Doesn’t feel like it’s time yet with the heat still hanging about but it’s time to get the start of our cool season crops here in Subtropical Australia.
Grab my seed bundle here – https://loveofdirt.com.au/products/seasonal-seed-bundle
Grab the cover crop mix of seeds here – https://loveofdirt.com.au/products/cover-crop-seed-mix-warm-season
Get my seed sowing chart here https://loveofdirt.com.au/pages/what-to-plant-now
Need help growing food join me inside Dirt Lovers – https://www.dirtlovers.com.au
31 Comments
I just home-brew my seed raising mix and it seems to work quite well based on the compressed coconut husk fibre blocks from Bunnings (or wherever).
14 parts fluffed husk fibre (might need sifting)
3 parts perlite
3 parts vermiculite
Moisten till it just holds as a ball.
I've added a good dash of vermiculite into the top of the raised beds this year but even with 2" of sugarcane mulch and no drying out, the veges have still be really thirsty this year (I'm up in Withcott).
Mmmmm Autumnmnn. And down come the rain as I speak, er type😊 No give us lightening to arouse the nitrogen! I can’t wait to start planting but I have to move first.
Mmmm, coriander, either I have or don't have the gene. Found you a few months ago…love your work!
I always get overwhelmed this time of year in seq. So, this season everything is written on the calendar!!
love your Beagle.. we use to have a beagle she lived to a ripe old age <3
Can I borrow your chicken to scratch around in my beds. Go😅
Ahhh I love that you bring in the feathered big guns to do the heavy lifting.
I always struggle with lettuce germination
I’ve got the birdies raised beds and always need to break the soil up on replanting as they tend to compact and dry out a bit. I find using thick sugar cane compost retains a softer soil layer. But my gardening slows a bit over summer as the heat, humidity and pests in the subtropical climate are a test. Sweet corn, tomatoes and chilli are my main summer crops. I normally ramp it up around now going into autumn with more tomatoes, Asian greens, carrots, beans and the brassicas.
I've also struggled with seed germination over the summer! So keen to hopefully have an easier time now that the weather is cooling a bit. With your bottom-up watering in the seedling trays, do you empty out the water after a time or do you just leave it as a reservoir to wick up like a mini wicking bed? I've been leaving a bit of water in the bottom to try and combat all the hot weather we've had but someone people mention seed-rotting due to sitting in water as a reason for poor germination.
Anyway, loved seeing the feathery tractor at work — our girls love hanging around when I'm doing garden work in and around the chook run. They're the best garden helpers!
Such an inspiring video, love your feathered helper lol. Speaking of chooks, we keep the shells to add to our mulch bin, ( that happens to be exactly the same as yours ), but I found that crushing them up by hand they still wouldn't break down properly, so one day I had a brain wave of collecting them, letting them dry out, then putting them into our small blender & giving them a blitz & it came out perfectly powered & so much easier to mix either straight into the garden bed or the mulch bin. While i'm here I have been meaning to ask someone into garden pests how do I stop this, ( possibly borer ) wreaking havoc on the tips of my Frangipani, it supprised the hell out of me as I thought their only main problem was with rust, I mean what can eat a Frangipani ?, hopefully you or sombody might have some ideas, cheers.
I’m in brissy and those cockroaches drive me nuts they munch on the seedlings and just obliterate them , I don’t have chickens unfortunately 😏
Love the chook going in!! I do the exact same thing. They are great at finding caterpillars on brassicas too, got to watch them though or they'll eat the plant too haha.
Snow peas in a hanging basket 🤔 Worth a go 👍
My area is hot and dry so I need to learn what to plant now in outback Queensland..
I have been struggling with keeping anything growing, in fact gave up last year.. no shade, just pure heat.any advice for what to plant will be appreciated
I can't wait to try your seed bundle😍I live in the subtropics too, it's really helpful to be able to follow someone in my same climate. There's so many gardening channels but not many for our specific area.
My garden went beserk full of zinnias this summer, and cukes, rocket, basil, marigolds, comfrey, yarrow, rockmelons. It's been amazing with all the butterflies, even more amazing that i've managed to grow amy of it in the first place lol. it was some hard baked clay when i started digging in october.
I have a massive problem with grubs in my garden beds.. things just don't grow very well as they should…
I'm in the sub tropics but it is still summer. I have 80 sq m and every m is chokers with full summer veges. You seem to be growing temperate plants
Nope to early. 😊
It's always good to watch other gardeners planting while my backyard is still covered in snow 😂😂 thanks for sharing.. New Sub here.
This has been such a valuable video. The fact that you show exactly how you plant the different seeds has given me the confidence to give it a go. Thanks for sharing. I'm a new subscriber.
Loved the video, thank you! Really interesting seeing your process with the compost & preparing the garden bed and so nice to see Wing working away on the cockroaches 🙂
Just found your channel. Great content!
I’m in sub tropics Aus as well and im getting into gardening, so your content is amazing for someone like me. Would love some more in depth videos on things like seed raising mix vs potting mix, how to start/layer/maintain/finish a composting cycle 😊
I love all your garden beds and how you organise everything. I’ve living in Melbourne and I’ll try to mimic what you’re doing
If you wanted to direct sow an entire bed, last year I did this and you can check out the video here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CfSNerqyDs You can also check the progress of this bed in the following monthly updates to show how everything grows.
You are a godsend. Love, from Sydney
Do you have any problems with critters eating things
I've had a lot of success with the fence plank on top off my carrot seeds for the first week. Always get massive germ rates
I purchased a number of different seeds from your website. They’ve all come up strongly with a great germination rate 👌 Very happy. I’m also in the sub tropics so your videos are very helpful
i love how you just grab a chicken lol
Love you video. You are really showing what and how you are doing it. Not that fancy AI stuff.
I love your wonky compost shifter. I made one just like yours 😅.
I am in Melbourne and your information is also relevant to my area too.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us.❤