"0tterbot" wrote in message
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"Trish Brown" wrote in message
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0tterbot wrote:

snip

consulting my planting chart, the answer is aug-dec for my area (cold)
with the band moving forward a few months each for "warm" and "hot"
(jan-june) zones. not sure if newcastle is warm or hot via digger's
method. so i'm going to plant some punnets in august or september & see
how that goes instead - you might want to wait until mid-spring in your
area, and maybe another lot in summer to be ready for late autumn/winter
if you are feeling adventurous (you can only learn by trying). if it's
not too hot (they love water & will go all funny texture-wise without
enough of it; also dryness will make them bolt) and there's no frost
either, you should be set - they grow regardless of cold, unlike some
things. also, avoid wallabies g - when i was plagued with them, i
found the plants found it very hard to recover from having their growing
points eaten out - everything survived, but it's all growing flat :-)

what about celeriac too? planting etc is exactly the same apparently,
i've never tried it though. as my gardening gets more adventurous so
does my eating, but apparently i need to do it in that exact order. g
kylie

Thanks for that! Yeah, I'd like to try celeriac too! I've seen seeds
advertised on ebay, but I'm a bit leery of starting things from seed just
yet. I've never had any success at it and so I'm intending to do
seedlings until I get my eye in.

hmm! sometimes it can be difficult (parsley in punnets = waste of time,
for e.g.). the main problem is moisture - they dry out very quickly & need
watering 2-3 times a day mostly. it's a good idea to keep them covered so
the moisture stays in, until germination or until they've got some size to
them, e.g. in a mini-greenhouse or other clear plastic box, or just with
plastic or glass over the top until they germinate. OR, use soil in a big
foam box - that won't dry out so fast. but i don't have any spare soil
worth digging up, so i use potting mix (ideally, mixed with a bit of dried
horse poo, i reckon that is the best i've found so far).

one excellent product (bunnings might have them! g! at any rate digger's
does, & nurseries do) is a little watering head you screw onto an empty
plastic drink bottle - it waters them very gently & is easy to give them
all a squirt a few times a day that way without knocking them out.

planting direct into the garden - they still need care 2x daily if it's
hot (much easier in winter - less care) but there are some things you
can't grow in punnets. recently i saw carrots in punnets for sale. this is
criminal! anyway, good luck.

For now, my rainbow silverbeet is
hurtling along and soon I'll be able to make a Spinach and Feta Pie from
it! Hooray!!! ;-D

We don't get wallabies, thankfully, but our dog is a bull terrier (get
that? 'Terrier'?) She likes to dig wherever she finds freshly turned
earth and has already had a shot at the potting mix in my styrofoam tubs.
Blasted dog! I've been squirting her with a spray bottle (set on 'jet')
every time she does it and she's finally starting to leave off. She is a
strange dog and really enjoys eating things like tomatoes and capsicums.
I'll have to be vigilant once my garden really takes off!

dogs like veggies! fortunately, staying out of the garden is one of the
few things my dog does fairly well. weirdly, he will eat veg out of his
bowl that he won't touch when he sees it in the garden(?!)
kylie

If you put it in the bowl from a plate or saucepan then it is people food.
Dogs LOVE people food. Or at leat our heeler & heinz do.






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