I’ve lived and veg gardened in 3 states. Up here we need to swap our expectations, so it’s like summer is our down time where we can give ourselves a break, learn, plan and dream a bit. Some things do cope well though in this big rain and humidity. Snake beans, okra, Trombocino, climbing beans and heritage cucumbers with thicker skins. Tamarillos are good. You are doing well in bagging. I invested in fruit fly nets and that plus upside down metal waste paper bins and exclusion cubes have been the big game changers. We have 1.5 acre food forest and 80sm veg beds so know how big a job it can get. Sometimes you do have to pull back to recharge and see the big picture. My pumpkins got powdery mildew but threw it off themselves and produced over 140 big pumpkins last season. I still have two left in the shed and the next crop is coming on. As others have said you need to hand pollinate. Good luck and keep posting!
After the harshness of last summer, I took this year off. I still have heaps of things growing on their own (including Tigerella tomatoes still growing from the exact same plant I bought over 13 months ago!), a zillion rosella trees that have grown EVERYWHERE from my few trees that I failed to maintain last year, strawberries, passionfruit, sweet potatoes, etc.... but, I'm not even planning to harvest any, too many bugs & too hard to keep those bugs away. At least I have HEAPS of greenery + flowers to enjoy. 😊
I know your feeling. I’m in south east Queensland and the climate can be very harsh. I’ve been making water harvesting designs into the garden and it’s helping a lot. Thanks for sharing. 😊
Hi there Farah, Growing veggies in South East Queensland over the summer is not for the fainthearted. It can be a genuine struggle! However, all is not lost. If you're looking for a reasonably bullet proof tomato to grow over summer, try growing Thai Pink Egg. It's an indeterminate baby tomato that is great for growing in humid heat.
The Pumpkins arent being pollinated properly and that would most likely be why they are falling off ! Sorry you're finding it hard in the garden atm. Things will get better!
Hi there. 😃 Fellow Aussie UA-camr here, too. This is a great video. ❤️ It sounds like it has been a very hard season for a lot of Australian gardeners. Dont give up and keep going. You are doing great. 😃 Try hand pollinating the pumpkins, and see if that will help them keep growing. You have just gained another subscriber here. I can't wait to see more of your journey. 😃🌻
I use Organza bags to bag my tomatoes & capsicum, be careful wrapping the bag too close to the fruit as the female QLD Fruit Fly will sting through it into the fruit. As for the pumpkins, hand pollinate them, get a male flower and brush inside the female flower (there are videos on that available) it will make a pick difference. Cucamelons love the heat and are a good cucumber substitute when it gets too hot. Cape Gooseberries or Ground cherries are another heat loving crop. Hang in there, the more experience you garner the easier it becomes over time. Good luck!
So hard to garden in summer. I’m in Northern NSW in wet humid forest. We never had success except lettuce and cherry toms. Time to rest in Summer in Australia. Autumn to Spring except for some salad items. Your garden is lovely and looks healthy. Takes years to build soil back after the degradation of our soil in this country. Then you have a flood and it’s washed away. 😊 You need to build a Food forest instead of the usual standard beds. Far more success. Or look at syntropic farming, also good. And of course permaculture has helped me heaps. Good luck, and take care during these exhaustingly hot days on the land.
Gardening in Australia is harder than people realise. I would check the balance of the soils nutrients if you're getting big leaves and little fruit. You are actually doing amazing! You will be shocked in the next 12 months by how much more will grow as you rejuvenate the soil. Great video!
Hello! I’ve just found your channel - another Aussie UA-camr. Love it! I’m up in North QLD & I feel like most plants aren’t prepared for our ‘full Sun’ so many things have withered in my garden. I’ve had 4 snakes in 2 weeks & it’s just too humid 😅 feeling defeated, I’ll try again in Autumn 🍂
I buy organdy gift bags in a variety of sizes. They are quick and easy to tie on and washable and reusable season after season. They can go on even the tiniest bunches of cherry tomatoes and a very cheap in bulk. I live over the border in sub tropical NSW so I know what you are dealing with. Cheers , Muffy
after 10 years of giving up on stonefruit and tomatoes in summer, I am trying searle's fruit fly trap, which covers a surprising area. We shall see what happens.
The garden is such a great teacher and lots of fun 🙂 - I find summer hardest too Northern NSW - but I try lots of different things - spring onions do well for me, tropic toms, tommy toe and sweet 100 (cherry toms) do well if I keep most of the foliage pruned back - jalapenos and chili peppers are very abundant - I spray my cucumbers and zucchini with watered down whey from my homemade yogurt and they love it - radish do well (Im not a huge fan but they are good roasted and fast growing) I do lettuce in pots and they do well if I harvest really young - I grow lots of berries that do so well and can be covered to stop the birds eating them and banana of course - and my herbs are doing really well - and lots of flowers - sunflowers and zinnias and calendula cosmos - brings in lots of pollinators - I have a worm bin and make compost too - keep the soil super healthy - Stick at it and things will get better - I find the Self Sufficient Me channel has tons of great tips for our climate as hes on the Sunshine Coast ... hang in there and I will check in again to see how you are going 🙂
Thanks for all the info! So much to learn :) It is a bit of a learning curve learning what is possible to grow over summer. But as you say, some things do work. Although every year can be different as well..
I feel your pain I'm a senior gardener in SE Old and have an above ground organic sort of Birdies garden. Every year I try something a little different but still the best growing months seem to be in winter. Ten plus years now of trying. Leeks were good this year and sweet potatoes in 23, but they took over the whole above garden, the shoots kept coming up long after I thought the crop was over. great crop though Like you most of what I grow seems to be eaten by bugs or infested with fruit fly (Toms). My one and only lime tree is now 1ft after 6 yrs of growth and no limes. This year I dug heaps of compost in and mulched above the fertiliser pellets. Chooks must be the 'way to go' as they love bugs, pity my above ground garden would be out of their reach. Great vid.Thank you
I live in Rocky, came from the Top End. Shade cloth and row cover are essential here, and I find growing water sensitives like tomatoes or chillis on small mounds, like a reverse zai pit, works well to stop the 2 weeks of non-stop rain after months of drought from ruining everything. You will need to drip irrigate often these mounds, but an upside water bottle with a small hole in it works well enough.
Hi there.. fruit fly is so destructive. I bag all my tomatoes and pick zucchini and cucumber early. Today I am going to rig up some simple frames with mosquito netting to protect some plants. If you cut your leeks low they will reshoot for subsequent harvests. I can relate to your struggles as I feel like I have had them too. I’ve just planted long beans and kang kong to cope with the summer heat. Thank you for your video.
Thanks for your comment. Summer is definitely a hard season to grow in here. I don't even have zucchinis growing because the plants have powdery mildew as well. I got some netting and am trying to protect as much as possible. Things will get better.. Goodluck with your garden 😊
As gardeners we often want to give up but we try again the next year. My garlic always gets rust so bad it doesn't produce bulbs and every year I tell hubby I am not growing them and every year cloves go in the ground😊. Do you spray your vegetables with a seaweed solution or plant food? Keep building your soil and mulching around plants. Blessings from NZ
Hi! Just found your channel, and I am captivated. We live in Arkansas USA. I have five acres that I bought from my mom and dad on the family farm. So I have gardened all my life. I use a garden spray that is very good for getting rid of every pest. I get it at our feed store. It is Permathrin. You mix it with water in a gallon sprayer. I use it as the plants grow, and then before I start harvesting, I will back off. I always wash all the vegetables before eating them. Then, if I see more pests, I will spray again, but rarely do I have to. We also use this spray in our animal pens, and a couple of times a year, I spray in the house and around close to the house in the yards. It is used in school's, and public places, so it isn't as harmful as most sprays. I do a lot of canning, dehydrating, and freezing. So I do not want to go to the trouble and expense of raising a lot of our food just to have pests and varmints destroy it. I also work hard over the years to have a good fence around the garden to keep out rabbits, turtles, and other scavengers out. I look forward to getting to know you and hope all goes well for you. Janice from Arkansas USA
Thanks Janice. I have never heard of Permathrin. I will have to look it up and find out if it's available here. I think everyone's ultimate goal is to grow as many veggies with as little effort. We would all go back to growing veggies then :D
I sympathise with you. Also in rural Qld on a half acre block on the Fraser Coast. All sand in our garden and has taken me 2.5 years to finish making garden beds. I've dealt with floods and bush turkeys and had to re think and move everything twice. I've decided that it is just too hot for most vegetables at this time of the year and I am now learning to be very selective about what I grow. Fruit trees and shrubs are all planted and just need watering and feeding a couple of times a year. I'm growing some flowers now to try and pretty the place up and attract pollinators. But the vegetables are taking a back seat. Once something is finished it gets pulled up and put in the compost. Then after xmas I am going to sit down and plan a lot better than I have been. When I first moved in I just planted to get t things growing and the soil micro organisms working. Like you I have also been tempted to give up. Even watering is hard everyday when you have to do it at 5am otherwise it is too hot. But I will preserver like you and hopefully our gardens will benefit from our learning experience in a few more years. PS: I've just harvested my first bunch of banana's and the taste is wonderful. That is what makes it worth continuing
West coast veg growing is a mightmare. All we got is sand. And the sand repels the water. Ive been making soil for 5 years now. Probably got 30 cm. I dont use any store bought fertilises as i want organic food. So i started fermenting nettle, banana flowers, lawn clippings, comfrey, moringa, and then another bucket of weed tea. These teas have been my saviour. Stuff is growing like crazy. Ive harvested over 30 zucchinis and have made zuc relish for Christmas gifts already. Over here, raised beds are probably the only way to garden. I can keep the soil healthy, compost, worm castings, and the new swamp water teas. Its dry here, and today it's 40. Not unusual. Shade cloth everywhere to keep that blistering uvc off the plants. But very soon, the tomatoes will die. The cucumbers will die. I've got popcorn in the back, and sweetcorn in the front. Fruit trees have yielded no fruit this year, again. Only two fruits actually provide, papaya and bananas. The choko vines are growing like crazy. They love water, but no fruit till the heat settles. I love gardening, but in Australia, no matter what state you're in, there's challenges. Our mushrooms are coming in so nicely, then the heat decides to show up 😭 I see some are in hot wet areas, some temperate, some cold, and here it's just hot with no rain. I feel you, sistra. Hang in there... whatever we grow, no matter how much tastes a damn sight better than store bought stuff.
Love your honesty regarding growing vegetables and fruits. I’m from Perth and have just planted out three wicking beds in IBC containers Let’s see how they go and I’m definitely going to buy insect netting to protect our harvest and not some little critters
African horned cucumbers. Planted in Sydney. Was not that nice and after 7 years I am still finding vines growing around the vegetable patch. It should be declared a noxious weed.
Trust me when I say I had a worse time than you to grow. For this year 2024 all my plants died soon after germination, and I eventually learned why. You are at a point of trying to repel bugs for your grown plants, and you have a few diseases, and having diseases is bad by the way. You should be careful at this point because diseases maybe can spread. I never heard of kaolin clay spray, but I heard of neem oil. Are you regularly watering your plants? Rotting fruit, or vegetables could be a sign of not getting regular, and sufficient watering.
Growing veggies and fruit in Adelaide is not on for me anymore. It hasn't rained here properly for a year. The bugs are bad, the fight against mould is ridiculous, the diseases and bugs are neverending, pumpkins here don't know how to fertilize themselves, and if all of these aren't enough, the birds will get the fruit. The veggies and fruit have let me down in taste. Growing your own is not cheaper, and not necessarily better......I think I will go to Farmer Joes to buy fruit and veggies......disappointed in growing your own.
I’ve lived and veg gardened in 3 states. Up here we need to swap our expectations, so it’s like summer is our down time where we can give ourselves a break, learn, plan and dream a bit. Some things do cope well though in this big rain and humidity. Snake beans, okra, Trombocino, climbing beans and heritage cucumbers with thicker skins. Tamarillos are good. You are doing well in bagging. I invested in fruit fly nets and that plus upside down metal waste paper bins and exclusion cubes have been the big game changers. We have 1.5 acre food forest and 80sm veg beds so know how big a job it can get. Sometimes you do have to pull back to recharge and see the big picture. My pumpkins got powdery mildew but threw it off themselves and produced over 140 big pumpkins last season. I still have two left in the shed and the next crop is coming on. As others have said you need to hand pollinate. Good luck and keep posting!
After the harshness of last summer, I took this year off. I still have heaps of things growing on their own (including Tigerella tomatoes still growing from the exact same plant I bought over 13 months ago!), a zillion rosella trees that have grown EVERYWHERE from my few trees that I failed to maintain last year, strawberries, passionfruit, sweet potatoes, etc.... but, I'm not even planning to harvest any, too many bugs & too hard to keep those bugs away. At least I have HEAPS of greenery + flowers to enjoy. 😊
I know your feeling. I’m in south east Queensland and the climate can be very harsh. I’ve been making water harvesting designs into the garden and it’s helping a lot. Thanks for sharing. 😊
Yep. Growing anything edible in Queensland, during summer is just hard work..
I gave up, and only garden in Autumn through to spring.
Understandable, I was too optimistic but have definitely learned a lot.. I'm slowly reducing and putting cover crop in and preparing for autumn.
Hi there Farah, Growing veggies in South East Queensland over the summer is not for the fainthearted. It can be a genuine struggle! However, all is not lost. If you're looking for a reasonably bullet proof tomato to grow over summer, try growing Thai Pink Egg. It's an indeterminate baby tomato that is great for growing in humid heat.
The Pumpkins arent being pollinated properly and that would most likely be why they are falling off ! Sorry you're finding it hard in the garden atm. Things will get better!
Thank you for your comment. Every time I see a female flower now I try and hand pollinate it. Let's hope I get some pumpkins growing 🤞🏻🎃
Great video mate thank you for sharing!
Good on you for not giving up 😘
Loved this video! also the heat makes it so difficult to film most of the time!
Thank you! Yes it does, usually only a few hours in the morning before it gets too hot.. 😓
Hi there. 😃 Fellow Aussie UA-camr here, too. This is a great video. ❤️ It sounds like it has been a very hard season for a lot of Australian gardeners. Dont give up and keep going. You are doing great. 😃 Try hand pollinating the pumpkins, and see if that will help them keep growing. You have just gained another subscriber here. I can't wait to see more of your journey. 😃🌻
I use Organza bags to bag my tomatoes & capsicum, be careful wrapping the bag too close to the fruit as the female QLD Fruit Fly will sting through it into the fruit. As for the pumpkins, hand pollinate them, get a male flower and brush inside the female flower (there are videos on that available) it will make a pick difference. Cucamelons love the heat and are a good cucumber substitute when it gets too hot. Cape Gooseberries or Ground cherries are another heat loving crop. Hang in there, the more experience you garner the easier it becomes over time. Good luck!
So hard to garden in summer. I’m in Northern NSW in wet humid forest. We never had success except lettuce and cherry toms. Time to rest in Summer in Australia. Autumn to Spring except for some salad items. Your garden is lovely and looks healthy. Takes years to build soil back after the degradation of our soil in this country. Then you have a flood and it’s washed away. 😊 You need to build a Food forest instead of the usual standard beds. Far more success. Or look at syntropic farming, also good. And of course permaculture has helped me heaps. Good luck, and take care during these exhaustingly hot days on the land.
Gardening in Australia is harder than people realise. I would check the balance of the soils nutrients if you're getting big leaves and little fruit. You are actually doing amazing! You will be shocked in the next 12 months by how much more will grow as you rejuvenate the soil. Great video!
Hello! I’ve just found your channel - another Aussie UA-camr. Love it! I’m up in North QLD & I feel like most plants aren’t prepared for our ‘full Sun’ so many things have withered in my garden. I’ve had 4 snakes in 2 weeks & it’s just too humid 😅 feeling defeated, I’ll try again in Autumn 🍂
I buy organdy gift bags in a variety of sizes. They are quick and easy to tie on and washable and reusable season after season. They can go on even the tiniest bunches of cherry tomatoes and a very cheap in bulk. I live over the border in sub tropical NSW so I know what you are dealing with. Cheers , Muffy
I have been sewing up my own now using sheer curtains as I had some laying around lol. Seems to work well so far!
after 10 years of giving up on stonefruit and tomatoes in summer, I am trying searle's fruit fly trap, which covers a surprising area. We shall see what happens.
The garden is such a great teacher and lots of fun 🙂 - I find summer hardest too Northern NSW - but I try lots of different things - spring onions do well for me, tropic toms, tommy toe and sweet 100 (cherry toms) do well if I keep most of the foliage pruned back - jalapenos and chili peppers are very abundant - I spray my cucumbers and zucchini with watered down whey from my homemade yogurt and they love it - radish do well (Im not a huge fan but they are good roasted and fast growing) I do lettuce in pots and they do well if I harvest really young - I grow lots of berries that do so well and can be covered to stop the birds eating them and banana of course - and my herbs are doing really well - and lots of flowers - sunflowers and zinnias and calendula cosmos - brings in lots of pollinators - I have a worm bin and make compost too - keep the soil super healthy - Stick at it and things will get better - I find the Self Sufficient Me channel has tons of great tips for our climate as hes on the Sunshine Coast ... hang in there and I will check in again to see how you are going 🙂
Thanks for all the info! So much to learn :) It is a bit of a learning curve learning what is possible to grow over summer. But as you say, some things do work. Although every year can be different as well..
Nice garden. Keep moving forward.
Thank you! Definitely trying 😊👩🏻🌾
I feel your pain I'm a senior gardener in SE Old and have an above ground organic sort of Birdies garden. Every year I try something a little different but still the best growing months seem to be in winter. Ten plus years now of trying. Leeks were good this year and sweet potatoes in 23, but they took over the whole above garden, the shoots kept coming up long after I thought the crop was over. great crop though Like you most of what I grow seems to be eaten by bugs or infested with fruit fly (Toms). My one and only lime tree is now 1ft after 6 yrs of growth and no limes. This year I dug heaps of compost in and mulched above the fertiliser pellets. Chooks must be the 'way to go' as they love bugs, pity my above ground garden would be out of their reach. Great vid.Thank you
I’ve recently moved north to central qld , gardening is definitely hard in this humid climate . Your garden is looking great 👍
I live in Rocky, came from the Top End. Shade cloth and row cover are essential here, and I find growing water sensitives like tomatoes or chillis on small mounds, like a reverse zai pit, works well to stop the 2 weeks of non-stop rain after months of drought from ruining everything. You will need to drip irrigate often these mounds, but an upside water bottle with a small hole in it works well enough.
Hi there.. fruit fly is so destructive. I bag all my tomatoes and pick zucchini and cucumber early. Today I am going to rig up some simple frames with mosquito netting to protect some plants. If you cut your leeks low they will reshoot for subsequent harvests. I can relate to your struggles as I feel like I have had them too. I’ve just planted long beans and kang kong to cope with the summer heat. Thank you for your video.
Thanks for your comment. Summer is definitely a hard season to grow in here. I don't even have zucchinis growing because the plants have powdery mildew as well. I got some netting and am trying to protect as much as possible. Things will get better.. Goodluck with your garden 😊
As gardeners we often want to give up but we try again the next year. My garlic always gets rust so bad it doesn't produce bulbs and every year I tell hubby I am not growing them and every year cloves go in the ground😊. Do you spray your vegetables with a seaweed solution or plant food? Keep building your soil and mulching around plants. Blessings from NZ
I live in South East Queensland and am having a problem with grasshoppers, they are eating nearly everything!
Damn.. haven't had a problem with them! Is there any good insects here? 🤔😜
Hi! Just found your channel, and I am captivated. We live in Arkansas USA. I have five acres that I bought from my mom and dad on the family farm. So I have gardened all my life. I use a garden spray that is very good for getting rid of every pest. I get it at our feed store. It is Permathrin. You mix it with water in a gallon sprayer. I use it as the plants grow, and then before I start harvesting, I will back off. I always wash all the vegetables before eating them. Then, if I see more pests, I will spray again, but rarely do I have to. We also use this spray in our animal pens, and a couple of times a year, I spray in the house and around close to the house in the yards. It is used in school's, and public places, so it isn't as harmful as most sprays. I do a lot of canning, dehydrating, and freezing. So I do not want to go to the trouble and expense of raising a lot of our food just to have pests and varmints destroy it. I also work hard over the years to have a good fence around the garden to keep out rabbits, turtles, and other scavengers out. I look forward to getting to know you and hope all goes well for you. Janice from Arkansas USA
Thanks Janice. I have never heard of Permathrin. I will have to look it up and find out if it's available here. I think everyone's ultimate goal is to grow as many veggies with as little effort. We would all go back to growing veggies then :D
I sympathise with you. Also in rural Qld on a half acre block on the Fraser Coast. All sand in our garden and has taken me 2.5 years to finish making garden beds. I've dealt with floods and bush turkeys and had to re think and move everything twice. I've decided that it is just too hot for most vegetables at this time of the year and I am now learning to be very selective about what I grow. Fruit trees and shrubs are all planted and just need watering and feeding a couple of times a year. I'm growing some flowers now to try and pretty the place up and attract pollinators. But the vegetables are taking a back seat. Once something is finished it gets pulled up and put in the compost. Then after xmas I am going to sit down and plan a lot better than I have been. When I first moved in I just planted to get t things growing and the soil micro organisms working. Like you I have also been tempted to give up. Even watering is hard everyday when you have to do it at 5am otherwise it is too hot. But I will preserver like you and hopefully our gardens will benefit from our learning experience in a few more years. PS: I've just harvested my first bunch of banana's and the taste is wonderful. That is what makes it worth continuing
Yes I can totally relate! Good luck with your garden and enjoy your harvest :)
I pollinate my pumpkins and zucchini to ensure growth.
West coast veg growing is a mightmare. All we got is sand. And the sand repels the water. Ive been making soil for 5 years now. Probably got 30 cm.
I dont use any store bought fertilises as i want organic food. So i started fermenting nettle, banana flowers, lawn clippings, comfrey, moringa, and then another bucket of weed tea. These teas have been my saviour. Stuff is growing like crazy. Ive harvested over 30 zucchinis and have made zuc relish for Christmas gifts already.
Over here, raised beds are probably the only way to garden. I can keep the soil healthy, compost, worm castings, and the new swamp water teas.
Its dry here, and today it's 40. Not unusual. Shade cloth everywhere to keep that blistering uvc off the plants.
But very soon, the tomatoes will die. The cucumbers will die. I've got popcorn in the back, and sweetcorn in the front.
Fruit trees have yielded no fruit this year, again.
Only two fruits actually provide, papaya and bananas.
The choko vines are growing like crazy. They love water, but no fruit till the heat settles.
I love gardening, but in Australia, no matter what state you're in, there's challenges. Our mushrooms are coming in so nicely, then the heat decides to show up 😭
I see some are in hot wet areas, some temperate, some cold, and here it's just hot with no rain. I feel you, sistra. Hang in there... whatever we grow, no matter how much tastes a damn sight better than store bought stuff.
I bet every climate here has it's own challenges! I'm jealous of your zucchini tho!
Love your honesty regarding growing vegetables and fruits. I’m from Perth and have just planted out three wicking beds in IBC containers
Let’s see how they go and I’m definitely going to buy insect netting to protect our harvest and not some little critters
Good luck with you garden. Wicking beds are great :)
I have had some success with kaolin clay spray for mildew
Where do buy that from please?
@kathrynletchford5114 bunnings have it apparently. I got some from a chemical supply store
Oh interesting! I had read about it and thought it was used to deter pests.. didn't know it could help against powdery mildew. I will have to try 😊
I have found it at Bunnings 😉
@@FarahD7 good to stop sunburn too
nice video and farm
New subscriber here ❤ lovely video
African horned cucumbers. Planted in Sydney. Was not that nice and after 7 years I am still finding vines growing around the vegetable patch. It should be declared a noxious weed.
I was so curious to try them 🙊 Will see if I like it, if I can get some ripe ones off without the bugs getting them first.
💛💛💛
Trust me when I say I had a worse time than you to grow. For this year 2024 all my plants died soon after germination, and I eventually learned why. You are at a point of trying to repel bugs for your grown plants, and you have a few diseases, and having diseases is bad by the way. You should be careful at this point because diseases maybe can spread.
I never heard of kaolin clay spray, but I heard of neem oil.
Are you regularly watering your plants?
Rotting fruit, or vegetables could be a sign of not getting regular, and sufficient watering.
❤❤❤so beautiful you are❤i like you❤
Growing veggies and fruit in Adelaide is not on for me anymore. It hasn't rained here properly for a year. The bugs are bad, the fight against mould is ridiculous, the diseases and bugs are neverending, pumpkins here don't know how to fertilize themselves, and if all of these aren't enough, the birds will get the fruit. The veggies and fruit have let me down in taste. Growing your own is not cheaper, and not necessarily better......I think I will go to Farmer Joes to buy fruit and veggies......disappointed in growing your own.
Nice video but if I read I'm not watching the video.