Jamestown Community Garden in Jamestown, South Australia | Community organisation

Jamestown Community Garden

Locality: Jamestown, South Australia

Phone: +61 8 8664 1448

Address: 19 Clyde St 5491 Jamestown, SA, Australia

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20.01.2022 Planted your tomato seedlings one day, just to notice in a couple of days they look like a skeleton weed, or they have been completely eaten off (Photo One), well the earwigs have been on the hunt for young plants and are most likely the culprits. Over the years I have tried everything from beer in the saucer to rolled up paper in a piece of pipe, and even dusting and sprays. Well, the way I have stopped them is, I cut the bottom out of a plastic seedling pot, then place the ...pot into the ground around the seedling, making sure it is approx. 25mm into the ground, and the area within the pot is debris free (just soil), the pot is then in the ground as per photo two, the earwigs don't like climbing up a slope, and the rib on the top of the pot also makes a second barrier which they wont climb over. Once the tomato has grown to a decent size you can remove the pot, or fill the pot with some potting mix to its top, which encourages the tomato to develop more roots within the pot. Keep watching for more tips from the "old bloke" See more

20.01.2022 A general purpose home made garden spray made from household products which you eat out of your pantry, except for the dishwashing liquid, so it is very safe to use, and it does work. Suitable for chewing pests etc. such as Aphids, Thrips, White Fly, and others, even Earwigs if they were in the ground, and not been stopped by the pot barrier. OK on vegetables, Tomatoes, Roses. INGREDIENTS... 1 Teaspoon of Chillie Flakes, 1 Teaspoon of crushed Garlic, 1 Teaspoon of crushed Tumeric, 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil, 2 Drops of Dishwashing Liquid, 1 Ltr of water, and later 1/2 Ltr of Apple Cider Vinegar. METHOD Boil all of the ingredients, except the vinegar, and then strain the solution. Allow to cool, then add the vinegar, and you have a non-toxic garden spray that is a proven worker. Put in your atomizer sprayer and away you go. You only need to spray lightly. The old bloke.

20.01.2022 Do you like corn? Well here is a tip that I do, in the past I have looked at the seed packets on the stand and picked out what I thought would be a goer, only to get it home, and open up the packet expecting to see nice golden yellow seeds, but they are pink, sprayed or dipped in something. A few years ago, at the community garden, one of our members had a germination rate of less than 10% with newly purchased seeds, so I thought I would play a bit of a joke on him, and I sorted out some corn seeds from my parrot feed mix (not shriveled up, but full healthy seeds), and planted in another section of his garden. Guess what, 100% germination, great plants, great corn, and I did fess-up. My tip is source a small packet of parrot mix with corn in it and have a go, because it is for bird feed, it is chemical free. The "old bloke"

15.01.2022 Have you noticed that your citrus tree has dropped nearly all of its leaves. We all love to grow a citrus tree but sometimes the location in the garden is not ideal for one to be able to grow freely. Wet feet, poor soil quality, or too much exposure to high winds, can cause the tree to go into stress mode and the first signs of this are the discoloration of leaves, followed by leaf drop and dieback on the tips. Now that we are into the spring season, there should be signs of ...new growth on all citrus trees, but if you have a stressed tree, rather than it producing new leaves, it will instead be producing heaps of flowers. This isn't a good sign, but rather a bad one, it means the tree has gone into survival mode, producing offspring as a last-ditch to its own survival. I know it is hard to do, but don't let the flowers develop, pick them off immediately to help the tree back into growth mode. Its better to loose one seasons citrus, than loose your tree. I was told by a real estate person, that when a house is valued, a citrus tree can be as much as $500 in the valuation. Leaving them on will only prolong any possibility of a recovery, so the quicker your remove them the quicker it should recover.

15.01.2022 A bit of warm weather will be welcome as most planted seedlings are fairly dormant at the moment, so don't despair if things seem a bit slow at the moment, next week is supposed to be better garden weather. As you can see in the asparagus photo, our mulberry tree which is approx. 20 Ft high is also loaded with fruit, plenty of desert and jam coming. Natter and Nibbles was held today at one of our members home because of the cold and misty day.

15.01.2022 Now 2 days since the last photo of the giant asparagus spears when it was at 1070mm, the spear is at the end of its growing, and moving into the flowering stage, it is now 1275mm high, growing 205mm in 2 days. As for picking the asparagus, we never cut off at ground level but bend the spear so that it breaks off at a supple point, thus you do not end up with any woody / stringy spear.

15.01.2022 I guess in gardening you tend to learn more from your mistakes than your successes, but this one I have not been able to resolve. About 8 - 10 years ago I planted a pomegranate in a well protected area on the north side of a fence, watered it, fertilized it, year after year it would flower and the fruit would start to develop, but never fully form. So this year, when at a friends home, their pomegranate had fruited extremely well, and was delicious, they gave me a bucket full of the fruit, and when I got home I deseeded one of them, and planted in my potting / seed raising mix, and this is the result, I think every one has germinated, I now have a big job ahead of me single potting these up.

14.01.2022 Easy garden tricks for growing plants and backyard decoration.

11.01.2022 Would you believe. Back about 4 years ago a pink lady apple was purchased from the local supermarket, when the apple was cut open, one of the seeds had started to germinate, I carefully removed the seed and potted it in one of my home made seed raising mixes and watched it develop. After it had reached a size I was happy with, to transplant it, I planted it down in the community garden. Last season it had a few apples on it, and now look at it this season as in the attached photo, covered in flowers. I have often wondered how long the apple had been in storage before it was purchased, I guess we will never know. So another thought is, this is how we see many apple trees growing alongside a road - tough little buggers are apples.

05.01.2022 Well here is a bit of a update on the Giant Asparagus, on 25/10/2020 the spear I photographed was 600mm high, today (28/10/2020), that same spear is now 1070 mm high.

03.01.2022 CHRISTMAS B.B.Q. December Sunday 6th at 11.00am. Members and guests are always welcome.

03.01.2022 Seed Raising / Potting Mix, I have been asked about the home made seed raising mix I use. Firstly I buy the cheapest potting mix I can find, ranging from $3.00 to $4.00 for a 25 Ltr bag. I sieve this through a builders sand sieve which has squares which are approx 5 to 8mm square. (Not to fine, it gets rid of the chunky bits). Do I use pearlite for airation? No way, I use beans from a bean bag I bought at a garage sale for a $1.00 (Enough for years, why do some pearlites have... hazard warnings on the label). Coco peat which you can get for $2.00 to $3.00 a brick. Worm Castings from the worm farm. A dash of blood & bone (No fertilizers which would burn the young developing roots). Brickies sand, (Most brickies are happy to give you a bucket of sand at a building site, less to clean up when they are finished). Now for the proportions - using a household bucket, 3/4 bucket of the potting mix, 1/3 bucket of the sand, a handful of worm castings, a half a cup of blood and bone, 1/3 bucket of beans, and a cup of crushed up coco peat (Retains water). Mix up well. I often use a cement mixer to mix up the mix because I make a lot at once. Finally when I plant my seeds / seedlings I give them a drink of half strength eco-seaweed, I use the powdered eco-seaweed, which a 600g container will make 1,200 litres and treats up to 6,000 square metres - www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au ( I was put onto this product by the Adelaide botanical gardens). A few samples of what I have going at the moment are attached, (Tomatoes, Grape and raspberry cuttings, fruit trees, etc. etc.) and yes, I use old foam coffee cups for my seedlings such as tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies. (They can be used repeatedly) Good Luck. See more

02.01.2022 Well here is another vegetable I have sourced (Giant Asparagus), and this is the second year I have had it in, and now it is producing massive spears, as in the attached photo, this one is now 600mm high and still growing, others are not far behind, and they do taste great. The update on the big tomatoes is, the seeds took about six weeks to germinate (I think waiting for a bit warmer weather), and they are now all planted and looking OK. I will keep you informed. The pomegra...nate seedlings are steaming ahead, and I will need to single pot them in a week or two. Other young seedlings and propagations on the go now include, many varieties of grapes, oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, english mulberry, loquat, fejoa, raspberries, blueberries, cape gooseberry, pepino, mango, chocolate pudding plant, strawberries, varieties of mints and thymes, nectarines, peaches, apricots, cherries, plums, figs, apples, chuck in some dragon fruit varieties, and still more. "The Old Bloke"