• Home
  • About
  • Birds
  • Bread
  • Cakes and Cookies
  • Chocolate Making
  • Chocolate Making II
  • Chooks
  • Christmas
  • Fabulous Food
  • Family & Friends
  • Frugal Living
  • Homemade
  • In My Kitchen
  • In Our Garden
  • Jams, Preserves & Sauces
  • Musings
  • My Cool Things
  • Savoury
  • Suppliers
  • Sydney
  • Waste Reduction Plan
  • Pandemic Posts 2020

Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Living well in the urban village

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Revisit: Polarfleece Sacks
Glorious Eggs »

Permaculture Gardening

July 2, 2010 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

This book has changed our lives.

Written for Australian conditions, Linda Woodrow’s brilliant text for turning a suburban backyard into a self-sufficient organic garden is full of really clever ideas.  I thought I’d share just one of them with you today.

One of the tenets of Linda’s plan is to plant out advanced seedlings – doing so not only ensures that they’re more likely to survive an attack from marauding pests, but it also reduces the amount of time plants have to spend in the ground.  This in turn enables the garden beds to be planted out up to four times a year.

The seedlings are raised in recycled square-bottomed two-litre milk containers.  Smaller cartons could be used, but the two-litre size enables the seedlings to grow larger before planting out.

The tops and bottoms are cut off the washed containers, then they’re placed side by side in polystyrene boxes and packed with growing mix.  Some seedlings need to be germinated in seed raising mix first and then transferred to these larger punnets, but bigger seeds can be  sown directly.  Here are some sunflowers that we started last week…

Once the seedlings are large enough, they’re put straight into the ground and the plastic slides right off, with absolutely no transplant shock.  If necessary, the sleeve can be left half-on for a week or two to protect the plant from snails and slugs as it settles in.

I took some photos as we were planting out strawberries last week.  Every time we’re working in the garden, I find myself humming the A-Team theme song.  Linda’s guide is so well thought out, and I really do love it when a plan comes together…

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted in Frugal Living | Tagged home grown vegetables, Linda Woodrow, Permaculture Home Garden, raising seedlings | 21 Comments

21 Responses

  1. on July 2, 2010 at 12:19 am Joanna @ Zeb Bakes

    How lovely to see what you are up to in the garden ! Bet you’re going to get loads of us telling you what we do now…. :)

    I have seen something similar with people planing seedings in half strips of guttering and then they slide the whole row out. But who has room for acres of half strips of guttering in their suburban spaces? the milk cartons seem like a more flexible option in all senses of the word. Only we don’t buy those big containers..

    We have a little wooden gadget that lets you make seed pots out of newspaper which again you can just plant direct into the soil as it will rot away. Google ‘wooden seed pot maker’ and you will find it. Good for beans and seeds with long tap roots.


    • on July 2, 2010 at 5:54 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

      Jo, the newspaper pots are a big thing here too – I’ve watched them being made now on a couple of gardening shows. Great idea, but the problem is they’re too small for what we need – we need to seedlings to grow to a much larger size if we’re going to get the maximum number of plantings from our little backyard garden beds. The large milk containers mean we should be able to grow, for example, up to 300 ears of corn next year in successive plantings.

      We don’t buy big milk cartons either, but we were able to beg them from our friend Manny at the coffee shop! He gave us 70!


  2. on July 2, 2010 at 12:26 am Anna

    Very impressive stuff – but what’s with the A-Team theme song?


  3. on July 2, 2010 at 1:17 am judyamechekromschroder

    AMAZING…..I think I need to get that book and give this a try!
    Thanks!
    Judy


  4. on July 2, 2010 at 1:29 am dana

    this is all very interesting stuff for me. when we bought this house i loved it, but i couldn’t foresee then i’d become so intent on planting a garden. we need a bigger backyard! it was difficult choosing plants, i don’t have room for half the things i want to grow myself. what i miss most: the raspberry bushes that lined the back fence of the garden when i was growing up. we had raspberries all summer long. sigh.


  5. on July 2, 2010 at 5:08 am Gillian

    ‘Good planting’ as Dora the Explorer might say. Or since you are in an A-Team mood ‘Pity the fool who messes with these strawberries’ :-)


  6. on July 2, 2010 at 6:04 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

    Anna, I’m a lifelong fan. Call me a nerd. ;-)

    Gill, you made me laugh! We’ve just been to see the new movie…

    Jude, you’d probably like the book – I think Santiago and Sydney are almost the same latitude (33 deg. south of the equator!), so we might have a similar climate?

    Dana, this is why the big milk cartons are such a good idea. In theory, they will let us plant more in the backyard, because the plants don’t need to go into the soil as early. We certainly don’t have a huge backyard, but this plan should give us more vegetables next year than we can eat! What we did do (which I know is hard if you have small children) is completely get rid of the back lawn. It’s surprising how much space we all give over to growing grass! :)


  7. on July 2, 2010 at 7:28 am heidiannie

    Did you grow those strawberry plants from seed?


    • on July 2, 2010 at 7:54 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

      Heidi, we were given a couple of strawberry plants, but they’re so expensive here – $7 each. Pete grew the ones we planted out from runners off the original ones.


  8. on July 2, 2010 at 9:07 am buttercup600

    Nice to see you are fellow Australian!! Mwah oxo


    • on July 2, 2010 at 9:28 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

      Likewise! I’m sure it’s much warmer in Brissie than here though! :)


  9. on July 2, 2010 at 11:14 am frances

    Love the idea of the bottomless milk cartons. Fantastic idea. So simple. how do you go when removing them from the box though. Does the soil tend to fall out as you lift them from the box or doe the root ball stay together at that stage or is there some special trick?


  10. on July 2, 2010 at 1:37 pm Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

    Celia, do you watch Costa’s Garden Odyssey? :D he did some episodes on permaculture. It was so interesting! :o


  11. on July 2, 2010 at 3:51 pm Sarah - For the Love of Food

    This is such a clever way to get more from a home veggie garden. Your life, spending so much time and effort on self sufficiency, sounds so appealing (although obviously lots of work involved).

    I haven’t returned to my veggie gardening properly since my little one was born almost 3 years ago but I’m itching to get back to it.


  12. on July 2, 2010 at 3:52 pm Sarah - For the Love of Food

    Oh and I meant to ask about the strawberries – I didn’t realise this was the planting time for them. I thought they were summer fruit?


  13. on July 2, 2010 at 3:55 pm Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

    Frances, no – the growing mix seems to stay put. Of course, you can’t really lift them out and give them a good shake, but for moving the seedlings out of the box into the ground, it all stays pretty intact. The root ball helps, but I think also the fact the mix has been watered in over a few weeks as the seedlings grow makes a difference too. It’s a bit like when you transplant from a flower pot – the mix holds together when you tip the plant out. In this case though the big advantage is the absolute lack of transplant shock!

    Lorraine, I have watched Costa and have the dvds. Must go back and see what he says about permaculture gardening – thanks!

    Sarah, thank you – it is all great fun! And Linda’s plan is just so well thought out – I love that – if you get a chance, do have a look at her book. Re the strawberries, apparently you can plant them out in winter for a summer crop. We’ve only planted a couple, so we’ll have to wait and see how it all goes. We have some fruit on the ones we planted earlier, but the slugs keep getting to them before they ripen!


  14. on July 2, 2010 at 8:25 pm cityhippyfarmgirl

    All looks like great beginnings Celia. In a years time, you won’t be able to recognise your backyard.
    I love Costa. Its hard not be enthusiastic about backyard gardening when he is on- a very passionate man.
    Have you had a look at Happy Earth blog? What they did to a suburban backyard is truly inspiring.


    • on July 3, 2010 at 5:55 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

      Cheers, Brydie, I’ll have a look! :)


  15. on July 2, 2010 at 9:02 pm Christine

    Oh, yes, oh yes, this book IS a lifechanger!! I’m so glad to have found another ‘dome gardener’, Celia. Love the book, the concept AND the execution. Like you said, a great plan coming together. Did you know that Linda keeps a blog? It has a little about what she is growing and lots about what she is cooking from her garden. The blog is called “The Witches Kitchen” (it’s listed in my sidebar if you want to take a look). It’s nice to ‘see’ Linda online.

    I look watching your garden grow! :o)


  16. on July 2, 2010 at 9:05 pm Christine

    oops, that was meant to be “look forward’ to watching your garden grow.

    Oh, and add another to the Costa Appreciation Society!


  17. on July 3, 2010 at 5:55 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

    Christine, thank you so much for the link! I’ve been looking for Linda’s blog, but hadn’t been able to find it!



Comments are closed.

  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Follow @celiafigjam
  • Recent Posts

    • Making Zokin
    • Curry Puff Pastry
    • Hiatus
    • The Glass Lid
    • Denim Revisited
    • Vegan World Peace Cookies
    • Here Be Chickens!
    • A Tale of Two $2 Quilts
    • Daily Quaft Therapy
    • A Repaired Tea Bowl
  • Categories

  • Archives

  • © All text and photos are copyright 2009 - 2023 Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. All rights reserved. Please ask first.

    Protected by Copyscape

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
    • Join 14,063 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

  • Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • %d bloggers like this: