Daydreamer123

Send them my way, yum!
Well except the mint, I have quite enough of that!!!

Daydreamer123

Is it getting too much water?

I find my corriander goes to seed really quickly and I have to replace it often. I think that this is normal, and probably happens more often if you are buying from the nursery as the plants will already be quite old.

Why not try growing from seeds? Its much cheaper. I think its an annual, so its not meant to last very long. So having a few seedlings in the wings will probably help

kimandken

Hi, i have only bought coriander from the supermarket, (in the small tub) but only lasts about three days it goes very limp so i give it more water as it seems to dry out very quickly.... I'm stumped with it, but hey i will try seeds and see how i go.

Thanks Kim

Wol

There's such a huge variation in climate regions here that it's almost impossible to give or receive advice on plantings - for example, here the frosts during July/August will kill many non-hardy plants stone dead overnight.

What *is* pretty common is the sheer strength of the hydrophobic effect of the soil. If you have decent, organic soil then love it and care for it! My own soil - if that's not too strong a word for it - is hard, hydrophobic clay under a couple of inches or less of powdery dust. The clay is so hard it's almost ironstone: we planted over 300 natives and each hole bar a couple of dozen had to be bludgeoned into the ground with a 7' crowbar. Then you have the problem that natives in particular don't like their roots being in water - so either you don't water them and they die, or you water them and the water just sits in the hole - and they die! Natives are *not* the easy option!

Another thing that we find is that it's just not possible - here - to buy halfway decent compost: they don't allow peat so even the best compost is made from stuff like coir and other rubbish. No loam or anything that will contain water. So any cuttings or potting-ons or seedlings dry out in a matter of minutes.

And most of the potted plants that you buy to plant out are poor quality: no-one seems to care about them going potbound, or is embarrassed when they sell you almost bare-rooted plants that have been stuck in the pot that morning. With bits of polystyrene that bulks up the "soil" and kills the things after a couple of weeks.

If you can overcome the obstacles things *do* grow - and fast!

iamthecreaturefromuranus

That explains a lot. I often wondered why the compost here was so, for want of a better word, shit. I have bought bags of the cheap stuff in the past to bulk out some pots and it really did look and feel like timber yard sweepings. When I'm planting up pots now I use a 50/50 mix of Debco Pot and Tub Mix and Debco Seedling Mix. It makes it expensive to do but at least the plants don't curl up and die at the first bit of heat.... water crystals are a must.

lesleys

Whatever you plant you'll need to mulch around the plants to maintain moisture. Palms eat all the nutrients so feed everything regularly.

Frost shouldn't be a problem.

For 'instant' fruit tree try a papaya.

Do try natives. Grevilleas are beautiful and very varied - see here for all sorts of natives, photos http://asgap.org.au/gallery.html

Flowers - dianellas, bird of paradise, day lillies, kangaroo paws.

Succulents do very well in the ground and produce prolific flowers here - doddle to look after and easy to take cuttings.

morrisj3

Great site - thanks

BadgeIsBack

The boss is i/c of the garden front and back - and I provide some of the mechanical advantage in the veggie patch - but also try to outsource.

We struggle at times - we're a day off having 3 kids under 5.

However we dug a 100sq m veggie patch last year with a ditch - witch (sic). We use buckets to water - soon we will use aggie pipe. This year we are in the process of fencing and covering to protect from wildlife and birds.

We've discovered we're the envy of all the professionals in the street - we have beautiful soil and recent rain this spring has moistened it up a treat down to at least 700mm. There are people who devote 2 acres to vegetables across the road and their soil is terrible.

We use all sorts of stuff. Blood and bone, mushroom fertiliser. (I may not have the details correct here. I don't order it, I dig it in). We also use (and grow) green manure, and chicken pellets. We also have a compost tumbler.

Wol

Badge:

>>We've discovered we're the envy of all the professionals in the street - we have beautiful soil and recent rain this spring has moistened it up a treat down to at least 700mm.<<

Please sen (a) your address and (b) when you next plan to be away for a few days. I will bring my trailer and relieve you of some proper soil.