Soil and Fertilising

I use a variety of soil additives: Lena nursery planting mix, organic potting and veggie mix, aussie organics manures, home made compost and worm castings. Garden straw and Pea straw used as mulch. Every few months I throw handfulls of Blood & Bone meal over the straw and around plant bases, then water in.

Every two weeks I liquid fertilise using Powerfeed and sometimes I add some Seasol into the mix.  I use either a watering can, 1L spray bottle, or the Powerfeed container with hose adapter. Every few months I do a pH soil test and use Sulphur to lower the pH or Dolomit Lime to raise the pH.

Perth has a dry Mediterranean climate with very sandy soils.  The soil here is naturally high in alkaline, dry, powdery and grey.  I do pH tests 2 or 3 times a year and sometimes need to lower my alkaline levels using iron sulphates or sulphate powder. The correct pH level means that the tasty nutrients become available to the my plants.

Carrots & Potatoes

Raised bed of carrots and silverbeet. Planted in July 2010.

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Carrots don't need many extra nutrients but need a loose soil media where the carrots can form freely underground. I did this by forking the existing soil, turned in some straw, then added potting mix with some more straw turned into it making it aerated and fluffy.  After planting the seedlings, I topped it off with more straw.

Carrot seedlings reaching upward after 5 weeks. 

They got the morning winter sun for a few hours per day. 

Carrots forming underground after 3 months.

Potatoes planted in April - almost ready for harvest in October.

These were bought as 'seed potatoes' which are small spuds designed for planting. I planted about 10 in this wooden half-barrel. Over winter, the green shoots were higher than the first shelf.