Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

LOL...

Damn you Queenslanders......! Basil in the middle of winter?????

And is that an eggplant in the middle of one of them? Nice one Gary....!

Had my first little batch of green beans tonight, and a cucumber. Wife says she doesn't like cucumbers, why did I plant them?? Little watermelons are cute.

Yes, it is an eggplant, EB.

For the record, the beds are currently yielding silver beet (by the bucketful), lettuce, dwarf beans, tomotoes, coriander, parsley (Italian and English), basil, rosemary, thyme, chives and sage. The broccoli has just begun to head up.

Our raised bed garden uses a variation on the Permaculture sheet mulching theme. We installed a 6mm dripper line into each bed (the one with the drippers incorporated into the hose - Pope I think) operated on a mechanical timer.

Raised bed sheet mulch gardens use little water, require no weeding or digging and are at a convenient working height.....and they produce more vegetables for a given area than conventional gardening.

.....and this lot aren't going anywhere soon - they weigh a ton (literally).

The ability to grow tomatoes in Winter was a consideration when we decided to move to Queensland from South Australia about nine years ago. The downside is that from about December through to March, the humidity and insects make organic gardening in Queensland very difficult.

Eventually, we'll be using Aquaponic in a fully controlled environment - away from the insects and the heat/humidity.

Sheet mulch - could you tell me more?

I have my midwinter tomato still growing here in the fog

It's the one that sprouted in a frost on concrete with 2 mm soil. It is now in a pot and about 15cm high and 20 wide. High hopes for this little defier of nature!

I garden by turning the soil once, then leaf mulch, compost and straw mulch, cover crops to mulch, more mulch. Never dig it over again. I also add fish water now for the bacterial diversity and nitrogen. Gardens love it.

My veggie patch was a bit crap in the new house here. Not enough light. Quite dissapointing I've hade some beautiful ptches with photo finish produce. So I'm all for the greenhouse getting done!

I've just put in a wee dirt plot out front though, and planning to utilise some other strips in sunny locations. Got distracted for 3 years trying to figure this aquaponic lark out...

What do you folks call winter? This is last winter here.

PLease tell us more Gary... This sounds very interesting and like something I would like to try for myself too

GotFish, that sure looks cold, very similar to kinds of winters I used to have in the mountains in South Africa - when my wife saw the pic she said 'lest move there!'

Damn...! I think your gunna need a greenhouse there John...

lol, best to visit before moving AM. Africa sounds like fun. I agree EB currently doing just that, setting up the base or foundation. I bought a DIY green house kit about three weeks ago. This will be a test run I guess.
Wish my garden was raised bed I am getting to old to pick weeds.

Africa was a great place to live... but I think I will stay in Australia - a lot safer here!

yep, now i feel bad for bitching about the cold weather when i see that photo. Only probloem with NOT having your winter is that i think......"hmmm maybe i can get away with the frost or cold this year" where as you KNOW everything left outside will die

Sheet mulching, as we practise it, happens like this:

- we half filled the raised beds with coarse sand - for good drainage.
- we mulched the entire bed with wet newspaper - 6 sheets deep - to stop the weeds from coming through. We have nut grass here and it's a bitch if it it gets a hold.
- spread lucerne mulch - one small bale to each bed.
- spread cow manure - one bag to each bed.
- cover the whole with sugar cane mulch....or clean straw, pine needles, seagrass, etc - about 200mm (8") thick.
- water thoroughly - leave for two weeks - so that the heat dissipates.
- after the beds have cooled, scrape a hole in the mulch and plant your seedlings into the rotting stuff under the mulch. We put a double handful of coco peat into the holes and plant the seedlings into that - helps to keep the roots moist.....and you can plant seeds, too. Normally, it's best to wait until the garden is fully established (a couple of seasons) before you start to plant seeds.
- ignore everything you've read about how close to plant things - fill up the entire bed with a random planting of all of the seedlings you want to grow.

We installed a 6mm dripper line into our beds - the best thing we ever did - watering is now a simple matter of setting the mechanical timer every few days and forgetting it.

You can grow sheet mulch beds directly onto the ground. Don't worry about digging the ground - just knock the tall weeds over so that you can mulch them with the newspaper (or old cardboard, etc).

Over the years, we've used old railway sleepers and other garden borders but our concrete pit pipes are really good. We renovate each bed at the end of each summer - we just slash any existing plants (the insects will have decimated them anyway) and sprinkle cow manure and add more sugar cane mulch before planting our seedlings.

If you'd like more detail......see http://www.eco-action.org/dt/mulch.html

AAhhh, I see... Letting nature do t he work, I like it

Did I get a shock today when I ventured over to the dirt veggie garden.

I had lost interest in it and stopped watering it weeks ago.

Certainly is a beauty. Talk about losing interest in the dirt garden, I haven't planted any spring stuff yet.