Amgrow

Garden Goodness Part 2

Its been 2 weeks since Grounded started 'Garden Goodness' at the Reid's house in Cabarita Beach and despite a strange start to our spring weather on the Tweed Coast, the newly planted veggies are all booming and healthy. It would be expected that within the next week baby spinach will be ready to harvest and lettuce the week after. Sweet corn is growing very well and will provide shade for some of the leafy crops in the next couple of weeks. 

With a strong, hot spring and summer anticipated this year, its important to mulch your veggies well (we recommend Amgrows Organix BFA certified sugar cane mulch) to retain as much water as you can. Most summer veggies, Capsicum, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Cucumbers, Melons, etc. can all handle hot days, but as the fruit is largely composed of water, these veggies will need consistent water to set and produce good fruit. With that in mind, its essential to mulch well to help you get the best results. Mulching keeps weeds at bay as well and adds great organic matter to your garden as it breaks down. Salad and leafy greens will need protection from the heat so always consider shade when growing quick harvest veggies like lettuce. 

We will check in with Reids next week in anticipation of the first salad harvest !

Garden Goodness Part 1

Spring Veggie Garden Rebuild

Spring is the time to be out in the garden, particularly the veggie patch. It's the perfect time to prepare, repair and replenish veggie garden beds and plant some new crops for the spring and summer period.

On Tuesday 22nd September 2015, Grounded visited the garden of good friend Stuart Reid and family in Cabarita Beach to renew one of the existing veggie garden beds that we installed 2 years ago. Stuart and wife Sam have always expressed a keenness on growing their own food and making their 'patch' as self-sufficient as they can, and as part of a garden overhaul 2 years ago, productive garden beds were a must. With daughter Alice and twins George and Megan, the Reid's recently spent some time overseas and in their absence the veggie gardens suffered, so it was time to renew and replenish one of the gardens. To help on the day were Stuart, daughter Alice and her cousins Grace and Josie, making it a hands-on family affair. 

The Project

Recondition the garden soil with compost and other soil conditioners, plant a new season crop of veggies, and watch their progress through the spring and summer with regular updates. In this way we can monitor growth and deal with issues such as pest and disease control as well, as we move along with a regular update on the gardens progress, week by week. 

The Ingredients

Soil conditioners: Soil conditioning, continually adding organic matter to your soil is the key for strong growth with veggies and the products that Grounded use are the best and safest bagged products available. BFA (Biological Farmers Association) certified organic Compost, All in One and enriched Cow Manure from Amgrow provide peace of mind in establishing new or renewing existing veggie gardens. For an extra boost after planting, we will use Amgrow's Organic Xtra pelletised fertiliser which is also BFA certified.

Seedlings: For the start of spring, we decided to plant Lettuce, Shallotts, Baby Spinach, Cucumber, Corn, and Supa Purple Carrots, Tumbling Tiger and Cherry Bite Tomatoes from Pohlmans Nursery. 

The Plan

First step is digging through the soil conditioners and turning over the soil to a depth equivalent to a shovel (30 - 50 cm) and tilling the compost etc through the existing soil to build the soil profile. Then its planting time, with the veggies planted to recommended depth in rows and planted so that the plot becomes beneficial. All this was done with the very helpful assistance of Alice and her cousins, Grace and Josie. 

Corn provides protection for lettuce and baby spinach on either side and allows cucumbers space to climb. Carrots and shallots are also considered good companion plants, encouraging each others growth.

There are simple ways to get the best out of your veggie garden and in Garden Goodness we are exploring a few of these. 

  • Some companion planting is a good way to ensure your veggies are content and happy together.
  • the use of certified organic soil conditioners is essential for good growth and for the comfort of food safety come harvest time.
  • These two elements should also help with pest and disease control as well. Any issues that might arise, we can also look at dealing with in a safe and organic manner.
  • The last element is involving kids and family and creating food awareness and a hands-on classroom in the backyard. 

So, its now up to the veggies ! We have given them the best start we can and we look forward to seeing great results over the coming months and some great harvests. 

See you for Part 2 of Garden Goodness soon. 

Compost… the shampoo of gardening!

Yes, it’s quite conceivable to relate shampoo and compost. Shampoo helps maintain healthy and vibrant hair, full of life and helping you get great results. Compost does exactly the same for your garden, the essential ingredient to creating a healthy and vibrant soil that allows your plants, herbs and veggies to thrive!

Everyone needs it but not everyone knows it!

Successful gardening requires many things, time, patience, learning, hands on and lots of trial and error but there is one factor that can make success just that more attainable… COMPOST!

The life of your soil is critical to getting a garden growing and thriving. It’s one of the most important ingredients to a healthy soil life and one of the main principles behind sustainable gardening practices. Compost or humus, is the natural product that results from the process known as composting.

Composting has been recorded in history from around 10,000 years ago and is a natural process of decomposition of organic material, particularly garden waste, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves, manures, straw… breaking down through microbial action to produce humus or compost as we know it.

Compost has so many benefits for garden soil, Black Gold you could call it. Not strictly a garden fertiliser, compost is a soil conditioner that can quickly turn a lifeless and unenthusiastic soil into a buzz of activity, with you and your plants the beneficiaries.

  • Compost contains macro and micronutrients quite often absent in synthetic fertilizers and Compost releases these nutrients slowly—over months or years, unlike synthetic fertilizers.
  • Compost helps sandy soil retain water and nutrients and builds organic matter quicker than anything else. This is particularly important for gardens on the coastal strip.
  • Compost loosens and breaks up a clay soil with repeat applications, making clay soils easier to work and more nutrients available so roots can spread, water drain & air penetrate.
  • Compost encourages healthy root systems.

Compost is full of life and adds it to your soil. All of the bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms integral to the composting process contribute to your soil life, making it healthier and your plants stronger and less prone to disease and pests.

Regular applications of compost to any garden soil will prove extremely beneficial in the short and long term, especially for home veggie gardens where you will see fantastic results almost immediately.

Compost is produced in two ways, and available in two ways, commercially and privately.

  1. Commercial composting is a thorough, scientific and registered process that produces fantastic composts, usually available in bags.
  2. At home there are a number of different ways to compost. All of the methods are a fantastic way to produce your own compost and reduce green and food waste at home.

Grounded always uses 30 litre BFA (Biological Farmers Association) Certified Organic Compost from Amgrow, to make sure you get the best results in the home garden.