I got the first lot of winter greens into the wicking beds. These are mostly a mix of Asian greens like Choy Sum and Bok Choy and Evergreen Bunching Shallots. Next year I will start the first seedlings a lot earlier as they grow pretty well as soon as the really hot weather is finished. I will start a new lot of seedlings every two weeks to be ready to take over from the maturing ones.
I have 4 six square meter raised wicking beds now but only one of them has been fibre glassed on the inside so the others rely on a plastic liner which I have found to be unsatisfactory for this purpose. I still have a large quantity of Fibreglass matting and will get to work soon to seal another one of the beds. I have found that once the raised trampoline beds are fibre glassed then there is very little maintenance needed in looking after them and they can grow out as many vegies as you would get in a much larger area if you were just planting seedlings straight into the soil.
The biggest problem that I have had in the past has always been with the cabbage moth caterpillars which don’t just take one or two of the plants but all of them in one foul swoop. This year I am ready however with a combination of pest netting and Dipel spraying to keep the bugs at bay. Dipel is considered an organic treatment and doesn’t harm other creatures including non target insects. It is a trademarked name for the BT bacteria which gets into the stomach of the young caterpillars and causes them to stop eating.
No comments:
Post a Comment