our lives have changed in the way that I feel unnerved when I see peeps on the box in close proximity or hugging. Inside I'm screaming, " get some distance between you you idiots!".

P O R N just isn't the same...