Comments

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  Adam May 19, 2009 at 3:24pm

  Hiya. Well initially i did have to buy in a dozen or so 40L bags of potting mix and compost for those containers, combined with whatever soil i could scrounge from around the back yard. This is before i really had any of my own compost or other organic material to use... One trick to expand your soil volume is dig dig dig. Aeration adds volume, and if you dig and chop up a bunch of soil, then put it back in, you'll find you magically have a pile of soil next to your re-filled hole in the ground. At least i did. Just don't step all over it and compact it again! Oh, and something else i'm trying which is looking promising is avoiding using soil altogether. And you can do this on sunny concrete areas. Lay down consecutive layers of carbon (eg. dry leaves, thick) and nitrogen (eg. grass clippings, thin), moistening as you go, til it's 30cm high (you might want to fashion a small concrete block wall around this or something). Let it decompose for 4-8 weeks. When you add seedlings, dig a small hole in this material, add a little soil, and push the material up around the seedling. So it's basically a compost medium with some minimal soil support - that could stretch your available soil much further. Yet to plant anything in these beds yet but the weeds are thriving so i'm assuming my veges will too.
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  Dennis Greville May 18, 2009 at 10:01am

  Hi Kylie, no its not too late to plant out radicchio seedlings. IN fact they thrive in the cold. In the North of Italy where some of my family live this plant is a real special salad green and there are many different varieties including one s with red coloured leaves and others with large green almost bitter foliage. Try giving the plants plenty of compost and shelter them from cold winds. When the plants have gtrown try dipping the leaves in a light batter and then frying them or better stilll add them to a salad with coloured lettuce leaves, slices of orange, black olives and a light garlic vinaigrette.
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  Pete Russell March 12, 2009 at 12:11pm

  Hello Kylie! Welcome. Up late I see. I'm off to bed now. Have fun oooobying!!