Something else that has benefited my garden over the long term is the collection of seeds. After two years of growing black eye peas and okra and being sure to keep seeds from each these two plants have no problems with germination and growing to produce an abundance. They have become accustomed to my particular soil and climate.
First off, you're speaking my language with this video! I work long hours and my friends are always shocked to hear I have a large garden. I think they picture that traditional style with neat rows, but I don't have time for that. I do a lot of the things you suggest, like letting some plants go to seed and allowing edible natives grow, but direct sowing is definitely something I'm doing next year. My seedlings failed, largely because I didn't have the time to baby them, and I ended up buying plants this year, which is considerably more expensive I will underline something you mentioned in passing when you were talking about your kitchen garden: start small and expand over time. I think a lot of people get so excited, plan a large garden, and quickly get overwhelmed
Yay! 🌿🌿🌿 Absolutely, I like to go with the flow. Do more of what works and less of what feels forced. It’s much more enjoyable that way too! My strategy is very much to get a good base of perennials and then fill in the gaps with annuals. I think people often want quick fixes or to get to the end asap so go all in. But it’s so much more about the journey and learning 🌱🥕🌸🥬
I had lots of volunteer Romaine lettuce pop in my garden this year. It was so good that now I am saving some of the Romaine plants to go to seed so I can save the seeds and plant more and share some seeds too.
Once, several years ago, I planted a sunflower. Now sunflowers pop up all over my garden. Some I eat. Some I use as mulch. This year basil has started to show up.
tip from Germany from a community garden *, but backed up with experience from Spain (which also have Mediterranean climate like Perth): the lady that had lived in Spain and had a vegetable garden watered only once a week (she had an irrigation system) but then deeply. She had learned to abadon the habit of daily watering. This way her plants were forced to develop deep roots, and the water deeper in the soil is also much more safe from evaporation. (The only time one must water more is when transplanting seedlings, or after direct sowing). With well trained plants you can leave for a few days and do not depend on friends for watering your plants or checking if the irrigation system works (and if in doubt, and they water manually they will drown them, so that can cause damage as well). Just in case the irrigation system does not work, your plants will not fall over immediately (the friend from Spain stressed that, so obviously she had suffered such damage). The German gardener (a friend) had a bed in a community project. Her "bed neighbour" babied her carrots and watered them very regularily. My friend packed a thick layer of straw as mulch on the carrot bed (I assume after they had sprouted) and very rarely watered them (less then 5 times all summer). Come harvesting time, she had nice long _straight_ tap roots and a very good yield. Her neighbour had tap roots that were crooked and that had grown at the surface. Of course - her plants had been trained to expect constant watering from the diligent gardener. Not only did she have a lot of hassle with the carrots, but her harvest was not even as good as that of the lazy gardener. Carrots were not as large and much harder to clean.
Great tips about the reduced watering! I try to practice that method as well, but my husband's obsessed with frequently watering. He kept sneaking frequent, heavy waterings to my garden bed last year- causing many of my tomatoes to soak up too much water and burst and rotted some of my potatoes. We have clay soil. You only need ocassional, deep waterings otherwise the plants will drown!
I had potatoes and tomatoes and marigolds self sow this year (I must have not gotten all my potatoes from the ground last harvest!) in my front yard, and in my back garden bed, which I'd not planted anything in yet (was throwing in kitchen scraps and plant matter to try and revitalize the heavy clay soil), 2 potato plants started themselves from kitchen scraps. Now that was an exciting discovery! We also let some carrots go to seed and have lots of carrot seedlings in one area. Such fun!
Rainbow chard, silver beet, Italian parsley, nasturtiums and more are a few varieties that now regularly come back each year. I originally just left a few of each to go to seed ( and as they can become unsightly this is quite hard) and I’m now rewarded each year with a prolific amount of each of these delicious foods.
love my chives popping up each year & potatoes..I fill up all my empty milk & juice containing & leave them under my bushes, 4easy watering where my hose does not reach.its part of my everyday ritual & my kids like carrying them all out.
I throw papaya, melon and pumpkin scraps onto my veggie gardens. When the resulting seedlings are a few inches high, I pull them up around my veggies as green mulch. Cheers from Queensland.
Compost with lots of walnuts (from the neighbour). Old material in a bin, dry and not enough carbon rich material, and not enough oxygen so nothing happened. Made a heap outside the bin this spring and turned the heap this fall (which has partially broken down, we had enough rough brown material that it got enough air, despite no turning). I found at least 6 sprouted walnuts. So I will pot them tomorrow and advertise them for free online. I would like to have a walnut tree but we do not have the space !
Your garden is looking fantastic! I watched some of the old vids you have made so many amazing changes to your garden over the years, it looks so good. You have given me a new perspective to planting some extra seeds in the areas where I have gaps this seems to be working really well… I have lots of garlic and onions growing in my main beds. I have some smaller beds with cali and silverbeet growing, i between I’ve planted carrots and the odd onions 😂 that’s to you 😊💙
Hi Holly, i wanted to put some garden beds on my front lawn like you did, but i'm worried if the grass will grow through and colonise the garden beds... have you had any issues with that in your experience? Thanks! Growing in Perth too!
Hi Holly! Love to see what you are up to at the moment as I too live in Perth (Duncraig to be exact). I'm always looking at what needs to be done in the garden. Are you feeding your perennials at the moment? I ask as the weather has still been quite warm and wondered if they'll still absorb fertiliser?
Hi Laurene! I usually feed my gardens well at the end of the season/ change of season and also liquid seaweed every month or so when I remember. I’m doing cuttings from a lot of my perennials at the moment and getting all my winter seeds growing (in the garden and a few seed trays) 🌱
The ultimate irony of this is that it's a "premiere video" for "time poor people". I don't think it's exactly contradictory, but the congruency is tickling my funny bone.
I’ve only tried the black beauty, they were looking super healthy, flowers and then nothing so strange/. I’ve tried in pots and the year before in a garden bed and nada 😂 fickle Melbourne weather probably because everything else grows amazing
@@thirstymercfan Hi I’m bayside in Vic. I’ve had success with growing three or four tsakoniki eggplants (based on google images - from memory I think they were Diggers heirloom seedlings) in one pot. Huge harvest for a pot and only a few plants. Lots of compost and worm casting, plenty or water and plenty of sun. My surrounding pots were mostly herbs. Worked better for me than the plants I previously grew in the ground. I hope you have some good luck with your next eggplant harvest!
@@justlittleolme7977 thanks for that feedback, Im a diggers member so I will look out for these seeds when I go there next and start all my seeds in September. Ill give it another go in pots and give them some worm wee, fingers crossed I get some eggplants 😆
spot on Holly ! These are all brilliant tips borne out by your experience (and probably other gardeners like yours truly). About automatic watering, I found I didn't want city water as it seems to kill some plants. I rigged up a grey water and urine distribution line mixer. I use KOH home made soap, and a urine fermentation tank in which I put old bones, supplying natural NPK. It has got me fantastic results with leafy veg. I find growing greens less trouble. Roots more work. There is huge diversity which need no upkeep. My no work greens are amaranth, chard, Romaine lettuce, climbing spinach, water spinach, malabar spinach plus a bunch of weeds I eat like nettles, pig weed, opur local sorrel Oxalis pes caprae and little Robert. I have not made a habit of eating scurvy weed which is really invasive here but apparently much loved in Australia. Any hints on how to make scurvy weed's texture more appetizing ? I'm a garden blogger, (greenidiom.com) don't do video yet, so lazy gardening is a big topic for me. Low maintenance gardening is so important for people in cities, where the growing skills tend to have been lost, and people are not at home most of the day.
