Aussie 2007 season

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Grub,
"Overwintered: heaps of eggies, hot and sweet peppers"
If you have some time Grub could you explain the basics of overwintering peppers and eggies in pots.
Thanks
Jeff

[tessa]

i achieve it through sheer neglect. just leave em and forget about em. but then, jeff, the climate is so vastly different. it doesn't snow at all...and this year...we didn't even have a frost in my neck of the woods.
you'd be hard pressed to achieve it unless you had a chinook blow through that lasted from october to march.
but hey...you can dream, right? or move down here?

[cosmicgardener]

Grub, you climbing beans can also grow down - I'll be putting mine in hanging baskets like I have the peas, once the weather warms up higher than 15c - which is average for Tassie in September. Blogging is a great way to record when you do things. I paste everything onto my hard drive at the end of each year to create a diary.

Tessa, I too left an eggplant root bound in a styrofoam box and I left it for 'later on' which never happened, it has survived our antarctic conditions and once I can repot will get another chance. So they are tougher than they seem.

Spatz - I wasn't serious about them crossing, but it might be worth checking with someone who knows what they are talking about, because they are a valuable plant to encourage predatory insects.

[Grub]

Jeff,
Tessa is right... temperate climate here. So I put them in a protected spot and left them, then in late/winter early spring pruned right back and fed, then fed recently some more and watered... they are setting fruit now and many more flowers opening. I haven't tried this before but guess the fruit will be a good size. Same deal with the peppers; hot and sweet ones are flowering like mad.

Cosi,
Good idea re the hanging backets... I have a spot for them... not that great on creating the hanging part of it but I see BigW sells them reading to roll. More investigation needed. Purple and green ones could look good. Only problem is this spot gets pretty hot afternoon sun in summer.

Sadly, no time to blog in my life yet... one day. But I have time to read yours and Spatzola's.

Best, Grub, whose tomato babies are looking good. Maybe just two weeks till they go in the ground.

[cosmicgardener]

Grub, try some of the el cheapo outfits. Big W might be OK. I paid $3.99 for the largest size ( about 36 cm across) in Chickenfeed - Plants Plus had the same one for $19.99. Bunnings for $7.99. The only thing I've found is the need to keep the water up to them because they do dry out, but you can see when they are drying because the lining is not damp. They take only a few cups full of water and you don't waste water. They need a bit of extra feeding now and then, otherwise they are care free, space saving, weed free, water conserving and fun; and you can move them around if you want to. I'll be growing some of the little tomatoes in them this year too - cos I did my overkill trick and bought 24 of them.............

[Spatzbear]

Grub, you'll have to take heaps of pictures of your garden when you have planted everything. A virtual tour of your place would be good.

I have two chillies out in the garden that survived this winter. This is really amazing as we had very heavy frost, quite a few times. It's a Manzana Red and a Bishop's Crown.

Nasty day again here. Drizzly, foggy, nasty wind. Hope it clears and I can go outside.

[tessa]

Originally Posted by cosmicgardener

Tessa, I too left an eggplant root bound in a styrofoam box and I left it for 'later on' which never happened, it has survived our antarctic conditions and once I can repot will get another chance. So they are tougher than they seem.

that's great cosmic! i know they're tougher than they seem...but tassie does not really have antarctic conditions...while calgary certainly can have arctic conditions. i seriously doubt they're tough enough to survive -35C on a regular basis...but maybe jeff could give it a go and let us know.

[tessa]

hmm...don't know why i assumed it's calgary.
it could be even worse...like edmonton!

[cosmicgardener]

Tassie/antarctic was metaphorical. it is our nearest landfall to the south where our winter weather comes from just as as Patagonia sends some pretty icy blast our way. It's still paradise.

[tessa]

yeah...i reckon tas probably *is* the aussie paradise.
been dying to get down there.
one day!

[Spatzbear]

Cucumbers are germinating madly! The pumpkins are trying to push through the soil (in their little pots), I can see the cracks in the surface.

Have sown the last lot of pumpkins today. And various herbs and flowers. That should be about it for this season. Apart from beans, etc. a bit later on. *phew*

It'll be good to finally plant them all out next month. I should have finished weeding all the beds by then.

[cosmicgardener]

Good work! I'll have to wait until we get back from holidays - can't expect too much of the house-watchers. I'll plant the tomatoes out before we go and that is about it. Have to sit on my hands though because I've got heaps I'd like to plant. All the onions are coming on nicely, nothing much more to do.
Bob asked me what vegetables we use the most and I think it's tomatoes, including all the bottled sauced and pasted ones, capsicums and onions. We run out most years so I think we'll concentrate most of open bed growing on those three things.

Grr cucumbers........... pumpkins - too cold yet. Must get onto Koeksoetie for my Gem Squash. She's now resident. Stop it - I'm not planting anything.........

[Spatzbear]

I am surprised. Are you really planting out the tomatoes before you go on your holiday? Don't you have any frost to worry about? I will only plant out at the end of October, and that can be quite iffy.

Have sown Koeksoetie's gem squash. I will be very curious to see how that goes. It sounds so nice.

I can send you some pumpkin seeds if you like. :cool:

[cosmicgardener]

We fly out on the 25th, so I'll leave it as late as possible. We don't get many frosts here because we are close to the sea and sheltered by that bloody big hill. Having said that, just 4 k up the road when we had the farm we had snow on Christmas Day, so it's a gamble. We've been trying to get this holiday for 5 years and you know all the cr*p that interfered with that. So come hell or high water we're off! If I leave planting out to my usual time - 1st fire moon in November, we'll still be away and not back until late November and have to go to Hobart for a couple of days. So, if I don't put them out before we leave, I'll have to pot them into big pots, and there's 30 plus the Dwarfs which will go into big pots in the hothouse. I'll put them in bottomless buckets in the open beds which should shelter them for the first week or so and hope that any light frosts won;t knock them about. Some of my customers are putting theirs under tunnels, other don't get frosts because they are close to the sea. In Tassie if we don't get them in fairly early we don't get them ripe. Even the so called early varieties take their time. So it's a gamble with a couple of weeks. Koeksoetie was bringing mine with her but has started her new job - I'll catch up with her before we go. No pumpkin seeds thank you....very much....funny woman....haha....want some melons?.... cucumbers..... Got lots.

[Grub]

Good luck with it, Cosi. I have a feeling in my left toe everything will work out fine.

Hey, did you get much of a crop of beans from the hanging backets or more of a token thing?

I need to plant my pumpkin, watermelon, rockmelon and more.