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This year (2008) I got the idea I wanted to grow some vegies in my backyard. From time to time I have grown a few herbs. I also have a lemon tree and recently planted a passionfruit vine but vegetables haven't really got a guernsey.

I have absolutely no qualifications re gardening, in fact my old man calls me "dr death" when it comes to plants. That is a little harsh but I will admit a few plants have died while in my care. As with my brewing pages, I tend not to edit out the mistakes or whatever - that is all part of learning as far as I am concerned (see Yeast/Culturing for my first failed attempt at plating yeast).

No Dig Garden

This kind of garden seems to be the go. Any search on Google will find you lots of hits on this topic. They sometimes vary on the detail but pretty much have the following in common:

1. Don't bother digging, just create it on top of pretty much any surface.
2. A bottom layer of soggy newspaper to kill weeds. Not really necessary if you are starting with concrete.
3. Alternating layers of manure/compost/mulch where mulch is of the lighter (eg pea straw kind) not bark.

I won't bother with links, google is your friend here. I easily found several good articles.

Blog

2008-03-01 Bottomless Pit

Well I cleared out the hole down to the clay, cut some sleepers and I was staring at a gaping hole. Man even a small hole like this can take a heap of chook poo. I have already thrown in, 3 bags chook poo, 1 bag "composted cow manure" and a stack of compost and the rest of my pea straw and I am barely up to the bottom of the sleepers. Hopefully stuff will grow in it.

The plastic sleeve around the post was a tip off from Christine on the Melbourne Food Network list. Should keep the post out of direct contact with the manure.

At least I have found a local supply of cheap manure by the bag - VermontFuel.

2008-02-21 My First "No Dig" Garden

My first "no dig" garden actually involved digging (more accurately, jack hammer work). Now I know this isn't necessary, but I wanted to join it up with an existing garden bed. It was actually pretty tough smashing through 4 inches of reinforced concrete but nevermind. Oh yeah and now I have half a trailer load of smashed concrete I need to get rid of.

The Hallertau hop vine growing up the other side of the post has seen better days (see HopGrowing) when I watered it and limited it to 3 bines. Being late Feb I have just grabbed some seedlings from the local nursery but my plan is to start growing stuff from seed. I will probably move the hop vine somewhere else and maybe grow some kiwi fruit.

I thought for a small area (about 2m sq) I would just buy some bagged compost. The "composted cow manure" fom Banksia nurseries seemed to be the go. Unfortunately when I opened the bag, there was lots of stuff other than cow manure (unless these cows have been eating tree bark). On the bright side I had a wheelbarrow load of compost/vermicast that had been sitting around for a while.

This "bed" needs just a bit more work. Given that I am not so happy with the first bag of manure I will look around for something with a bit more manure content. This seems to be a challenge (any tips appreciated!). Gives me another post to grow say a male kiwi fruit on.

Note that this one will be built up to the level of the bed behind it (around sleeper height) so I probably didn't need to dig this. Since I had hired the jack hammer I thought "what the heck" and furthermore, fruit trees might need a little more expansive root system.

The green growing along the sleeper it gotu kola I think (pennywort?) and the trunk of a small lemon tree is in the background.