Category Archives: Tips and Tricks

Community Gardens, Flower Beds, Guerilla Gardening, Kickstarter, Ornamentals, Permaculture, Propagation, Small Space Produce, The East Side, The Flats, Tips and Tricks, Twitter, Urban Gardening

Our garden needs you: Kickstarter update

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Kick$tarter Update

Now, more than ever: OUR GARDEN NEEDS YOU!

Kick starter update

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1760707255/mitchell-mews-meadows/posts/949835

(Apologies for ‘tagging’ this post with so many terms – just trying to capture as big an audience as possible. No shame when it comes to repairing  / creating productive gardens!)

Please donate if you can

Community Gardens, Flower Beds, Guerilla Gardening, Ornamentals, Permaculture, Reardon Family Garden, The East Side, The Flats, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized, Urban Gardening

Propagation 101

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Its rare that i buy a plant or seeding now days… i has to be something that i want desperately and right away… otherwise i propagate!

Whether it is seeds or cuttings, there are a few things that you will need to get started: Continue reading Propagation 101 →

Community Gardens, Guerilla Gardening, Permaculture, Propagation, Reardon Family Garden, The Flats, Tips and Tricks, Urban Gardening

Potting up the Booty :-)

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I really wanted to use some of the Castings and Compost i acquired in yesterdays plunder in the propagation mix i was going to use to strikes the cuttings i plundered.

Amongst yesterdays booty was a bucket of propagating sand, so i was able to make a mixture that contained: Continue reading Potting up the Booty 🙂 →

Community Gardens, Guerilla Gardening, My Plot, Ornamentals, Permaculture, Propagation, The Flats, Tips and Tricks, Urban Gardening

Reuse and Recycle: Toliet roll pots

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Sometimes i struggle to find enough little pots to use when i need to pot up seedlings or propagate cuttings.

Some people love ‘Jiffy Pots’ or ‘Pellets’ but i find that they don’t break down quick enough and are not tall enough to accommodate a good tap root system.

Ive read a few tips and heard from an elderly neighbour that using toilet rolls as transitional pots works really well. Continue reading Reuse and Recycle: Toliet roll pots →

Guerilla Gardening, Permaculture, Propagation, Reardon Family Garden, Tips and Tricks, Tools

Introducing the ‘Ork’

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The Ork is a single tine gardening fork- and is probably the most useful garden tool ive seen since the ‘bottle top water’

Dont bother trying to find an Ork on the shelf at Bunnings…. my mates dad buys a normal 3 prong fork and cuts off the F he doesn’t need.
I had the pleasure of using the Ork while raiding Chris’s garden today.

In the pic above, the Ork is sitting on a bucket full off worm castings acquired in the raid 🙂

Diggers Club, Tips and Tricks, Urban Gardening

Diggers club – review

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Let me start by saying that i just bought 5 year upgrade to my membership. I want to try to be balanced and objective in my review.

I renewed my membership for 5 years because:

  • I love the philosophy of these guys. Old is new again. Im a fan of anything ‘Heirloom’
  • The standards they adhere to are second to none.  From the Diggers website: “Multinational chemical companies, like Monsanto, can now introduce chemicals into our food supply (ie: G.M. seeds), which threatens our health and the existence of our best plant varieties.”  Im glad to know i can get non GM and even certified organic seed from Diggers
  • Mail Order Plants – Need i say more?? it is really cool getting a parcel that is marked ‘Live plants’ (the only thing better is when the stamp says ‘live animals’! i own a large aquarium and have fish delivered too)
  • The regular magazine / ordering guide. Its full of handy hints and growing tips plus everything you need to know to order from Diggers
  • The customer service lady i spoke with today was good at dealing with my complaint about the companion panting chart: http://www.diggers.com.au/shop/product/HCCH/CHART%20COMPANION%20PLANTING.aspx
  • I ordered a vegetable planting guide which contained a section on ‘Moon planting’. ‘Lunar gardening is a concept i’m extremely interested in!

http://www.diggers.com.au/shop/product/HVGG/Vegetable%20Growing%20Guide.aspx

The other side:

  • I have made a few orders with Diggers and have experienced a couple of issues:
  • member ‘free gifts’ show as ‘out of stock’
  • lots of items are ‘out of stock’
  • Expensive – even member prices are at the top end of what you might expect
  • I purchased a companion planting guide for $14.95. It was packed on the bottom of my order and arrived crushed. In its ‘un-crushed’ state, it was a poorly printed piece of A3 paper with no coating or protection. It was impossible to read and i really cant believe that diggers attempted to charge me nearly 15 dollars for this item.  My request to return the product was handled professionally!
  • My expensive 5 year membership renewal was supposed to include a ‘Gift’. No gift was sent :- ( (customer service assure me that they will sort this out)
  • I ordered a couple of citrus trees (limequat and blood orange). The Fact Sheet link for blood orange leads to a 404 error.    Diggers make their pot sizing clear and i knew what i was ordering. With this in mind, i don’t think i have ever seen a nursery or department store sell such sickly specimens for $29.95. I felt so let down when i opened the (well packed) box to extract small and sad looking plants – when i paid $29.95 plus postage. i know a ‘Limequat’ is not common, but even bunnings stock Blood Orange- and for $30 i could get a pretty happy looking tree!

It is possible that they trimmed the plants down before packing to reduce transpiration – but this wouldn’t explain the yellowing leaves.

Hopefully they will come good after i plant them out and give them a feed.

On balance, Diggers magazine is a great catalogue, but so far they have given me little other reason to recommend you join.

Come on Diggers – pick up your game!

Alternatives:

For seeds, i have had great purchases from ebay seller: ‘Seeds4you’. this seller has a great variety and provides growing notes for each item!

For live plants, try www.gardenexpress.com.au as an alternative.

happy gardening.

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