The Greening of Gavin

Finished Building the Front Veggie Patch

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It was full steam ahead on Saturday morning.  Lets get these veggie beds finished was the mission of the day.  If we had time, I wanted the landscaping completed as well.

The day started at 8am when the workers arrived (Megan and Jake), who I quickly dispatched to the Produce shed to get four bales of Lucerne straw.

Whilst they were away, the garden bed soil, which is sold as Mushroom compost garden mix was delivered by truck at 9am.  It was $55 per cubic metre.

I ordered 3.5 cubic metres of soil, which was dumped onto tarps laid on the nature strip.

So before we started we made sure that we had all the necessary tools at hand, and I performed a final inspection of the cardboard that we laid in the beds.  All was well, so we started the next task.

Double thickness newspaper was laid over the top of the cardboard to inhibit weed growth, and provide a bit of food for the worms before they started their ascent into the beds.

Then it was down with the Lucerne straw.  This adds a layer of nitrogen rich material to the bed which will begin to break down under the soil.

Ben was assigned the job of treading down the straw.  He got very excited, but that soon waned.

The next task was to spread manure, in this case pelleted chicken manure.  Liberal handfuls were cast over the straw.  This will act as a composting activator to help break it down quicker.

We watered this layer to add a bit of moisture to the straw, but it dried out quickly.  We began to load up the beds with soil.

The A team filled the wheelbarrow with soil (Megan carted bucketfuls).  Then they took turns in delivering the barrow to the beds.

The B team (me) raked the soil into place.  Both jobs were non-stop, however we did take rest breaks every 30 minutes to make sure that we would last the distance.

Here is the proud crew after the completion of Bed #1.  We made sure the soil was compacted down a little, but still friable.

Bed #2 was filled in about 30 minutes as it was a little smaller.  Then it was on to the landscaping.  We reused lots of black weed matting that I had stored from when we cleared the area.  I also used a light non-woven matting when that I had laying around the shed to finish it off.  We then placed down some pavers that I had piled up in the shed that used to be my original rainwater tank stand.

Once the pavers were down and fairly level, we placed back the pebbles that we had in a big pile.  This finished off the paths between the beds very nicely.  We watered the soil so that it would begin to settle.  As the straw starts to compost, the level will drop, so I expect the beds to reduce over the next two weeks.  That is when I will plant my first crop of potatoes in the large bed.

Surprisingly we finished work at around 1.30pm.  I thought it would take much longer, but with lots of help, and a good methodology, time went quickly.  Great work by the team.  You can see that Ben is conspicuous in his absence, as he tired quickly after moving all the soil.  Good work though, and he kept up with the older two.

So lets have a look around the new beds, shall we?

Here is the back of the beds, and the pavers I was talking about.  The pavers are laid over the weed matting, and then pebbles are placed around them.  The great thing about the landscaping was that we did not have to buy anything.  I reused stuff that we already had, and made it blend in.  Very chuffed.

At the front, Jake dug in the last sleeper to segregate the cherry tree from the garden beds.  It looked really nice once it was all landscaped.

Well look who dropped by.  The caterer!  Kim kept us all fed and watered throughout the day.  Thanks Darling.  You made the day complete.

And this is the view looking over the top of the brick wall.  Looks great doesn’t it.  I am so pleased.  I can’t wait to get some veggie planted.  Even the next door neighbours said it had transformed a very tired looking area.  I totally agree, and it will be edible to boot.

To finish it off, today I sewed flower seeds along the west and northern sides of the garden beds.  Not in the beds themselves, but at the base of them.  I raked back some of the stone, spread the seed, then spread a bit of soil from the beds on top.  Hopefully in a week or two we should see the start of some Forget-me-nots, Marigolds, and Nasturtiums.  I expect that these flowers will attract the bees, which will be most welcome.  We do have many bees pollinating the stone fruit trees, but a few more will not hurt, especially when I plant pumpkins and zucchinis.

Anyway, a great way to end winter.  What do you think?  Did these beds scrub up okay?

Veggies in the Front Yard

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Ludacris.  Unheard of.  Insane.  What if someone steals them? How many vegetables do you really need?  Rubbish I say!

These are all comments that others have said when I mentioned that I was going to build a veggie patch in my front yard.  Fortunately, I do not listen to comments such as these and tend to forge my own path in life, especially my sustainable path.

So this weekend, a long talked about plan came to fruition.  We finally had the money, materials, and the man/woman power to make these garden beds.

For those who don’t know, we have terrible soil around our area.  With only about an inch of topsoil, and then it is dense clay.  Great soil for the indigenous flora, but not so good for annual vegetables.  So we have to build our own soil, or make raised garden beds.  I chose the latter, as you get much faster results.

However, here is what I had to play with.  It was a rather big area that was devoid of moisture in the soil due to a massive and old pine tree that was beginning to lose its limbs.

So down came the tree, which we cut into firewood for the clay oven.

We also removed an overgrown bush.  We also had to move a Cherry tree that was engulfed by masses of golden oxalis.  We transplanted the cherry tree to near the front gate, and cleared the area.

We then went about designing the beds.  After a few attempts, we came up with this.

Two L shapes with one inverted.  It gave us over 11 square metres of additional growing space, which is very close to the size of my four main veggie beds on the west side of the house.  North is to the left of the plan.

We chose River Red Gum, harvested from sustainably managed forests.  It is a dense hardwood that will last for many decades, probably longer than I will.   We needed two lengths.  2400mm (8 ft) and 3000mm (10 ft).  The width was 50mm (2 inches) and the hight was 200mm (8 inches).

So the willing (and paid) workers for the day were Jake, Amy, and Megan, with Kim on catering, and me supervising under strict orders by all not to lift anything heavy due to my back.  The first bed started to come together after about two hours of preparation.

However, we came across a snag.  The pine tree stump was so high that we could not get the garden bed level.  So it was out with the trusty axe to chop out the lateral roots.  It took Amy, Megan and I about an hour to cut through and dig it out.

It was time for a well deserved rest after we had cut the wood for the second tier of the first bed.

Then we constructed the second bed.  Jake (a carpenter by trade) brought along his nail gun, drop saw, and various other tools which made the work so much easier.  We used hot dipped galvanised nails to fasten it all together.

Nice selfie Megan.  You can see my transplanted cherry tree just over her shoulder, and all the real workers in the background!

I must say that Jake really loves his nail gun, as every joint was fixed with about six or seven nails.  It will never come apart in my lifetime.

We started on the second layer, which was much easier once we had the first in place.  Some of the wood was so warped that we had to forgo the nails and use bugle head screws.  These massive screws helped straighten the wood at the joints.

Once the second layer to the first bed was completed it was on to finish off the second bed before it started to rain.

You can imagine our aching muscles by this stage, but we soldiered on, laid thick cardboard under each bed to stop the weeds from breaking through, and cleaned up.  There were not many red gum offcuts due to Ben’s maths skills.  I tasked him to study the design and then calculate how many pieces of wood we would need to minimise waste.  He was spot on, and there was only a small bucket of offcuts that I will use in the clay oven as fuel for the next pizza night.  Clever lad.

Anyway, with the beds complete, it was time to call it a day and take the mandatory silly photo!  We were bone tired, but very pleased with our efforts.

We are taking a break next weekend.  In a fortnight we will be filling the beds in the same style as I documented in this post titled “How To Make Raised Garden Beds For Vegetables“.

Just in time for spring planting.  I will be growing sweet corn and lots of spuds, with a bit of room for pumpkins and melons which will sprawl over the edges.  This will let me plant out the main beds with Tomatoes, leafy greens, eggplants, chillies, capsicums (bell peppers), and the like.

I love reclaiming unproductive space around our yard.  It is amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.  Who says you can’t grow food in your front yard?

How To Make Raised Garden Beds For Vegetables

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My mother in law Pam, recently asked how I made the garden beds in my veggie patch. This is the story of how I did it!

In late April 2007, I began to plan an organic vegetable garden for one side of our house. We had a garden (if you could call it that), that was the main entrance and it was half dead because of the lack of rain. We thought that if we built the garden beds as a feature of the house then we were more likely to maintain it. This was based on permaculture principles (not that I knew this at the time), whereby your basic food needs should be as close to the back door as practical. Well, our patch was going to be at the main entrance, so even better. Everyone who visited it would see the wonder of our vegetable patch in all its glory!

Before the transformation

I based the design on the “No Dig Garden” developed by Esther Dean. I read her little book, which was full of great information about establishing a garden for Australian conditions. I modified the method slightly as per the excellent book “Greeniology”, by Tanya Ha, and added raised garden beds to make it easier to work on. The soil in Melton is clay based and is very hard when dry. There was very little organic matter in the first 2 cm of topsoil, so I had to improve the soil before I planted and improve drainage.

I decided to use redressed old red gum sleepers as the frame for the beds and constructed them 2100 x 1200 x 100 cm and spaced the beds 70 cm apart. This was enough space to lay some pavers for a little path between each bed. The beds were fastened together with 100 mm galvanised nails with a butt joint, and the wood was so hard that I had to pre-drill each nail hole. During the construction I managed to hit my left shin with the full force of a hammer blow! It swelled up like a melon. Nice and sore for the rest of the day, but some ice helped the swelling go down.

Just after construction circa May 2007.

As recommended by Esther Dean’s book, I filled the beds in the following order. The first layer was a cover of cardboard and newspaper about 5 sheets thick. This ground cover was to kill the weeds, grass and provide food for the earthworms. Next was a 10 cm layer of either Lucerne hay or pea straw. I chose pea straw and Amy and Megan laid it for me. The third layer was a 2 cm layer of Dynamic Lifter (you can use well-rotted sheep or chicken manure). For the four beds I finished off an entire 25 Kg bag of very smelly Dynamic Lifter. I then covered the DL with another 5 cm layer of pea straw and then a layer 20 cm thick of mushroom compost garden mix.

I think it was a 50-50 mix of mushroom compost and a loam type soil. It was filled with organic matter and was very suitable for the purpose of growing vegetables. I ordered 2 cubic metres and used it all! Adam lugged most of it from the roadside and Kim and I raked it level in each bed. Lastly, I topped it off with a 5cm layer of sugar cane mulch, to help conserve water by stopping evaporation.

How to make raised garden beds - Layers

It was a very satisfying feeling to finish all of the beds in one weekend.  The garden beds have settled over the years with the cardboard and newspaper eventually being eaten by earthworms, as has the layers of straw.  I top up each bed with about 10 cm of home made compost each year, just before planting the next crop.

Back to the story.  It was time to planting my veggies. Two great books helped me to decide how and what to plant where, “The Australian Fruit and Vegetable Garden” by Clive Blazey, and the “Organic Gardener” by Jeffrey Hodges. They taught me about how crop rotation works, what vegetables to plant in what season, how to compost successfully, and the science of mulching. I highly recommend each of these books for anyone starting out in growing your own food.  Both were available at my local library.

I knew that planting in May was not the best time to sow, and that being late in Autumn 2007 it was better to plant seedlings where possible. So it was off to the hardware store to buy a selection. I only chose what I thought the kids and Kim would eat, so as to cut down on wastage. I planted broad beans, snow peas and peas in the first bed; beetroot, carrots, spring onions, and Spanish white onions in the second bed. In the third I planted green dragon broccoli, mini cauliflower, Savoy cabbages, red cabbage, and Brussels sprouts (big mistake). In the fourth and last bed I planted a herb garden but soon moved all the herbs to large pots so they were easier to manage. I replaced the herbs with a second crop of broccoli of a different variety, and a few more cabbages. Ben loves broccoli, hence the reason I planted so many.

Everything was successful and I harvested gradually over the next few months. The snow peas were first and we couldn’t stop grazing straight from the bush. The only vegetable that didn’t make it to the table was the Brussels sprouts for two reasons a). no-one liked them except me and b). the heads did not form properly, so I broke them up and added the plants to the compost.

Two years after the transformation.

I can positively say that all of my organically produced food tasted fantastic. Fresh, crisp carrots, eye watering onions (I pickled 50% of them) and mouth-watering broccoli. I could go on forever about the taste, but I won’t, however I do urge you to grow your own vegetables if you have the room. Even in pots if you have a balcony!

There is very little maintenance if you mulch well.  I water from the rainwater tank about three times a week depending on the frequency of the natural rainfall.  I would say that between the planting and harvesting, I would spend about five hours a week working in the veg patch.  Not much of a sacrifice, and much better than watching the rubbish available on the television these days.

Early days in my garden after landscaping.

Besides, the view is so much better outside!

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