Starting a veggie patch-hopefully organic?
I’ve just bought a house on a large block of land in northern Australia, where the weather is quite hot in Summer and the Winters are fairly warm an I want to start up a vegetable garden but I need to know how deep the soil should be for the garden and want it all to be fairly low maintenance.
My family loves potatoes, sweet potato, onions, garlic, broccoli and cauliflower, so what would be good (or not good) for a tropical garden and how can I grow these vegetables using little to no pesticides or other chemicals?
Yes, indeed you can! I have similar conditions here in south central Texas, USA. (Visited your lovely country some years ago, but only in the Sydney and Melbourne areas.) Strictly organic. Let me suggest a way to confer with other Aussies on this topic. Join davesgarden.com as a member and you can access the Australian forum and many other topics as well. No charge for members; subscribers have fees and a few more forums. Good advice and friendly help. Yuska
Well, I don’t know a thing about your area but I live in Central Florida and it does get quite hot here in the summer…not that that matters.
)
I found a great resource online called ehow.com and it told me things like:
D… ha…lol
*Water, dried peppers, onions, garlic & a drop of dish soap
*planting garlic bulbs to repel japanese beetles & aphids
* sprinkle diatomaceous earth and or table salt & flour for snails and slugs
*cooking oil & soapy water on fruit trees to smother eggs
*1 lb of cedar chips soaked in 1 gal water, let stand for 2 hrs then use liquid for beetles
*plant pennyroyal or Eucalyptus to repel mosquitoes & gnats
*sprinkle dry borax for ants
*slug/snail trap almost empty beer can on side
* yellow pan w/woapy water-aphids & beetles
*mix rhubarb leaves & water -or- tobacco leaves & water to make toxic pesticide (harmful to humans too so use w/care. /don’t spray on tomatoes but safe for gardens and flowers
and last but not least
*capture a handful of the problem insects – blend them into a paste – ground up insects will repel their own kind ! iieew!!!
good luck
References :
ehow.com