Wall Fruit for the chooks!
I found all these living in my sweet peas!!! (She says a little bit indignantly!)
The girls were very excited to get a plate of slimy crunchy goodness!!
At least there are patches in here that actually look like I mean to have a garden!
Today we drove up the highway to pick up 20 sheets of corrugated iron and a couple of gates – also some wire.
Tomorrow hope to get some posts and cement as I would really like to make an actual start!
I settled for roping out the entire proposed boundary.
I did start pulling up this fence but didn’t get so far. Maybe tomorrow. The first gate I want at the top here… thats a bit of an issue as there is a lemon tree right there at the entrance. But really – it hasn’t done anything in the several years that its been there… so… maybe its time to give up on it.
Sigh… I know its going to look better soon. Everything is so manky tho!
I whacked in a few steel droppers to outline with rope the area. Gave me a good sense of how much space I will be getting!! (You know, because I can totally keep up with what I have already!!!)(not)
I think I will be filling the area bit by bit with raised beds and killing off the grass. But in the meantime, the garden will be accessible to the mower to keep it under control as I get organised as we won’t be able to afford to do it all at once.
Anyway, I suspect with one thing and another, we have a busy summer ahead!
Hope everyone has fabulous weekend plans!
Cheers!
(Pear blossoms)
Hi Lisa,
Have you considered covering the grass with plastic or cardboard and wood chips until you have all your raised beds up? I believe woodchips is universally cheap and freely available.
If you dont know about it already google Back to Eden Gardening. Theres an awesome video on Youtube about it. Here by me in South Africa it sometimes feel like your trying to garden in a dessert. The sun bakes the soil mercilessly till its nothing but dry sand… The BTE gardening method has improved this sooo much. My second year with this gardening method and my plants in there are thriving. I cant wait to do my whole veg patch.
I definitely second Harry’s suggestion to cover with cardboard in readiness for planting.
Back to Eden is very good but it does depend on where you garden. In the usually soggy UK we have so many slugs that woodchip can be a bit of a nightmare. I mulch with compost which seems to be less appealing to slugs and snails as a home. Try googling Charles Dowding for no dig and composted mulches if Tasmania has slugs…
Both systems mean less or no digging which I think is a good thing for soil health, my back and saving time 🙂
Hi Hazel!! I’ll be writing these things down so I can remember to get back to having a proper look! Somehow it has become 2am without me noticing it creeping up!! erk! I am useless at being a responsible adult! 🙂
We will get more slugs early in the season then they dry up a bit as the summer wears on. I like the idea of digging less!!
I guess I need to get that fence up then start working out what will happen within its boundaries!! Maybe I should try one of those systems in part of the duck yard garden… which has gone a bit feral! lol
Have a wonderful weekend! xx
Hi Harry! Yes. I think both you and Hazel are quite right to suggest covering the grass – I have a lot of newspaper and I will probably use the seaweed grass (since thats the easiest thing here thats free. I’ll have to make time to check out that back to Eden gardening. I think I have heard about it before but not followed up to go see. Its sounds a really good thing for dry climates – which is what the rest of Australia suffers from too!! I think it would be useful to know more and even try it as there are a number of people on my little gardening page on Facebook that struggle with the hot dry summers. I am glad you are having success with it! Its wonderful when something works!!
Have a great weekend and thanks so much for the suggestions!!
Lisa, your honey works in a hospital. Could he get access to cardboard boxes there? My HH is doing home peritoneal dialysis and the boxes that enclose the sugar water are the strongest, thickest cardboard boxes I’ve ever seen. Used them as the bottom of my raised beds. Only a nasty black berry with HUGE thorns worked its way through them. I ripped off all the tape and used the boxes double. Then piled on compost and sifted soil [extremely rocky soil] and well rotted horse manure. Plants simply loved it!
Note, in the US, one has to be careful where horse manure is sourced. Certain sprays used to contain weeds pass through the horse’s digestive system and are still active enough to kill off or highly restrict plant growth in its “new” home. Google deadly compost, and you will read many horror stories.
Thanks for the suggestion!! I’ll get him on the job when he goes back to work. He has annual leave until the end of the month which is nice!! 🙂
Good strong boxes would be ideal to thwart some of those persistent weeds! (although I am surprised how well the seaweed has worked considering I didn’t layer the underneath with newspaper or anything!)
Wow re the horse poo!! Wonder what it does to the poor animal! I wonder what it is like around here? I know we have different products and laws compared to the US. I have never really looked into it before though.
Have a lovely week xx