My vegetable garden

[Citizen X]

I can attest to the fact that there’s nothing like picking fresh vegetables from your own garden and preparing it as a meal a short time later. I currently have tomatoes, spinach, cabbage and carrots. I try and engage in good crop rotation so these are the vegetables I’ve chosen for this year.
The best things in life are really free! When the rat race gets the better of me, one of my best sanctuaries is my garden, where I’ll just sit down on the grass, have a cup of rooibos tea and unwind. I don’t need to pay anything for this and the feeling one gets from this is priceless! Attached are 2 photos..
"You get the horse race, you get the dog race, you get the human race, BUT, this is the rat race!"

[IMHO]

Do you use pesticides? I tried organic with my cabbage and lettuce type of veggies, but they all go smutty and rotten every time.

[Citizen X]

No, I don't use any form of pesticide. What I've resolved to do, is make a mixture of a little sunlight liquid with water, and then with one of these plastic spray containers just to spray them once a week. I do buy fertisilier but also use my own used vegetable peels and egg shells. I have two large dustbins next to my vegetable patch, and throughout the year I fill them with used peels(except potatoe peels..potatoes grow like weeds!) The crushed egg shells enrich your soil with calcium and also keep the snails away..

[Pap_sak]

Funnily enough have just come in from the garden were I am preparing a veg garden a found this thread. I only have success with cherry tomatoes - any larger variety seems to grow larger but then get attacked before ripening. Other wise always do well with spinach, lettuce and courgettes. But really want to grow sweet peppers, egg plants and chilies - maybe the new bed will be better!

[IMHO]

Spinach is always a winner! The more you harvest, the more it produce and it freezes well. Courgette( baby marrow) does OK for me, but must not touch the ground. Also now trying sweet peppers and chilies.

Another tip I got. Control the ants, and you control the lice. Ants keep lice as their 'milk cows'!

[Dave A]

Another tip I got. Control the ants, and you control the lice. Ants keep lice as their 'milk cows'!

Would those "lice" be aphids, perhaps?

[IMHO]

Would those "lice" be aphids, perhaps?

Yes, aphis. (Plant luise) haha

If you did not, now you know I am n Boertjie! And a 'stadsjapie' at that!

[gac]

Nice veggies Vanash.

Wanna go organic you must get yourself an Home Earthworm Facility. Visit www.wizzardworms.co.za and/or www.hexworms.co.za for more useful information. I am certain there are others across SA as well.

Insect Sprays are generally repellant solutions with a "soft" suffocating ingredient rather than anything synthetic or chemical.
Insects locate what they're looking for through sight - they detect certain colour rays and confirm it with smell. Spraying on mixes that "mask" the plants actual smell confuses the insects and sends them on their merry way.

Generally then organic sprays comprise a natural repelling ingredient (e.g. garlic) and a "sticker" (e.g canola oil or similar) that aids getting the repellant to adhere to the leaves, particularly those with waxy type leaves (cabbages, broccoli etc) that water bounces off

A useful home remedy is as follows:
boil up khakibos leaves with powdered/crushed Garlic until you have a nice stinky thick solution, allow to cool, strain and then bottle.
Keep in a dark cool palce or in the fridge.
Use this in a diluted mix with water - there is no general guideline as concentration will vary so much, that smells nice and strong, add a few drops of sunlight liquid or to help as a sticking agent and spray onto your plants. If you can get orange oil or canola oil they both work well but use onlya few drops. Make sure you agitate/mix the solution vry well to get an even diluion.
As a Preventative Spray apply regularly to maintain a high level of repellant on the plants and be sure to use a spray bottle that applies a fine mist for full coverage.
As a Curative (getting rid of an existing insect poblem) you must be sure to get direct contact of the solution onto the insects and repeat in short succession (x 2 per day) until sorted.

As a general disease control use 35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide (which is nothing more than water with an additional oxygen atom - H2 O2 - do a Google search to learn more about this highly under-rated cheap solution with many, many uses) in a 2-3% solution as a weekly spray.

[twinscythe12332]

I don't really have much space for a garden, so I've just been growing stuff in sill boxes. I'm also above the ground, so crawling insects have to work extra hard to get at my plants. I've been growing herbs more than anything else, but I also have great success with baby-leaf lettuce. I've just started growing some peppadew plants =) They take ages to grow, but when the crop comes I think I'll be enjoying a bit of bite to my food.

[tec0]

A small tip if I may, keep a tiny gap between the surrounding aria and your plants. Fill this tiny gap with salt. See snails "or lager snails" then have to crawl through the salt to get to your plants and they tend not to make it. I also use the soup and water trick. And I don’t mind pesticide to take care of the worms beneath.

Just keep a clear mind when you use pesticides.

[IMHO]

I don't really have much space for a garden, so I've just been growing stuff in sill boxes. I'm also above the ground, so crawling insects have to work extra hard to get at my plants. I've been growing herbs more than anything else, but I also have great success with baby-leaf lettuce. I've just started growing some peppadew plants =) They take ages to grow, but when the crop comes I think I'll be enjoying a bit of bite to my food.

Please show us some pics?

[IMHO]

I also use the soup and water trick.

I missed that one. What is it about?

[gac]

Be careful using salt as it will seriously and irreversibly affect the pH of your soil, which will cause all sorts of problems. Use crushed eggshells around your plants rather which snails really dont like crossing over as a preventative. Another method is to use the dregs of beer in a large glass jar buried at ground level. The fermenting beer draws them into the jar with its smell and they die a "happy" drowning death.

[tec0]

No, I don't use any form of pesticide. What I've resolved to do, is make a mixture of a little sunlight liquid with water

That trick... It is very effective.

[tec0]

Be careful using salt as it will seriously and irreversibly affect the pH of your soil, which will cause all sorts of problems. Use crushed eggshells around your plants rather which snails really dont like crossing over as a preventative. Another method is to use the dregs of beer in a large glass jar buried at ground level. The fermenting beer draws them into the jar with its smell and they die a "happy" drowning death.

Yes it has the potential to mess up your garden completely; my setup for my garden is a bit different. The gap I was talking about is a small channel between the actual soil and brick work. There is no contact between the soil and the salt. "You can think of it as very tiny trench also if the channel gets flooded with water that is not really a problem because it normally ends up on the brick work.

I will be honest I found a lot of dead snails "bigger snails" but somehow the smaller ones still get on to the plant. Can it be the wind?

That said lately I have been experimenting with pots. Plants seem to love pots especially tomato plants and spinach. I find it to be much cheaper too especially when it comes to water. The smaller aria can be kept moist and you don’t use as much fertilizer compost as you normally would.