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Sprintcyclist

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OzPolitic

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Gardens
Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 10:49am

What is it about Gardens and the soulful satisfaction found therein.

I had a great weekend in the garden. Great successes already.

The highlight of my trip last year to W.A. was to see the trees.
It's along way to go to see trees from brisbane.
i've done the same before and been greatly rewarded by my experiences.

Saw "Tane Mahuta" in N.Z. decades ago.
He is a tree about 3000 years old.

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Postmodern Trendoid Gold Member Offline International socialist Posts: 892 Gender:	Re: Gardens Reply #1 - Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 8:35pm I wanted to start a garden once. Then I saw it was about $50 for a mattock. This was in the late 1990s. Are they cheaper now?
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muso

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Re: Gardens
Reply #2 - Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 8:49pm

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 10:49am:

What is it about Gardens and the soulful satisfaction found therein.

I had a great weekend in the garden. Great successes already.

The highlight of my trip last year to W.A. was to see the trees.
It's along way to go to see trees from brisbane.
i've done the same before and been greatly rewarded by my experiences.

Saw "Tane Mahuta" in N.Z. decades ago.
He is a tree about 3000 years old.

The Karri trees around Pemberton are pretty big. You can drive a car through the hollow base of one of them from memory.

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Sprintcyclist

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Re: Gardens
Reply #3 - Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 11:16pm

Postmodern Trendoid wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 8:35pm:

I wanted to start a garden once. Then I saw it was about $50 for a mattock. This was in the late 1990s. Are they cheaper now?

no, gardenings quite dear.
MUCH cheaper to buy your fruit and veges from woolies.

We went to Pemberton. Spend 3 weeks in the SW corner of WA, margaret river etc. We have the bestest holidays in Auss.

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Postmodern Trendoid

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Re: Gardens
Reply #4 - Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 10:47am

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 11:16pm:

Postmodern Trendoid wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2013 at 8:35pm:

I wanted to start a garden once. Then I saw it was about $50 for a mattock. This was in the late 1990s. Are they cheaper now?

no, gardenings quite dear.
MUCH cheaper to buy your fruit and veges from woolies.

We went to Pemberton. Spend 3 weeks in the SW corner of WA, margaret river etc. We have the bestest holidays in Auss.

That's a shame.

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Only the boat people can save us from our own evil.

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St George of the Garden Gold Member Offline http://tinyurl.com/n 3o8m2x Posts: 9809 Gender:	Re: Gardens Reply #5 - Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 8:35pm Gardening is fun. Growing your own food, no poisons, eating it fresh as, unbeatable! Next bit not so fun—pull a heap of nettles from around the blackberries. Hate bloody nettles!
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muso

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Re: Gardens
Reply #6 - Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 9:35pm

St George of the Garden wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 8:35pm:

Gardening is fun. Growing your own food, no poisons, eating it fresh as, unbeatable!

Next bit not so fun—pull a heap of nettles from around the blackberries. Hate bloody nettles!

If you're careful. Gotta watch those unripe tomatoes and sun exposed potatoes. then there are the spores in the soil and compost that give you respiratory disease. Still, not many people die from it, just as not many people (probably none) die from the correct use of pesticides and herbicides.

On the other hand, eating it fresh is unbeatable, and the taste of varieties that don't give good commercial yields, but are delicious. I grow lettuce in planters and grab a few leaves as I need them. Now that's cheaper than buying them fresh, and you can be sure that it's fresh.

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John Smith

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Re: Gardens
Reply #7 - Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 10:07pm

muso wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 9:35pm:

St George of the Garden wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2013 at 8:35pm:

Gardening is fun. Growing your own food, no poisons, eating it fresh as, unbeatable!

Next bit not so fun—pull a heap of nettles from around the blackberries. Hate bloody nettles!

If you're careful. Gotta watch those unripe tomatoes and sun exposed potatoes. then there are the spores in the soil and compost that give you respiratory disease. Still, not many people die from it, just as not many people (probably none) die from the correct use of pesticides and herbicides.

On the other hand, eating it fresh is unbeatable, and the taste of varieties that don't give good commercial yields, but are delicious. I grow lettuce in planters and grab a few leaves as I need them. Now that's cheaper than buying them fresh, and you can be sure that it's fresh.

you cannot compare the tastes of home grown tomatoes to store bought .... it's like eating a totally different fruit.

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Our esteemed leader:
I hope that bitch who was running their brothels for them gets raped with a cactus.

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miketrees

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Re: Gardens
Reply #8 - Jul 4^th, 2013 at 6:46pm

I had a discussion with our Department of agriculture when I worked for them many years ago.
They were selecting tomato varieties to present to industry.
The varieties they chose were disgusting with no flavour.
They had shelf life and yield, nothing else.
I said wont we put the public off this product if we grow crap like that?
I was young and naive back then, but I was also right.

I proved to myself at least that you can triple consumption of stonefruit if you get the product right.
I was supplying a range of retailers with perfect ripe stonefruit and on every occasion over many years when the consumers new my product was in store consumption went up 300%.
That sort of increase could drag many primary industries into profit.
Unfortunately for every one grower that sells quality there are 100 growers that grow rubbish and our marketing systems will not pay on quality.
When I say they grow rubbish I mean they over water , they use too much nitrogen and worst of all they pick it immature.
It looks OK but tastes like poo.
However as prices reduce because of lack of demand, growers are forced to take shortcuts to survive.
What a rubbish business!

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muso

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Re: Gardens
Reply #9 - Jul 4^th, 2013 at 7:42pm

- and they get off with it. It's similar to my point about seedless mandarins. If a few growers started growing tangerines, you'd see a similar rise in demand.

I know what you mean about stonefruit. Peaches and Nectarines are not the same if picked early and ripened off the tree.

My other gripes are avocados and pears. They should offer both as ready to go. Why do we have to leave them on the shelf for a couple of days? (thanks Con)

We put up with substandard crap because we have protectionist policies (Don't tell me it's for disease prevention) and our supply chain lacks customer focus. I almost said that the growers are lazy, but the growers just provide what the contract demands.

As far as tomatoes are concerned, at least you can pay extra for quality. The problem is that you shouldn't have to. The quality should come with higher demand that compensates for extra costs.

I'd forgotten how good European fruit and veg are by comparison until I went on holiday to Italy this year. They don't have square pink tasteless tomatoes there. Italians wouldn't buy that. We shouldn't buy that either.

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« Last Edit: Jul 4^th, 2013 at 7:53pm by muso »

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Sprintcyclist Moderator Offline OzPolitic Posts: 40774 Gender:	Re: Gardens Reply #10 - Jul 4^th, 2013 at 7:59pm The tomatoes I grew a few years ago were very good. last year was not so good
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