Wednesday 4 January 2012

Using whats around you.

New Raised Garden Planters


Concrete Stormwater pipe offcuts
The First of our raised planter chambers arrived last week, thanks to BMD group and Dart West we were able to save these from their ultimate fate whatever it may have been (recycler or crusher i guess), i also have to add thanks to Funnells Electical for helping with the unloading process as these are as heavy as they look. Measuring between 400mm and 600mm in diameter these pipes will be the perfect containment system for some of our more aggressive herbs, in particular the Mint family, these will also feature as part of our accessible garden, the Gardens are extremely thankful for these, several more will arrive over coming weeks with different uses planned as well, so watch this space for updates.

Homemade exculsion bags, compostible as well



Exclusion bags for Tomatoes

Forever on the look out to find ways to save money and beat the bugs, i thought i would try these, now after 2 seasons of growing tomatoes with zero fruit fly control i am sold, there are certainly a few commercial options out there, but they say the simple things often work the best and for me it was the kids sandwich bags and our clothes pegs, once the tomatoes have started to develop i cover the truss with a brown paper bag and peg the top, rainwater doesnt have a massive effect on the bags and they seem to last long enough, guaging when to put the bags on can be a bit tricky as you want to know roughly how big the tomatoes will grow, i have used this method successfully with Siberia toms, Tigerellas, and Green Zebras, although the latter are certainly larger and can only fit 4 or 5 toms in a bags so a truss may need 2 bags. When it comes to Oxeheart, you can allways put extra bags on if they split the bags on you.



Giant Bamboo at the Spirit House Yandina - Sunshine Coast,
not exactly perfect for beans, but construction they are used overseas.
  Bamboo Canes for whatever

After travelling back from the South Coast one day i recalled a stand of feral bamboo in a local gorge, not wanting to pay an exorbitant amount for tomato or bean canes i decided to harvest my own canes, i ended up chopping down canes up to about 6m long, after stripping any growth i left them to dry for a few weeks and sealed the ends with a bitumen paint used for grafting. Once dried out somewhat i cut them down to a manageable size and had an assortment of canes between 6 and 12 feet, the canes made a great pyramid for kids pick beans from under neath and supported my tomatoes to well over 7ft, and the best part was they cost me nothing.



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