Growing Food and Animal Husbandry, Including Pics!

[Nuytsia]

We don't have an Ikea on this island!
Oh was that an indoor bamboo? You can probably buy those cheap here.

['thul]

Not sure if it was indoors or outdoors. These beings would keep it indoors anyways...

[Farseer]

I must admit that I'm a little surprised that people would choose to grow bamboo...I always thought that it was 'taboo to grow bamboo' as, once planted, it was near impossible to control or get rid of, and therefore it becomes a pest? Now I have to wonder if all that is pure fiction!

We used to have a giant clump of bamboo near our homestead when I was growing up and 'The Bamboo Forest' was one of my favourite places to play.

I find that I am suddenly reminded of an episode of "Mythbusters' where it was proven that bamboo could successfully be used as a form of torture. The person being tortured is placed on the ground and this then allows the fast-growing bamboo shoots to grow straight through their body!

Yes, Nuytsia, we do mostly breed our own chickens but our rooster died recently and so we have to replace him.

Actually, for quite a few years we went rooster-less because one of my sons was just so terrified of them. For some reason our various roosters have picked on him over the years, tearing across the paddock to jump on his back and attack him even if he was fifty metres away, riding a pushbike up the road past the chook shed. It's rather funny to see a hulking, rugby league-playing seventeen-year-old whimper at the sight of a rooster!

The good thing about your chillies, fool-ish, is that once the productive bushes are there and settled into your garden, they should last you a long, long time - good one!

I grow the majority of my plants from seed as it is easier for me (living out here in the middle of nowhere), not to mention cheaper. Do you all tend to grow things from established seedlings/plants you've purchased, or do you grow things from seeds as well?

['thul]

In climates where bamboo thrives, it is no doubt possible that it is impossible to get rid of. but a climate like here isn't such.

[fool-ish]

I don't think I dare attempt to grow the chillies outdoors. The weather in this country is so erratic and unpredictable, only the most hardy of plants survive in our garden! I have a 'dragon tree' from the Canary Islands growing in the kitchen which would look fantastic in the garden, but it won't survive..it'll have to be an indoor plant. And last year's snow ravaged our garden and killed two plants we'd had for years, all that was left was stumps! I was most put out. Wondering when to sample my chillies..

[Nuytsia]

Farseer, yeah I know in Australia bamboo has a bit of a bad rep for being a big weed. I think it depends on the type of bamboo and the climate you're growing it in.
Apparently the main difference is 'clumping' versus 'running' bamboo, (the latter being the weedy type), but there are hundreds of different types of bamboo within those two 'groups'.
Most bamboos are tropical, so it would be less of a problem in general in cold climates (like mine!!! ), and in fact there are only certain types of bamboo that would even grow (outdoors) here.
I'd love to have a bamboo forest!
Some types are really beautiful, and the thing I like is you can use it to make stuff!

Hey I saw that mythbusters with the bamboo too - creepy!!

Ahh I see re no rooster. We don't have a rooster because we only have 3 hens and also we don't really want to breed them at the moment.
Heh your poor son! Reminds me of a territorial pet magpie we had when I was a kid. I'm sure some of my friends from school days now have a magpie phobia!

I grow my plants almost exclusively from seed.
I have a book that says it's best to plant the seed directly in the ground for most things, if climate allows. Not sure if it's right, but that's what I've been doing.
The other advantage is that there's a much greater choice of varieties available from seed than there is as seedlings in the local shops. I get most of my seed by mail order.

My latest disaster was the chooks getting out unexpectedly and eating back several of my precious garlic plants! Argh!
They have a 6 foot high fence!!!!!!!
(but I think they got under the fence......... suspect a possum pushed through the wire at the bottom and the chooks found the weak spot! gah!)

In more positive news my first tomato seed just germinated for this year's batch. I grow the seeds indoors and plant out in month or two.

[Nuytsia]

Just planted some capsicum seeds and alpine strawberry seeds (indoors for now)
Have three varieties of potatoes chitting at the moment: Dutch Cream, Pinkeye and Kennebec.

Quince tree is covered in pink flower buds .... and I think I spy white showing on the cherry buds (flowers should open soon)

[Nuytsia]

Have now planted peas and some are already coming up.

Yesterday I planted carrot seeds. Of course then came unexpected pounding rain, but I had covered them just in case of such an event - i AM learning!

And, fingers crossed, nothing has got into our 'impenetrable fortress' around the fruit and veg area, despite tempting cherry blossoms and tender young leaves of all sorts! I think the possum is too busy breaking into the chook pen and stealing uneaten pellets.