While its still a not too distant memory, what did you learn from the season just past that will make you garden differently.

I will probably prune the more vigourous tomato vines next year, just to make them a bit more managable. I will grow more varieties for eating fresh off the vines as they were very popular with family and friends. This year I only grew a couple of varieites of these and a couple of varieties for cooking, as well as a couple of cherries. Top of my list for next year so far are Kellogs Breakfast & Mother Russia, I'll try not too get carried away! Of the cooking ones I will probably grow Palmwood again because it was prolific with a good flesh:seed ratio, I will try one other that I've yet to choose. The plan is to take the best one from each year and try another newie each year until I find the perfect cooking tomato!

Having had quite a few problems with mildew on the curcubits etc (perhaps exaccerbated by living in a wine growing region with rampant mildew problems), I recognised the importance of airflow through the garden. In the long term I hope to shift my veggie patch and whilst I had thought about sunlight, I had given little thought to airflow, so this was a useful lesson for me that has made me rethink my desire for a walled kitchen garden. Next summer perhaps I will try spacing things differently and attempting early detection and intervention by spraying with milk or another organic option.

This summer I installed a subsurface irrigation system which I have been very happy with, this will need a bit of fine tuning next year and I hope I will have zones planned based on the water needs of the crop, trying to save water where I can. The installation took so long, that I was really late getting seedlings in the ground and it was all a bit haphazard. It also meant that I didn't have a cover crop of legumes in, hopefully I will get more organic matter into the soil before planting out next time.

I now have many cages in all shapes and sizes to keep the pesky rabbits at bay, and have discovered that this also results in less, snail, slug and insect damage (kinda obvious, really!), worth the effort if you have limited space like me, its depressing to loose so much of your crop to the critters, who lets face it, are alien to concepts of sharing...taking a nibble out of every leaf or a peck in every piece of fruit....no manners!

Anyhow, thats my plans for now. I hope to hear some of yours.

Cheers, mudlark

Mantis

Do you have a particular brew for using on Tomatoes? I've made nettle teas before and your post has just reminded me that I have bucket of comfrey brewing in the shed that has been there for months, oops!!

Unbeknown to you Mrs Mantis checks this forum regularly to ensure you're not planning the demise of her rose collection to make way for more toms, she has noted that thus far you've only mentioned planting amongst the roses and not in place of the roses!

cheers, mudlark

ps: Last year I witnessed the raised eyebrows, shaking of head and muttering under breath of Patrina's husband when she told me how many varieties she was growing...priceless!

Mantis

Spatz, the mind boggles!

cheers, mudlark

Mantis

Tomatoes - will definitely try to strip off the bottom leaves just so that I can see where the main trunk is, for ease of watering. It didn't matter much this year as I only watered 4-5 times the whole season. I was extremely lucky that we had a mild and somewhat wet summer.
Spacing of tomato plants - give them more room. There was not much room for me to squeeze through the rows. Some less vigourous plants were a bit overpowered, too.

Oh yes, do NOT go on holidays at the most crucial time in spring. Everything was a bit delayed in planting and repotting, etc. due to my spring break.

Other than that, I was very happy. :)

Great to hear from you Ray, your experience last season has caused me to reflect on a little area in my garden where I had what was meant to be a Silver Fir tomato growing amongst some rosemary, marigolds and thyme, late in the season these became so big that I could barely see the tomato plant, which was probably the least disease and insect affected plant I had. This contradicts the lack of airflow as being the cause of some of these problems, which is interesting. I might play with the jumgle theme myself next spring/summer!

Spatz, as you probably know I missed out on beans altogether because of the intervention of the rabbit(s) so I will be hoping for more success next year! Ditto also on the holidays in Spring! Your tomato crop is all the more remarkable given the minimal watering, or maybe because of the minimal watering. BTW I heard on the weather report the other night that if it wasn't for the supplementary water being piped from the river Murray, Adelaide's reservoirs would now be empty! Its been an extraordinary dry spell really, because last winter the reservoirs were all full to overflowing.

Mantis, yep, its all sounding very organic! I'll be interested to hear how you go with the aerator. Also where do you get the crushed rock from, it is mentioned in my organic gardening book and I have gotten nothing but blank stares when I ask about it in garden centres etc

Cheers, mudlark

cheers, mudlark

Our lessons learned include NOT growing Amish Paste. They might work in other areas, but did not suit Melbourne conditions, while the Principe Borghese and Tommy Toes flourished. I think I saw in another thread a few recommendations for better cooking/paste varieties so I'll look them up.

We planted our capsicums way too late. Consequently, I'm praying that the last of the sun will at least ripen some of them (yes they're still in and some have changed colour nicely but I know they're on borrowed time :-) Also had a bad infestation of aphids on the caps followed by an explosion of ladybugs who weren't able to quite stem the tide. Some of the caps are pocked with spots and I don't know if they're safe to eat - an all-round disaster for us after a bumper year the year before :-(

Tried an experiment growing cucumbers and mini eggplants by the fence but there just wasnt enough sun and we only got a few fruit.

We're getting ready to remove all vegs at the end of May and turn our beds around to face north/south. Currently two beds, becoming 4 for better rotation, approx 4.5m x 1.25m. About to order the green manure to break up deep clay under the paper/straw/mushroom compost layer we did about a month ago to start preparing ground that was previously path.

Another lesson learned: plant more garlic!. Last year we planted approx 80 and we finished it all about a month ago even though we were very stingy and didn't give much away. Got some "growing" garlic at the Organic F&V stand at the Preston Market a little while back. It was already sprouting and nice fat cloves. We made a new bed with soil, mushroom compost and a cardboard layer to suppress the sad lawn/weed cover that used to be the back yard. Planted the largest cloves (approx 160) and they have ALL sprouted :-) Maybe this crop will last until the next one is ready.

Other lessons learned: Onions are not worth growing at home for me. I can't tell the difference in taste, they take so long to grow and they're really cheap to buy. I Do want to try potatoes at home becasue I've heard the taste is different/better. I have no idea where we can put them though... maybe one of the new beds can be devoted to some spuds.

Good luck with your garlic and spuds!

cheers, mudlark

I think it's a good idea to try everything and see what works for you. When we get our 5+ acre property in a few year's time I *will* grow onions as there will be lots of room to grow enough to feed us all through the year and of course, the plan is to be self-sufficient when we go feral :-) In the meantime though, unless I have room left after planting the more-expensive-to-buy or tastes-better-home-grown veggies, I'll leave onions for the future.

I am going to experiment with leeks though, for the experience - and because I am 3rd-generation Welsh :-)

Mantis

Summer wasn't particularly hot either, which I don't think helped.

You know I've never been sure with capsicums - is it heat or sunlight that ripens them? And will they continue to ripen (like tomatoes) if you pick them once they start to turn colour? Next weekend, or the one after, we'll be ripping up both beds to sow it all with green manure, in preparation for our big turnaround, so I'd like to get *some* capsicums out of the current crop!

mudlark