The Greening of Gavin

Garden Renovation

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With the slow death of the old Blood Plum tree, and the need for a new storage shed for the ever-growing green business, it was time for a garden renovation.  You know, just like a backyard blitz but slower!

Due to some issues with my hands (arthritis creeping into my thumb joints, I had to get some help to complete it all.  Mick the Handyman and his wife Anne were hired to put down a slab, erect the new shed, and cut down the plum tree and tidy things up a bit.  The condition was that they reuse all the materials from garden beds they were moving to make new beds and structures.

Chook house #1 when first built

Chook house #1 when first built

So lets start at the beginning.  This first photo is way back in 2009 when my son Adam and I had just finished the original Chook House.  This was well before Cluckingham Palace was built behind it.

As you know, Ben and I dismantled this structure in March, and the what remained was just a vacant space.

Demolished Chook house

Demolished Chook house

I had started to cut down part of the old plum tree, but my hands just hurt way too much.  I needed help to do all the things I wanted to achieve in this part of the garden.  I wanted the tree fully removed, and replaced with a nice area to sit, and a new garden bed in which to plant a couple of espaliered fruit trees.

So work began in early May 2016.

Plum tree cut down

Plum tree cut down

The area was cleared and the tree was cut down.  After this photo was taken the stump was removed as well.

Now for the shed area.

The old raised garden bed

The old raised garden bed with trellis circa 2010

This photo was taken in 2010, after a had planted in some cabbages and broccoli.  It was quite an under utilised space, so we decided that was could make better use of it by moving everything down the yard a bit.  This including reuse of the trellis and brick work in the area where the plum tree once stood.

Ground preparation for new shed.

Ground preparation for new shed.

So once all the trellis, stone and beds were removed, the ground was prepared for the new slab on which the shed would be built.  Not very green I know, but we investigated a wooden floor for the shed, but it would have rotted within a few years.  This being a stock shed for the business, I wanted it waterproof.

New garden beds

New garden beds

Anyway, the garden bed was rebuilt behind where the shed now stands.  All the soil, bricks and wood was reclaimed and reused to make these.  Thankfully, nothing went to waste, and any unused soil was placed in my front yard veggie beds.

Overgrown Fountain

Overgrown Fountain.  It’s in there somewhere!

Also the jasmine had taken over the beds and we lost the fountain somewhere within it.  This needed trimming to regain a beautiful space.

After some much-needed pruning, the fountain reappeared in all its glory.

Rediscovered Fountain

Rediscovered Fountain

The pool that the fountain stood in was full of decaying leaf matter, so I had to don some long rubber gloves and remove about 5 buckets of gunk.  Once refilled the fountain worked perfectly!  We refilled it from the rainwater tank and it looked amazing.

So with the new beds in place this is what it all looked like.

IMAG2802

We could see the potential, but it wasn’t quite finished.

We had some left over pavers and a pile of stone, so asked Mick to do a nice bit of landscaping.  Behind the far bench is a new garden bed built from retaining bricks that they removed from where the new shed now stands.  That’s where I’m putting one of the espalier fruit trees.  I’m putting the other one where the tarp is in the photo.

IMAG3019

Looks pretty good.  I even gave the Jonathan Apple tree a prune as well.

The big tarp was strung up there because I didn’t want to smoke out the chooks when I lit the brazier!

Area fully landscaped

Area fully landscaped

Here is some context, looking from the pizza oven area.  You can just see the entrance to Cluckingham Palace in the background.

Looking towards the new shed.

Looking towards the new shed.

Looking towards the front yard, you can see the new shed and a fully landscaped garden.  We just have to throw a few plants in the new garden beds this weekend and it will look amazing.

I also had to heavily prune the ANZAC Peach tree as it was growing over the roof.  I cut of one of the two main limbs in the hope that it springs back and grows straighter this time.

Gav and a well deserved beer!

Gav and a well deserved beer!

I was so happy with the finished result, I decided to throw a birthday party for myself and have a well deserved home-brew beer that I’d been saving for the occasion.  Definitely a nice way to celebrate.

Whilst Mick and Anne did the majority of the work and were paid for it, Ben and I pulled down the chook house and Kim and I did the clean up afterwards and made it all beautiful.  As I get older and busier, I am finding that I am in the need of more hired help.  I can’t do it all like I once used to.

The only material brought in was the concrete for the slab and the shed.  All other materials were reused in the construction of the new beds and areas.  Now that’s a garden renovation!  I think it is a job well done and is now a great place to relax in the sunshine whilst watching chooky antics!

I’m looking forward to showing you the garden beds when they are planted out with native shrubs and how I am going to espalier the transplanted fruit trees.

But that’s another story!

The Future of Suburban Food Bowls

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I recently read an article that described how my closest city, Melbourne, is expanding at its peripheries and beginning to eat into its own food bowl.

The surrounding areas are fertile land in which market gardeners have been growing those perishable vegetables like salad greens, Brassica, and asparagus. These vegetables don’t usually fare well when transported long distances. When suburbs overtake or threaten these food bowls, city dwellers are going to have to find a substitute.

Now the article did mention that the total fruit and veg supplied to Melbourne by its “food bowl” was 41%, which would reduce to 18% close to the year 2050 due to the sprawl, but I think we are going to have just a few more issues on our plate by then!  I don’t believe they reported a holistic picture of what is actually happening.

Conventional oil supplies have already peaked globally and we are clutching at straws, sucking up the last reserves of hard-to-extract oil from things like tar sands, deep water drilling, and hydraulic fracturing. All these extraction methods are harmful to the environment and pollute water supplies.

peak_oil2

There will soon come a time when oil prices will rise again  to a point that transportation will become prohibitively expensive and in turn, cause food prices to skyrocket globally. Without our nearby food bowls, perishable fresh food will become a luxury item. This will be only one of the issues caused by declining oil supplies, but keeping in tune with the theme of the post, I will refrain from rambling. If you want to learn more about Peak Oil, check out this starter post titled “Plenty of Oil?”.

So what about our changing climate?  2014 was the hot! Four independent data sets show that last year was the hottest in 135 years of modern record keeping.

Will that have an effect on our food bowls before 2050? Your bet your shirt it will. Here in south-eastern Australia, we are already seeing the impact of climate change, with shorter winters and warmer summers. Rain patterns have moved further south into the Southern Ocean with average rainfall over the year getting lower.

Global average carbon dioxide concentrations since 1980, with photo of Mauna Loa Observatory in background. Adapted from Figure 2.36 in State of the Climate in 2014. Climate.gov

Global average carbon dioxide concentrations since 1980, with photo of Mauna Loa Observatory in background. source: Climate.gov

We have already seen lower grain and bean crop yields due to the lack of late winter to early spring rains and extreme heat in October, which is predicted to raise food prices.

Our food bowls located closer to the cities are mostly irrigated, but if it doesn’t rain, reservoirs that supply these crops dry up, and water restrictions are imposed. Urban dwellers shouldn’t waste water in times of plenty anyway because we live on the driest continent, but in our part of the world, water restrictions or rationing will become the norm. Less water means less food with soils drying out and become dust bowls instead of food bowls.

So what’s the solution to urban sprawl gobbling up our surrounding food bowls and ways to mitigate the effects of peak oil and climate change on our food supply?

Well I can think of two pretty good ideas. Better city planning and urban/suburban food farms. I will leave better city planning to professional planners who need to think about population density a little bit harder, so I will focus on creating our own suburban food bowls.

Most of us have a little bit of space around our residences. It doesn’t matter if we own, mortgage, or rent, we can still use tried and tested ideas to grow food in our homes.

As a general observation, I believe we spend so much time, effort, money, land, and precious water maintaining lawns in the ‘burbs. As I have alluded to, fertile land is being replaced with suburbs, so why can’t we grow these perishable crops, like salad greens, and the basics right here in the spaces we live?

Suburban Food Bowls

Pumpkin crop 2015

It’s a good question, one which has been discussed often on the blog, but over the next few posts we are going to work through some of the perceived barriers that people often come up with that prevents them from taking that first step and some solutions on how to overcome them.

In the next post we will discuss growing food in containers for those of you who do not have much open available space.  You would be amazed in how much you can actually grow in a space as small as a balcony or courtyard.

Suburban food bowls - Planting out the capsicum seedlings

Planting out the capsicum seedlings

The third post will cover raised garden beds for those with poor soil like sand or clay.  Rarely are Australian soils of good quality especially when burbs are stripped of topsoil when they are developed so most food gardeners are forced to create raised beds to solve this problem.

In the final post, I am going to cover how to grow fruit trees in confined spaces, where I will demonstrate how to fit in lots of trees either in the ground or in large pots and get them to fruiting stage and further.

So I hope you will join me on this suburban food farm series, that will provide enough information to get you started growing food in suburban food bowls, and to prepare for the future.

Limoncello 2015

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Limoncello is a seasonal drink I make each year to reduce some of the glut of lemons that we have around here off our two lemon trees.

For those of you that like the odd tipple, it is definitely worth the small amount of effort that it takes to create this amazing vodka based beverage.

Eureka Lemons

Firstly, I wash all the lemons in a sink full of water that has had a cup full of white vinegar added.  This removes any dirt or bacteria that may be on the skins.  It also gives the lemon rind an amazing shine to it.

Limoncello 2015

Then you gather your equipment.  Basically, you need about 9 lemons per 700ml of Vodka, water, and sugar.  That’s it.  For the full recipe and technique checkout my previous post about Limoncello.

I also find that the large Moccona coffee jars are a perfect receptacle in which to infuse all the ingredients.  It also has a fairly decent seal so that the alcohol doesn’t evaporate.  At this stage, mine are still infusing on the kitchen bench, so lets rewind back to 2012 when I made my last batch.

Limoncello+1

Once the infusion process is complete, which can take anywhere from 2 months to 1 year, you then filter and decant into a swing top bottle.  You will know when it is ready as an immature batch will still have a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Limoncello+2

It may take a while for the Limoncello to pass through the filter paper, but the crystal clear liquid is worth the wait.

Limoncello+3

This bottle is one I made in 2012 that lasted us for two years.  I think of it as the essence of my garden and is a drink to savoured, not guzzled.  I also make a wicked Kumquat Brandy if I can get my hands on some of that fruit during the winter.  It is made utilising a similar infusion process, and tastes equally as nice.

Who else makes a fruit liqueur similar to this?  Does yours infuse for a few months or do you leave it for more than 6 months?