Starting a garden

[Balisidar]

Clearing some space for our garden.  Going to grow okra, pechay, peppers (hot and mild), kankong (Philippine spinach), papaya, ampalaya, tomatoes and okra.  Also going to try my hand at growing and curing some vanilla which is an interesting and painstaking process but hey,  why not, I'm retired😆😉.

 My wife Nenita was using the bamboo stick to beat the brush and scare away any snakes.  Haven't seen any around here yet but better safe than sorry.😀😆😉

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[Balisidar]

Sorry.  Not really sure how to embed a photo into the post.

[Tommy T.]

13 minutes ago, Balisidar said:

Sorry.  Not really sure how to embed a photo into the post.

Hey... just your comments resonate with me regarding growing a garden.

You might want to PM @graham59. He has a wonderful garden, if I remember his posts correctly? I intend to contact him directly also because he has history here and has lots of things growing in his garden.

[Snowy79]

Is anyone with a garden suffering from pests?  I have an accidental vegetable and fruit garden and over the last week noticed all the leaves on my plants were dying. I have only what was a flower bed on my balcony which is on the top floor and it measures about 8ft x 2ft.

I have a habit of throwing the seeds of things like melons, peppers, chillies etc over the balcony and many have started growing. The only pesticide I could find is Melathion 57EC.  It cost only 250 peso but looking at the measurement I've enough for a few acres. 

[graham59]

4 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Hey... just your comments resonate with me regarding growing a garden.

You might want to PM @graham59. He has a wonderful garden, if I remember his posts correctly? I intend to contact him directly also because he has history here and has lots of things growing in his garden.

Cheers for the vote of confidence, but it's the Mrs who is the gardener.

I'm just a hose-pipe holder.  

[Tommy T.]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:49 PM, graham59 said:

Cheers for the vote of confidence, but it's the Mrs who is the gardener.

I'm just a hose-pipe holder.  

Okay Graham... so maybe you are not the expert there, but the Mrs. may be? Could you tell me which veggies thrive the best in your garden? I know kamote will do well and we already have a very hot chili bush. I want to plant a lemon (actually large-lime) tree that we have as a start. We want to try to be as self-sufficient as possible regarding veggies. We plan to import some planting soil as well as "fill earth" that L tells me is better than just "land fill" which is loaded with rocks and rubbish...

I would appreciate any guidance...

 

[graham59]

1 minute ago, graham59 said:

The ones that seem to thrive best in our varied soil conditions, without too much attention are yes...Kamote, of course, but also String Beans, Egg Plants, Peppers, Tomatoes (but Tommies needing some extra care), Mexican Oregano, Root Ginger, Dill, Chives, Lemon Grass, plus one or two I've no doubt forgotten. 

Fruit 'trees'/plants (I mean that quickly produce fruit...and yes, I know that bananas and Papayas aren't 'trees'...for the nit-pickers),  We have several of the mentioned Papayas and Bananas . You may have more luck with your Lemon/Lime (Calamansi in our case), but our little Calamansi bush has produced a SINGLE cute little fruit per year so far. I actually feel guilty eating it.  lol. 

We do have several other species of native fruit trees, but they are only youngsters right now (Mangos, Rambutan, Guava, etc). 

Best thing, to get going quickly, is to ask your neighbours what flourishes in your part of the country.  

Ask them for some seeds ! 

 

[Old55]

You could start a compost bin although not helpful short term.

Soil, you can roll your own. Is there a place near you selling river sand? Chicken farm nearby? Rice mill with rice husks?

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, Old55 said:

You could start a compost bin although not helpful short term.

Soil, you can roll your own. Is there a place near you selling river sand? Chicken farm nearby? Rice mill with rice husks?

 Our Garden is flourishing with much but not to my real liking, her indoors has been using Bamboo soil with success, Our Mangoes and Jackfruit trees have done really well and are fruiting pretty regularly, I don't have green fingers so I leave it all to her and Our Daughter who is getting along quite well in the Garden, It took a while but trial and error seem to have paid off 

[Tommy T.]

 

 

 

42 minutes ago, graham59 said:

 

 

41 minutes ago, Old55 said:

You could start a compost bin although not helpful short term.

Soil, you can roll your own. Is there a place near you selling river sand? Chicken farm nearby? Rice mill with rice husks?

 

34 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Our Garden is flourishing with much but not to my real liking, her indoors has been using Bamboo soil with success, Our Mangoes and Jackfruit trees have done really well and are fruiting pretty regularly, I don't have green fingers so I leave it all to her and Our Daughter who is getting along quite well in the Garden, It took a while but trial and error seem to have paid off 

Great suggestions from all of you - thanks!!!

Mainly, I am glad to see that our "main-stays" of beans, kamote and tomatoes should fly... I think the basic soil here should be okay since this is a mango, durian and lanzones orchard. We have seeds for radish (daikon), cucumber and green beans already - just need to source decent tomato plant starts or seeds...

We won't plant big fruit trees since there are already so many here in the orchard area. However, we will add planting soil for our veggies to encourage them. We planted two talisay trees already near the back of the property to block views and lights from a nearby neighbour. I can already see that they are growing! 

We may try a banana plant (tree?) and some others. There is space here, but not really all that much. We plan to plant some kakao trees along the back fence, mostly for cover and secondarily for the fruit.

But the others you all have mentioned or suggested, we will plant closer to the home in a nice, sunny area in the middle of the back yard.

Thanks, all. for your input, we are very excited to start growing our own food here!!!