As you sow, so you shall reap

A place to discuss health and fitness, healthy diets. A fit body makes for a fit mind.
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Kim OHara
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Kim OHara »

Ben wrote:Bananas, how cool!
Do the plants die straight after harvest?

I'd love to have a go at a vegetable garden in a tropical climate.
kind regards,

Ben
The plants are related to lilies and gingers and, like them, die back after flowering and fruiting. A new plant will grow as a sucker from the same root. I pick the bunch by cutting through the trunk and letting it collapse - as gently as possible - to the ground.
Vegie gardening up here is largely a matter of watering during the Dry season and avoiding waterlogging in the Wet, because there's always plenty of sunshine. Some things need cold to trigger growth, e.g. apples and stone fruit, so we can't grow them, but most things can be grown okay. Tomatoes, capsicums, lettuces, melons, citrus, etc are great, and then we have the 'exotic' tropical stuff - sweet potatoes, lemongrass, lychees, etc.

:namaste:
Kim
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Ben
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Ben »

Hi Kim,
Where I live we can't grow citrus. Not just the hard frost but the exposure to high cold winds during winter. Apparently there is only one lemon tree known to survive in "the valley" and I think that its protected and gets plenty of TLC. I've got an orchard of approx 50 trees - apples and a variety of stone fruit. But they're still some way off from maturity.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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mikenz66
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by mikenz66 »

Kim O'Hara wrote:Hi, folks,
I don't grow much food - good intentions alone are not enough, apparently :embarassed: - but I do have tomatoes from time to time and something most of you can't grow ...
Oddly, we have a banana plant growing happily in our lounge. It's getting a bit big though... And I doubt it will yield any fruit. But they are nice plants. I like the way the new leaves shoot up wrapped up like a newspaper, then unfold over a couple of days...

:anjali:
Mike
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Kim OHara
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Kim OHara »

I got back from a week away to find two bunches of bananas ready to pick - the one in the photo and another which was 1.5 times as big.
The bigger one was on the fence line and it had been eaten steadily by possums on the neighbours' side from us - I should have looked more carefully! - but there were still about 60 left for us, as well as maybe 100 on the other bunch ... that's a :jawdrop: lot of bananas.

Mike, you won't get any fruit until your plant is big enough and warm enough to flower. If you take it outside, it will get too cold and die back; if you don't, it is unlikely to get enough light or water (they like wet feet) to grow big enough, and it might then be bumping the ceiling. (Some varieties only grow to 1.5 m or so but all the main varieties here are 2 - 3m.) I think you should just enjoy it for what it is.

:namaste:
Kim
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Ron-The-Elder
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Ron-The-Elder »

I am envious of those able to produce bananas and pumpkins. The best I have been able to produce in my region is spices and herbs:

Cat Nip (our cats think it is the best of the crop)
Parsely
Chives (my favorite)
Oregano
Marjoram

I grow these perennials in horse feeder buckets with a one in. diam. hole drilled in the bottom for drainage in the full sunlight of the back yard.
What Makes an Elder? :
A head of gray hairs doesn't mean one's an elder. Advanced in years, one's called an old fool.
But one in whom there is truth, restraint, rectitude, gentleness,self-control, he's called an elder, his impurities disgorged, enlightened.
-Dhammpada, 19, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
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Ben
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Ben »

Hi Ron,
We're all limited by our regions climate, rainfall, soil and space. We grow what we can.
Its all good!
Have a bountiful spring!
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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retrofuturist
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,
Ben wrote:We grow what we can.
In my case, weeds. :lol:

No home-grown produce at our residence ~ the naughty dog would destroy it.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Ben
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Ben »

Hi Retro,
retrofuturist wrote:
Ben wrote:We grow what we can.
In my case, weeds. :lol:
I actually have my whole-of-farm environment management plan in front of me.
For a backyard - its an easy job!
No home-grown produce at our residence ~ the naughty dog would destroy it.
Again, easily fixed!
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Kim OHara
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Kim OHara »

retrofuturist wrote:Greetings,
Ben wrote:We grow what we can.
In my case, weeds. :lol:

No home-grown produce at our residence ~ the naughty dog would destroy it.

Metta,
Retro. :)
Some variant of Ron's solution would fix your problem, Retro - big hanging pots/baskets above doggy-jump height.
(I was going to suggest using lateral thinking but it's really more like vertical thinking, isn't it?)

:namaste:
Kim
jackson
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by jackson »

Hi Ben, All, :smile:
I'm currently thinking about starting a garden myself, and would be interested to know how you handled "pests", for while I find the idea of growing food for my family appealing I'm also strongly averse to causing another being harm.
Great photos!
Jackson
"The heart of the path is quite easy. There’s no need to explain anything at length. Let go of love and hate and let things be. That’s all that I do in my own practice." - Ajahn Chah
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Kim OHara
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Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Kim OHara »

jackson wrote:Hi Ben, All, :smile:
I'm currently thinking about starting a garden myself, and would be interested to know how you handled "pests", for while I find the idea of growing food for my family appealing I'm also strongly averse to causing another being harm.
Great photos!
Jackson
Look up 'Companion Planting' - it does (I think) help.
Personally, I don't bother with pesticides - the bugs do get a percentage of the produce but there's enough left for us. :shrug:

:namaste:
Kim
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Ben
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Ben »

Hi Jackson,
For the first year, I had the perfect storm of pests. First were about a dozen chickens who I had roaming the garden eating anything I planted. I couldn't get them out. I then had the neighbour's turkeys come and roost there as well. So any work I did before I went overseas was completely destroyed. As the land is very close to a man-made lake and very fertile soil, when I returned to work the weeds were waist high. In the next winter I had six floods which meant that the vegetable garden was inundated six times and again, waist height until July/August last year. I ended up spraying the weeds with a "green" glyphosate which caused the weeds to die without it affecting the wildlife. During spring and summer I didn't use any pesticides but I did drape a fine bird net over most of my seedlings to protect them from birds. and while some vegetables were blitzed by hungry creatures, the vast majority were not touched. My garden is very loosely following permaculture principles. I also suggest that you make contact with gardeners in your area either in the real world or a gardening blog local to your country/state/locality and draw on the wisdom of others in your area what works well and what doesn't - particularly in dealing with pests without harming them.
I look forward to seeing some of your photos.
All the best,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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Sam Vara
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Sam Vara »

Hi Ben, All,
I'm currently thinking about starting a garden myself, and would be interested to know how you handled "pests", for while I find the idea of growing food for my family appealing I'm also strongly averse to causing another being harm.
Great photos!
Jackson
A very good point. I resolved never to kill even the smallest thing when tending my little veg patch. The slugs and snails are the worst problem, so they get kidnapped and transported to some waste-land behind the garden. I also encourage frogs, who presumably eat some of them. Bigger insect pests can be kept off with fine netting or mesh, but timing has to be right in order not to trap them inside the net and make things worse!

The main defence I have is to not grow anything that is too appealing to the pests. Where I live, little will eat onions, garlic, and leeks, and nothing seems to eat beetroot, turnips, etc. Beans and peas get attacked, but not enough to affect the production of the actual pods.I have learnt by my mistakes, and now have a reasonable understanding of what I can get away with.

More importantly, attempting to grow food has done a lot to prevent me falling into the trap of "smug veganism". I know now that most of what I eat is only there because someone else did the killing on my behalf. All rather sobering, really.
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Ron-The-Elder
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Re: As you sow, so you shall reap

Post by Ron-The-Elder »

My mother-in-law from my first marriage threw a couple hands-full of squash seeds into her lawn and got a bumper crop of squash that year. I tried the same thing as we regularly cook squash and wound up feeding the squirrels which absolutely loved the seeds. :tongue:

I guess that will make me popular with the squirrels. :anjali:
What Makes an Elder? :
A head of gray hairs doesn't mean one's an elder. Advanced in years, one's called an old fool.
But one in whom there is truth, restraint, rectitude, gentleness,self-control, he's called an elder, his impurities disgorged, enlightened.
-Dhammpada, 19, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
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