- Watering - as it's so dry try and use a hand-hose, not sprinklers
- Display of Chantonay carrots - they are pretty big (Top Weight even bigger, but only good for deep soils). Chantonay are good for no-dig gardens. I boughts some red core ones at the seed bank after the meeting which I'll plant on the weekend.
- With carrots, you can use sand - but also just quickly sprinkly along the line and thin out when they germinate... not worth trying to transplant. They take about 14 weeks to get to full size, but you can eat the biggest ones first and get a crop for a good proportion of the year
- Can you eat the tops? Yes - they are very nutritious and one guy puts them in his juices and smoothies (200x vit c of bottom)
- Parsley is from same family but is ok to transplant. Takes about 21 days to germinate so best to grow from seedlings.
- If you have a badly drained soil use Chantonay as Top Weight doesn't like the wet low-down in the soil and can get scab.
- Some letters from Government on GM crops on trial, Blue Rose, herbicide resistent sugar cane - the club gets 4 of these bulletins a month and they are available to any members that want to read them. Personally this stuff scares me a lot... for example what happens if a herbicide resistent gene makes it's way into an invasive weed??? They will say this could never happen - but have they done enough research???
- Someone asked about Cobbler Pegs. They are a weed - but are useful if you don't let them get to seed. Can be eaten in Salads and the Chooks/Ginaeu Pigs love them. Seeds are an old toothache rememdy. Someone mentioned to check out Isabelle's "Survival Guide" for more info on Cobbler Pegs.
- Question about Water saving Crystals - much discussion, but no-one really knew if they were organic or not. I doubt it.
- Potatoes - should they be flowering yet and when to harvest? Mine are flowering at the moment. Harvest when tops die. The guy that mentioned the carrot tops said you can eat the potato tops... I don't think this is right, I thought they were deadly nightshade family and very posionous - I hope he is still with us next month!
- Question about a good shade/fruit tree - Panama/Strawberries & Cream tree suggested - you can get it at Daley's in Kyogle.
- Capsicums in pots question from @hhcv - his get going well but then die before fruit. Probably lacking nutrients, add more compost and read about nutrient deficiencies (could be anything - Iron?). Pull up plants and check for nematodes (this is what happened to mine) - you could also try the wormtec solution which is supposed to introduce good nematodes.
- Mangoes - they flower a lot, but no fruit. Probably due to wet year last year - Bees could not polinate so flowers just drop. Could also be blackspot - try Ecorose blackspot (Ross)
- Community Gardens - GCCC handout. I now have a part share in an allotment at Southport.... looking forward to getting some veggies in there.
We then had an excellent talk from Narelle Cheney from Miessence about Aloe Vera... great product, what an amazing businesswoman. I have arranged to interview her for my new video blog at http://refactor.blip.tv when I get things going. It's not IT related, but I am interested in bootstrapping startup stories for http://upstarta.biz and she is on the Gold Coast (and used to be in IT).
Until next time.... happy gardening!
