Gardening

[myhappyplace]

Gardening

Morning all. Gorgeous garden Sunny, makes you want to take a stroll.

Dizz, just so you understand the full military operation of keeping out scrub turkeys



This was the start of the "patch". Its kinda getting legs and growing...



The strawberries will grow over winter, we're in Queensland so the temperatures dont get low - although you'll still here me complain about cold . We've put water crystals in the organic mix their growing in but although the days are warm now we've had rain through the nights which is great for the growing season here. Summer is just too hot.

Apologies to any Undies for duplicate photos!

[tawnyfrog]

Gardening

Lovely thread. I think that once we have domestic pets, we're bound to lose some of the wild life. It's distressing but I guess it's nature at work.

Here's a section of mine last spring. I can only plant things which are relatively drought-tolerant as my only source of water is the rain and it doesn't rain that often ...

[sunshine_gg]

Gardening

Ohhhhhh myyyyy... Happy!!! :H
Holy crap! That is quite awesome, actually. Are those soaker hoses throughout there? And, what are scrub turkeys, please?

Froglet, can I come live with you? You have such a beautiful house and apparently in the appropriate setting, too! Just gorgeous.

Btw, the pictures I posted earlier are from last summer, obviously. There is very little visible at the moment. At least not without my glasses

[myhappyplace]

Gardening

Here you go Sunny

Wildlife QLD - Brush Turkeys

Bet you wish you didnt ask!

No soaker hoses, we're watering off tank by hand and havent got around to any great irrigation so far. That will come. Depending on the battle of the Scrub Turkey...

Tawny, your garden is stroll worthy also.

Everybody more pictures please? And those with organic gardens, are you using home made sprays like garlic? This is our first real shot at gardening organically so I'm really interested.

[sunshine_gg]

Gardening

:egad:

At first glance I thought "At least they're not quite as ugly as our wild turkeys".. but upon reading, they're NOTHING like our turkeys! Thank dawg. Uggh. I get the military compound now.

I do plant garlic with somewhat delicate plants, I've also cut up the stalks and put them in flower pots to discourage squirrels and skunks from digging up my stuff. The only home made 'insecticide' I ever made (from Chrysanthemums) really turned into more of a salad dressing for slugs and bugs than a deterrent.

I have a huge slug problem here.. if anyone has something tried and trusted... I'm all ears. Well, eyes.

P.S. I want flood lights. Gardening in the dark is so cumbersome.

[LVT25]

Gardening

Sunny, I think I read somewhere BEER for slugs?? That is one pest I don't have a problem with. Grasshoppers are my biggest enemy here. VERY difficult to take care of organically, but I have done it before.

OMG--the photos that everyone have posted are awesome!! I was wondering about scrub turkeys too, but I'm a little afraid to check them out!

I'm going to have to dig and see if I have any cool photos from last year. This year's veggie garden has not been started yet, our springs are too unpredictable--it is time though. But, my front yard renovation project--now that has been fun! Just not enough time in the day sadly.

[sunshinedaisies]

Gardening

sunshine_gg;1309841 wrote: *ahem*

Sunny-D... that's all well and good... but where are the pictures!??? :H

I can take them but can't post them - LOL ONE day I really will learn how to - I really really will!!!!

[DizzyBee]

Gardening

This is fast becoming my favourite thread, thanks guys for making it so much fun. Every time I come here I always end up laughing and being cheered up.

MB: What happened to Tigger? I read his old Topa Survey thread and it really helped me a lot. He seems like a cool guy.

Space: Did you know that Dandelions are incredibly good for you? You can pick them and make a tea, they have remarkable liver healing properties. I am NOT joking. The Health Benefits of Dandelions



Sometimes I think God planted weeds in the olden days to help people with medicine. Did you know that Stinging Nettle is the plant with the most nutritional value of them all? You can also make a soup of that, all the awful stingy bits fall off and become useless once you

I don?t know what to do with the nests hon, Sparrows used to nest in a hole in our roof so we patched up that bit. Our two cats also eat the babies and I?m like you, I take it personally. Perhaps give Google a try? Trust me, I have cried over many a birdie and even mouse but nature is cruel.

Sunny-G - So glad you are finally getting a bit of Spring. Its getting Winter here but I shouldn?t complain, we have wonderful long hot Summers here.

Sunny-D - I wrote a whole tutorial for your on the Topa page. It will really not take you longer than an hour to master. Perhaps make it your goal for the weekend. My carrots always come out so scrawny, once again I think it?s because our soil is to clay-ey. Of course I have added bucket loads of compost but a girl can only afford so much per year.

Haps ? Hole Moly! Sheez! I bow down to you for your tenacity. Those things are awful. I have always thought turkeys are one of the ugliest things in the world. They look prehistoric; kind of like they should have died out a while ago...I guess you wish they have. You know what, if I have some lazy person tell me that they have problems or no time etc. I may just show them your picture and tell them *that, my friend, is what someone does when they really want to garden* So hats off to you!

Our Winters also don?t get really cold, unless it snows on the surrounding mountains, then it touches around the 0 mark but thats not very often. But Winter just rushed in here and I feel a bit unprepared as its been raining for 7 days non-stop. Oh and I love that little orange statue thingie you have there! It?s so cute! What is it?

You can look at companion gardening ? that way you plant certain plants next to others to deter bugs. I would buy a book on it because it?s quite in-depth but here is something to get you started. Companion Planting

I also use a spray called Ludwig?s Insect Spray but I think its local. The ingredients are Canola oil, Garlic extract , Pyrethrins (from crysanthenum). You can make your own spray though. I use lots of garlic in mine and then add a bit of chilli and a bit of canola oil. Some people say add a drop or two of dish washing liquid to help it stick to the leaf?s surface but I think the oil has the same purpose. DO NOT use too much of these two though as it will otherwise harm your plants. Take a look here: Make your own natural bug sprays

Tawny, your garden is absolutely beautiful. I hope you make full use of it by having lots of picnics in there.

LVT, you can use beer for slugs but then I may end up drinking the beer before they do. At a recent talk the guy said just to put a lot up a big bucket or even just plastic planters upside down (and put something on the side to help them be able to get in) and the snails will come settle in there overnight. They love settling in quiet shady areas. After a few days you can just scoop them out. Otherwise wait for a cold and rainy day and pick them off one by one. Unfortunately I do kill the snails in a tin full of salt... I don?t know what else to do with them, I very much doubt my neighbour will like me throwing them in HIS well manicured garden.



We have a nice patio area outside, it?s a pity about the cement though. I did clean the green bits off though but am too lazy to take a new photo and I very much doubt Max-amaui would pose for another shot.

So around the corner to the right we have a big barbeque. The cottage was intended as a cooking school so the place is perfect for entertaining, a big open plan lounge and even a pizza oven. Very rustic.

The area you see is where I start all my seedlings and little plants. The shade netting helps in the Summer but in winter the concrete gets very slippery. We have a huge vine that grows right over the shade netting and used to have a cool hammock to chill in right where I stood to take this photo.

That wine barrel you see with all the green is filled to the brim with lilies. Crap, I forget the name now, but will come back later and tell you what it is. They are really beautiful in Spring. To the right of it is a ?air plant? it grows on air and water, no soil, it?s quite a weird little thing. Above the cat you will see a white skeleton, that is my brother?s weird sense of humour... I never quite got that one.

Cheerio!
:flower:

[myhappyplace]

Gardening

Dizz I love your posts and your patio. Thanks for the link on the sprays. Just off to sort dinner but will post later. pssst...I actually feel sorry for the scrub turkeys and quite like the little beasts, its just Hubs who mutters to himself and builds the "structures" to keep 'em out. And the little orange beast in the garden? Its a dog...

[DizzyBee]

Gardening

Thanks Haps,

:HI knew that had to be a mans work :H

We don't have Turkeys but we do have other big birds and pheasants that come into our gardens. They are quite nasty big birds who ruin small plants in their search for worms.

Hadeda:



They are OK overall as they don't really eat plants but they do scare dogs, they are about the size of a turkey, and they make a loud noise. They also sometimes come into the house and leave big piles of poop everywhere

:flower)

[sunshinedaisies]

Gardening

DizzyBee;1310229 wrote: Thanks Haps,

:HI knew that had to be a mans work :H

We don't have Turkeys but we do have other big birds and pheasants that come into our gardens. They are quite nasty big birds who ruin small plants in their search for worms.

Hadeda:



They are OK overall as they don't really eat plants but they do scare dogs, they are about the size of a turkey, and they make a loud noise. They also sometimes come into the house and leave big piles of poop everywhere

:flower)

I LOVE seeing everyones gardens and the pics of strange looking critters that I didn't even know existed!!!!! yes Diz - I really will try and master the art of posting pics - of course, some of us work outside the home and won't be home at the weekend!! but I really will try and do it........

off to get food ready for work,

Love, Sun XX

[DizzyBee]

Gardening

Really, Sunny-D? So, its been true all along? :wow:
I just forgot you worked shifts hon. Tell you what, if there is anything you are dying to show us in the next 7 days, you can email me some small resolution pics and I'll upload them for you so long. Same goes for you Space, oh damn, or anyone else. But only for 7 days and only if you promise to learn how to do it yourselves.

I found a very good Photobucket picture tutorial written by Stirly Girly:

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f7...wol-47530.html

"Most of us use Photobucket to post our pictures here. Rags has asked me to post this for any members who wish to use Photobucket and don't know how. Here are the instructions I've sent to a few members to get them started....

Rags made an excellent point about opening a new web page besides the one you're logged into MWO with and working with PB on that page.

It's as easy as pie to download pics from Photobucket. Just go to their site (.com) Along the top is a blue bar with a white space on the right side that says "search images". You can just write in what you're looking for - "congratulations", "have a great weekend", cute puppies, red cars, whatever. Click on the search button next to it and the first page of pictures will pop up. This is the easy way to post the pictures.

If there's something you want to post there, put your cursor on the picture and four bars will pop up below it. Click on the bottom one that is the IMG code and it will automatically copy the picture. Go to the message box here at MWO where you want to post the picture and simply right click on your mouse and then paste it. It's that simple.

There is another method using the image icon - that's the little yellow square at the top of the message box that shows a mountain. But you can do it my way and it's much easier. Then, to see how the photo will appear, click on the "preview message" bar at the bottom of the message box and it will show you how your message will look.

If the picture you want to post is too big you can edit it but you have to sign up - it's free, you don't have to pay to join in order to do the easy stuff. Then you can resize, crop, add text, whatever. There are lots of options there. Just read all the different boxes that come up.

And after you've signed up, you can upload pictures from your computer to your file there. Just make sure you secure any photos such as family ones that you wouldn't want others to have access to. They can be copied from your files to someone else's.

I would suggest that before uploading pictures from your computer to Photobucket, that you resize them to around 600 by 800. That's a good size, doesn't take long to upload and can be posted here at MWO.

To upload your pictures, just click on the green "upload now" bar and you're off and running. I usually go through my pictures first and note the dates so it's easier to find them if I want to upload several photos at a time - you have that option in the upload part.

Again, before you post the picture or pictures you want to, click on the preview post button at the bottom of the message window to see how your pics will look.

If I can be of any more help, just PM me."

:flower:

[leciejo]

Gardening


HA! Thanks, Dizzy Meet Cooper, AKA...DannaDawg

[DizzyBee]

Gardening

Ahhh, very beautiful dog, is he/she good to your lovely garden?

[leciejo]

Gardening

Thanks, He loves it out here as do I (when it's not covered in snow that is).