In My Garden - Erika - October 2020

 In My Garden - Erika- October 2020

This month we are joining Erika for a tour of her garden in Howrah. She has lots of things growing and flowering, so there is plenty to see and talk about.

My garden is in Howrah. I’m using the term ‘garden’ loosely. Basically, it comes in two parts – the front yard which faces west and gets sun from midday and the back yard which has morning sun to early afternoon. The block slopes gently to the south. 

The soil type is brown medium clay, which is stiff, moist and has high plasticity over a bedrock of more clay. Half the rear yard has a gravel basketball court under it, courtesy of the previous owner. I have not tried to take the court up but covered with grass and tried to work around it.  

At the rear, there is a Fuji apple tree that a neighbour has agreed to graft next year to give me more variety, a nashi pear tree, Moorpark apricot and an almond. An almond tree sounds lovely, but I have yet to find a way to keep the cockatoos off of it. My experience of netting merely led to some extremely distressed birds with claws, beaks and/or heads stuck in the orchard grade netting. Although the birds like the other fruit, they are not quite so insistent about accessing it, so the birds get the almonds and I mostly get the rest of the produce. It seems like a reasonable share arrangement. 

We have two issues with the apple and pear trees - woolly aphid and coddling moth. I am using two types of pheromone traps rather than wraps because last year I found it more effective. The commercial lure worked best last year and less than a third of the crop was spoiled and the fruit was delicious. I am also trialing a home-made recipe made from bleach, apple cider vinegar and molasses that I got from the internet and is supposed to be effective against coddling moth.    

For veggie growing, I mostly use raised garden beds. This is partly because of the gravel court, high clay content and the legacy of two frozen shoulders which has reduced my strength and flexibility. In the back yard I have six raised beds giving me about 14m2 of raised garden space and about 6m2 of in ground garden space. Two of the smaller raised beds are recent additions. The new soil doesn’t have enough organic material in it so I’ve added 3 bags of potting mix and a bag of composted chook poo to each bed in order to create a better growing environment. The situation really calls for turning over and adding compost to all the beds where the new soil has been added. 

I had good crops of cauliflower, kale, spinach, silverbeet and snow peas over winter. Failures included my brussels sprouts and cabbages which bolted and were covered with aphids. Over winter, I moved the strawberries into one of the additional raised beds. Plenty of flowers so hopefully an abundant season to come. The bed next to it has been planted out with corn and zucchini. I grow both black and Lebanese zucchini.  

One thing about this veggie patch is the amount of corn, peas and radishes that get planted. My grandchildren always want to plant them when they are playing peter rabbit and they pop up everywhere. I have already started using this season’s radishes.   

We also love raspberries. The summer ones are grown up against the back fence and I have Autumn Bliss variety newly planted in the front yard. I did this because I think we must move at least half the summer canes next season due to a neighbour planting more trees right on the boundary. Contact me at the beginning of Autumn if you would like a few canes. 

Apart from the raspberries, the pride of the patch is my asparagus which is my favourite veggie. I have watched lots of clips about covering and uncovering the asparagus spears with soil and mulch, but I never quite seem to get it right. Thankfully, the asparagus still grows.  

Other crops include the garlic, more spinach and silverbeet, a handful of broad beans, beetroot, spring onions and carrots. In the seedling trays I have basil, lettuce, cucumber, and butternut pumpkin seeds ready to plant out into the beds as they get cleared and the weather becomes less variable. 

My best find ever was this mesh thing which I got from the tip shop. It is perfect for peas and beans and I can move it easily around the garden beds. I would like another so may go hunting for it on this year’s hard rubbish night. I plan to use this space for potatoes next year since they do not really like the potato bags as the soil tends to dry out very quickly. 

 

At the front (in among the irises) I have beans growing. This year I have chosen two varieties – blue lake and purple king. This is my first year using the front yard for veggie growing. The added privacy of a front fence has made the space much more usable and I am considering whether to move all the raised beds into the front – advice welcome. 

I’ve added two blueberry bushes in pots which are located close the house for warmth. Also in pots are a rhubarb (which I know should be in ground but I’m not sure where to put it), a small Meyer lemon, Tahitian lime, dwarf black mulberry, rescued fig tree from a neighbour and some Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) yams. It is my first time trying to grow most of these plants. I will also put the tomatoes in pots this year.

 

For composting, I use the bokashi bucket method and a worm farm. Both work well but are more suited to smaller amounts of vegetation. There is a large rat problem in the area. My neighbours and I have mostly agreed not to use compost bins until the rat numbers have decreased. I have a couple of bags of lawn clippings mixed with autumn leaves and sugar cane which I will use as mulch on the veggie beds from this month to try and keep the ground warm and moist. 

Finally: Erika would love to talk to anyone who has any advice about the treatment of garden pests or where to best site beds and plants. Contact her on her email: erika.altmann@live.vu.edu.au