Growing your own?
 

Just wondering if anyone bothers to grow there own fruits and vegetables, and if so how hard or easy is it in the Australian climate/soil?

Re: Growing your own?
 

It really depends on where in Australia you're talking about. You can grow most things in most places. In Perth (where I am) however, you can't grow stuff like apples, as it doesn't get cold enough to set the fruit. Pretty much anything else is a breeze though. We bury kitchen scraps in the garden and find things like pumpkin and tomatoes self-sprout.

The main gardening issue in Australia generally speaking is water scarcity (eg restrictions on use of sprinklers etc in summer and/or winter).

Re: Growing your own?
 

Thanks for that info, and yes i meant Perth area (sorry):o My husband grows lovely home toms here in the UK, and was wondering if it's as easy over there:)

Re: Growing your own?
 

Yep, extremely easy. Especially the miniature ones, they don't get fruit fly or anything! They're apparently a bit more difficult to grow in places like Sydney as they can develop some kind of rot due to the higher humidity levels, but in Perth you won't have any problems. Just keep the water up to them :)

Re: Growing your own?
 

Dont know about Perth but easy to do in Canberra (except for the frost sensitive stuff). Water is the big issue here and we have a water tank for garden watering because of water restrictions (now lifted for a while thank goodness). Mulch is a must.

Re: Growing your own?
 

We grow most of our vegetables but it can be frustrating: the pests are everywhere! Hopefully, the weeks of hard frosts we've just had will have killed some of them.

Our soil is the big problem - it's hydrophobic in the extreme, is almost ironstone in hardness and has no nutrient value - and Australian compost as bought is rubbish. (No peat - they use ground-up bark or coir, with no added loam. It doesn't hold water at all and provides no anchorage for the plants.)

Re: Growing your own?
 

Sure do, well, the OH is the green fingered one ... judging by the elaborate mains connection out to one of our sheds then previous owners also liked a bit of home-grown produce ... I wonder if it's connected to our supply or the one across the road?

Re: Growing your own?
 

Pretty much my experience of giving it a go as well. Only tried it on a small scale, fruit trees mainly, and have more or less given up on eating the fruit that survives the cockies, as fruit fly is endemic in the area. Lemons with added maggots is a bit of a turn off.

Re: Growing your own?
 

I have a Mango & Avocado tree, Passionfruit, chillis, and a few herbs at the mo. I did used to grow more but it took up to much time. I grew watermelon once, never again the garden looked like something from Day of the Triffids!

Re: Growing your own?
 

When I first moved to Sydney I was feeling a little home sick and managed to get hold of some traditional UK seeds such as runner beans, carrots and beetroot. Also got some Dahlias, marigolds and sweet peas. I tried to recreate an English garden in suburban Sydney.

The runner beans never set properly, the flowers just dropped off in the hot conditions. The Dahlias and sweet peas that usually last months in the UK bolted and ran out of steam after just a few weeks.

The following year I worked with the climate and did a bit more home work on what works best.

Re: Growing your own?
 

Runner beans are a particular challenge: I think the answer lies in very careful timing when you plant: too early and they get frosted (here): too late and they are burnt up. We got it right last year for the first time and had a massive crop. Australians have never heard of them - they don't know what they are missing!

Re: Growing your own?
 

I agree totally - we add a product called Aquaboost which is a silicone style water retainer. Only need a small amount in a garden scale and works very well - I replenish after six weeks during main heat of summer and then that does it.

My garden doesn't have a shortage of water - just enthusiasm to garden in the extreme heat!:blink::eek: Cold beer in hand seems to be best way! :thumbsup:

Re: Growing your own?
 

I had a lot of success this year with jarradale pumpkins totally by accident though. We have been composting for 2 years but never emptied the bin, we dug it out and spread the best bottom layer and left it. Our dog then dug it all up so I abandoned the project as I didnt want anything I had planted to be dug up by the mutt, but a couple of weeks later we had a mystery plant appear-I left it to see what would happen, it was like something out of jack and the beanstalk! It grew with a vengance and the dog left it alone to my surprise. It turned out to be pumpkin, I never tended it in any way but they grew really well.
Our local Bunnings (B+Q) does a good selection of heritage seedlings to get you started if you like to buy seedlings.