fired up 2 retain title

Good onya Richard...you did us proud.

Well done mate! Just found this thread - well saw it earlier but just read it through. How big is your vege garden(s)?

Onya Richard, I have volunteered for the past few rose shows and it is nice to see what goes on to put on such a big show too and you get to meet nice peoples with the same interests as you

Too right Cheryl,i love it also.

Dan the vegie and berrie garden is about 1/4 acre and orchard of about 1/2

Bought one Rhododendron and one Azalea with the prize money today.
I want to tell ya about the garden visit today, the garden i went to see was,well,i dont like to criticise other gardeners for giving it a go to much ,but it was not a good garden,she plants by the moon and everything was small and yellow. I find it sad that there were so many people there were saying to me \"isn\'t this great garden\" Are veggie gardening standards that low now among the urban fraternity now that what i saw today is accepted as been of high standard.
What i saw today was a woman who\'s a ultra greenie/hippy/purist who doesn\'t believe in bring in outside resources/composts etc.
New Zealand soils are very low in selenium.boron,magnesium and low in others,because of continual tectonic plate upheavals meaning that 95% of NZ landmass has been heavily leached of such elements to the oceans and that i believe that we need to recycle these by bringing in seaweed or even spreading low levels of seawater to replenish these elements.These people are doing more harm to their long term health with such a gardening practice that they are better to just go and buy it from the supermarket.

There that\'s my ramble for the night

Yeps some of the greenies go a bit far for my likings Richard

I think we are singing fro the same sheet of music Richard re soil and how to treat it.

Its really good to hear our 2 male members chatting and agreeing on the
treatment of soils.And they are so right.

That's good to hear Dan that you think the same.

Firstly i dont know how i got so many of these( \\\ )in my previous post,there's been one of two odd things happening here over the weekend.

Has anyone over the ditch had there soil tested for selenium,boron,magnesium etc?,i know Aussie that soils can vary greatly depending on where you are.I will often buy Australian grain for bread making because of the higher levels,then again most NZ organic growers do add these elements unlike most of the large scale commercial growers.

never Richard, dont even have a PH tester

I haven't had mine tested either Richard. The way the back yard gardeners seem to go is to investigate if the plants are not thriving or showing symptoms of some thing wrong. Usually it can be identified if there's a shortage of minerals by the actual symptoms, and the appropriate one can be added to the soil. Trace elements are also found in some fertilisers.

soil?
what soil?
it's nothing but coastal plain sand over here.
can't grow a thing in it.

i grow mostly in containers where i have (mostly) created the soil with grass clippings, manures, and what-not.
yes...i try to remember to use trace elements (must remember that today, actually!)

I haven't but if I grew vegies on the scale that you do Richard, I would especially on a commercial scale. I know what you're getting at with that garden you visited. I'm not one to chuck in heaps of artificial fertilisers but if the plants were lacking something I would add what's needed. I do use lots of organic goodies like... manure, compost, etc before I start the vegies, and use an organic plant food to feed them - this one
http://www.katekfertilizers.com.au/super-growth-fertilizer.htm
the plants love it. The main reason I don't have as much in the vegie garden as I should is just lack of time.

We haven't had our soil tested fore those Richard though I do own a pH test kit and use it often and its usually 6.5..I also give the yellowing looking plants a shower of Yates Chelated Iron that greens them up good and use trace elements sometimes I have written before about the rubbish that came with the block as the locals used it as the tip for the 20 years before we bought it 9 years ago and its still not right but we are getting there..

Moon planting did not work for me either, often organic fertilizers dont either so occasionally my roses get a spoon full of Nitrophoska Blue next time round when they are looking a little sick as believe me those organic ones dont work, not even Blood and Bone with added potash..

Actually we were looking at the Roses yesterday when I was watering them and I decided of they dont start looking better by Spring I am going to get Tony to rip them all out, they are too much trouble here between the bugs and grubs and diseases this is not a good area for roses, even the so called good ones for this climate are not doing at all well this past 6 months..

I feel its time for them to go.. Sad for me though as I have tried really hard..

Quote :

Actually we were looking at the Roses yesterday when I was watering them and I decided of they dont start looking better by Spring I am going to get Tony to rip them all out, they are too much trouble here between the bugs and grubs and diseases this is not a good area for roses, even the so called good ones for this climate are not doing at all well this past 6 months..

I feel its time for them to go.. Sad for me though as I have tried really hard..

**********************

That's a shame MA, but if they're not giving you pleasure any more I guess you have to be tough. This year has been a bad one for roses everywhere, maybe they'll come good next year ???

I've never soil tested other than a PH test that showed that the whole property is 6.7,which is good as i dont have to add lime.

When we bought this place eight years ago knowing then that it would be deficient in selenium and boron, i just went ahead and spread these elements over the garden area which i wont need to redo again as these levels will be maintained by the four trailer loads of seaweed that i add to the compost every year.

Yes I know Girls but the money and time I have wasted on these 40 + roses mostly standards I could have bought a good piece of Canon L Series glass and taken better pics of the things that do look and preform good. They are now starting to get scale and I cannot cope with that even one of the two Crepuscule over the Arch is getting it as well..

Yes that pH Richard will just about grow anything..Thats the way to go putting it into the compost.

I would be happy to take them of your hands, the standards ect... and pay the postage and packaging on a few

Will get back to you on that Cheryl as they are starting to get scale .. And you certainly dont need that..

no thanks, plenty of time before Winter I guess but either way not fussed

We will see..

goody goody gum drops

that's really sad, MA.
so sorry that it's pumpkins that seem to do best for you.

Yes I think you are right Tessa..
I don't even plant them they are still the vines from 2007

M A Seeing as you dont get heavy enough frosts to kill off the vines,how long would they keep growing for?