Hi everyone,
Well I’m all ready (I think) to establish my first ever raised beds for vegetables and herbs. I’ve got the lucerne, manure, compost, blood & bone, lime — and a big stack of newspapers to lay down over the existing grass and weeds to kill them off and layer the bed on top of.
One problem though — I noticed that the SMHs that I’ve been hording for this purpose all have COLOURED INK. Which is toxic. My question: how toxic is the coloured ink? Are there any alternatives to newsprint that would serve this purpose? I’m guessing that what ever goes at the bottom of the planting bed has to break down and allow roots to go through, so hessian cloth (which I have metres and metres of) may be out of the question.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Todd
Baulkham Hills NSW

Hi Todd:D

I use the coloured newspaper prints. The glossy paper I stick away from.

Here is my Blog I have and if you want to see my no-dig garden…check out the links on the right side….so far down the page:)

http://luckysduckfarm.blogspot.com/

as far as I know newspaper ink is vegetable based, but don’t quote me on that. It’s the glossy stuff you have to worry about.

Oh that’s a relief. I was this close to just using the coloured newspapers anyhow, but had this fear of ending up with yellow mutant poisoned silverbeet. Thanks!
Todd

t_wrecks said:

Oh that’s a relief. I was this close to just using the coloured newspapers anyhow, but had this fear of ending up with yellow mutant poisoned silverbeet. Thanks!
Todd

LOL glad you came here then Todd. Is this your first vegie plot?? Also what state are you in?

t_wrecks said:

Todd
Baulkham Hills NSW

how did you find out about us Todd? and welcome by the way :D

bluegreen said:

t_wrecks said:

Todd
Baulkham Hills NSW

how did you find out about us Todd? and welcome by the way :D

blushes oh yeah…oops…lol

Lucky1 said:

bluegreen said:

t_wrecks said:

Todd
Baulkham Hills NSW

how did you find out about us Todd? and welcome by the way :D

blushes oh yeah…oops…lol

welcome

Thanks for the warm welcome! This is in fact my first vegetable garden. After dreaming about growing my own food for years, I finally live in a house with a backyard. Now if I can just convince my landlord to let me have some chooks and a couple of goats I’ll be set.

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!

Todd

t_wrecks said:

Thanks for the warm welcome! This is in fact my first vegetable garden. After dreaming about growing my own food for years, I finally live in a house with a backyard. Now if I can just convince my landlord to let me have some chooks and a couple of goats I’ll be set.

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!

Todd

You are most welcome and ask away:)

Don’t know about goats, but tell your landlord that chooks improve the soil :) so you’d be doing him/her a favour. Depending on how many you get, maybe you could bribe him with fresh eggs ;) I’ve been paying $4.50 for a dozen free range organic eggs.

One chook of three is laying now, so we shouldn’t have to buy eggs again until next winter.

t_wrecks said:

Thanks for the warm welcome! This is in fact my first vegetable garden. After dreaming about growing my own food for years, I finally live in a house with a backyard. Now if I can just convince my landlord to let me have some chooks and a couple of goats I’ll be set.

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!

Todd

Cool! Most of us here are refugees from the old GA forum. Left when the new highly restrictive format came on line. We love to have new people with lots of questions :D Hopefully we can answer some of them too!

I have some bantams and some ducks so I can appreciate where you are coming from there.

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!
==================
Wonder what the hidden message was?? And who it was from?

Welcome Todd!
We may not have all the answers but we are a friendly bunch :)
You may be able to answer a few questions too!!

That should have read:

Don’t know about goats, but tell your landlord that chooks improve the soil :) so you’d be doing him/her a favour. Depending on how many you get, maybe you could bribe him with fresh eggs ;) I’ve been paying $4.50 for a dozen free range organic eggs.

One chook of three is laying now, so we shouldn’t have to buy eggs again until next winter.

Got to remember to remove the ‘noses’ from my emoticons.

Lucky1 said:

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!
==================
Wonder what the hidden message was?? And who it was from?

well it could have been me or Bl

Lucky1 said:

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!
==================
Wonder what the hidden message was?? And who it was from?

================
It might have been me. I know I put this site up for someone a while back. I thought the mods would have found it by now.

t_wrecks said:

Thanks for the warm welcome! This is in fact my first vegetable garden. After dreaming about growing my own food for years, I finally live in a house with a backyard. Now if I can just convince my landlord to let me have some chooks and a couple of goats I’ll be set.

I found out about this forum via a link hidden in a message on the Gardening Australia forum. I’ve been looking for an active gardening message board for a few weeks and glad I’ve stumbled across this one. Prepare to be bombarded with questions!

Todd

Garden Express has a good forum as well. Some of us use it too.

i second the bit about staying away from glossy paper…it’s still be there years down the track. unless you’re making a raised bed time capsule.

only use the lime if your next crops to go in will be lime loving ones = cabagge, silverbeet, caulis, spinach, lettuce, beans, peas, garlic, onion. do not use the lime if growing tomatoes etc…unless you’re using dolomite lime, which doesn’t raise ph.

Helpful, that about the lime. I’m putting in cabbage, silverbeet, spinach, etc. I was going to just use the dolomite — but I didn’t know that tomatoes don’t like the regular stuff, so that piece of information is going into Useful information file. Thanks again…

Todd