beginner fruit/veg garden

Little advice here.
New place I tried to plant some veg and it was a failure. The ground is very hard it's a sort of clay mixture.
Is there a way to get around this
 
Sugarman said:
Little advice here.
New place I tried to plant some veg and it was a failure. The ground is very hard it's a sort of clay mixture.
Is there a way to get around this
Click to expand...
Raised beds with a wooden or other surround, which you fill with non-clay soil, compost etc, are probably your best bet. They don't have to be very deep for most veges. AFAIK, most veges much prefer sandy soil. I think the only thing that will help clay soil is to use masses of compost or other plant matter (e.g. straw, leaves, grass clippings etc), and also add in sand, which will eventually improve the consistency of the clay. It can be back-breaking to work all that in, though.
 
Marsie27 said:
Raised beds with a wooden or other surround, which you fill with non-clay soil, compost etc, are probably your best bet. They don't have to be very deep for most veges. AFAIK, most veges much prefer sandy soil. I think the only thing that will help clay soil is to use masses of compost or other plant matter (e.g. straw, leaves, grass clippings etc), and also add in sand, which will eventually improve the consistency of the clay. It can be back-breaking to work all that in, though.
Click to expand...
Thanks,
Sand, well the only sand we have is sea sand.
The biggest problem is during hot and sunny days the soil becomes rock hard and using a pitching fork one can only get a few inches and then hit the hard spot.
Tried root vegetables, did not work well, tried chilli plants, tomato, etc.
Did not go well either.

Might have to do the artificial planters.
 
Like the advise given raised bed on the surface, I used wood. Filled with compost or 50:50 compost to topsoil ratio. This works for me as my soil is tough mainly clay and thus poor drainage. The raised beds help with drainage and you can pick a good height that allows you to plant root vegetables also. Over time the soil will also improve.
 
Sugarman said:
Little advice here.
New place I tried to plant some veg and it was a failure. The ground is very hard it's a sort of clay mixture.
Is there a way to get around this
Click to expand...
Soil : Perlite : Riversand in 2:1:1 also works.
 
Have about 60 to 70 bunches of hanepoot grapes growing on the 2 vines I have. Last year I probably only harvested about 10 bunches.

Going to plant another 4 vines from the cuttings I planted earlier this year. 20181123_181103.jpeg20181123_181138.jpeg20181123_181235.jpeg20181123_181622.jpeg
 
First of the granadilla flowers. Harvested more than 100 fruit from the 2 granadilla vines last year.

Should get double that this year. Granadilla vine is only 3 years old. 20181201_155314.jpeg20181201_155129.jpeg
 
So the combination of a few hail storms and heat waves killed my peas and whacked my spinach to bits. At least my potatoes seem to be doing OK. I filled them up for the second time yesterday. Once or twice more then they'll have to sit and grow! They're just so lush and huge, I'm really impressed with how they've taken. This is 2 weeks' growing, and in total they've grown about 25cm above initial planting level:

20181202_171417.jpg


20181202_171425.jpg
 
Question regarding lemon tree.

I have a lemon tree that's about 4 years old now and I find it strange that it flowers and bears fruit throughout the year.

I always assumed it would only fruit in winter.

Pics were taken today and shows some lemons only starting to turn yellow now and a few blossoms have already started for the next batch of fruit.

Currently there's about 10 lemons on the tree that still needs to turn yellow and there's already about 15 flowers and another 10 buds.

The tree is just over 2 metres high. 20181211_200734.jpeg20181211_200741.jpeg


Edit. Just found this link and apparently they beat fruit almost throughout the year.

https://www.gardenandhome.co.za/gardening/kitchen-gardening/growing-lemons/amp/
 
Yep, mine does the same. It flowers throughout spring/summer but bears the entire year. Mine's only lost it's last yellow lemons a week or two ago, with the newest turning yellow now as well.

BTW I fed the tree well last year and, well, got so many lemons from it, just, wow. So many lemons. So, so many.
 
Toxxyc said:
Yep, mine does the same. It flowers throughout spring/summer but bears the entire year. Mine's only lost it's last yellow lemons a week or two ago, with the newest turning yellow now as well.

BTW I fed the tree well last year and, well, got so many lemons from it, just, wow. So many lemons. So, so many.
Click to expand...
What do you feed it with and how?
 
How long do the lemons take to turn yellow? I've got the same tree and it's full of fruit but I've yet to see one go yellow
 
smiley-zn said:
What do you feed it with and how?
Click to expand...
I got a bag of fertilizer (kunsmis) from my father in law, I believe. Just some generic stuff. After I sprinkled the lawn, about an ice-cream tub full remained. This I buried in a shallow hole next to the tree and watered well. Tree frigging exploded.
 
Arzy said:
How long do the lemons take to turn yellow? I've got the same tree and it's full of fruit but I've yet to see one go yellow
Click to expand...
I have no idea, but I think it depends from tree to tree and also how much sun the lemons get. Mine always turn yellow where the sun hits it first.
 
So about a month or so ago I opened the veggie drawer and found some potatoes that slipped out of the bag and managed to hide under a bag of onions, for some reason. Long story short, they started sprouting so I "helped" them along. Stuck them on the windowsill to warm up and grab some sunlight and they sprouted well. Jumped onto the net to look how to plant these in pots and found a method I followed.

Fill the bottom of the pot with just enough soil to cover the potatoes. Plant 3 together - it yields a bigger harvest. Apparently. So I did just that. buried them so that the tops of the little stems stuck out above the soil. Watered, gave some plant food and put down a layer of compost.

When they start growing, let them grow out of the soil and then "fill up" the pot as you go along. Apparently this roots the potatoes deeper in the pot from the start and again, yields a bigger harvest. Time will tell how well this works, so I did just that. So I did just that. The first day or two nothing happened, and then...

Man, these things grew like I've never seen a plant grow in my life, literally. I watered them every days and every day during the heat. Within the first few days I had to start filling up. I filled up 4 times in total, until I reached the top of the pot. Now, two weeks after planting, I have two pots with massive potato plants for the time they spent in the soil. I can't believe they grew like this - from planting to time of largest picture is two weeks - and I planted them down at ground level in the bottom of the pots. Anyway, pictures:

This was just after the first fill up, about 5 days after planting:

20181202_171417.jpg


20181202_171425.jpg


And this was after the last fill up, 2 weeks after planting. This was taken on Wednesday already, so I haven't checked on them yet. Should be impressive to see!
20181212_163908.jpg


Kinda looking forward to see how the process goes. If it works well, this will be an annual thing for me!
 
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