We have added two new raised garden beds to the back garden this week. I had them made in non-standard sizes to fit into the spaces available. One is 900mm in diameter and one is 700 mm and both are 400 high. They are the same colour as my oval ones, but a bit taller. I have learned that I need to be able to walk around the garden to do maintenance and to harvest my crop, but that there is still quite a bit of space available for more crops.
I filled the new beds with half a bag of rehydrated coir, half a bin of compost and 2 bags of potting mix. I feel that I am getting better results from my compost this year due to the addition of more carbon material and the shredder I got for Mother's Day. I have learned to be more bold with my scrounging for carbon -I forage in the park out the back of my place for fallen branches - I have to be quick after a storm because the council comes and takes them away! I have also made contact with someone with guinea pigs who is willing to save the bedding and droppings for me.
My nearly 3 year old grandson helped to plant one of the beds with some seedling lettuces.
In the picture above we have an oval bed with asparagus, snow peas, rainbow chard and beetroots; one oval bed with more beetroot and garlic and lettuce, a new round lettuce bed, a former olive tub with a small fig tree and a former olive tub with oregano -waiting for its summer crop of mild chillis. The other bed will be planted with kale and beans.
There is a bit of a casual edge planting under these raised beds -thyme and marigolds are self seeding along the edge and softening it a bit. I noticed a borage plant has emerged too.
You can just see the citrus grove -we have tangello, grapefruit, mandarin, meyer lemon, lime and kaffir lime in this part of the garden. In spring they are blanketed with nasturtiums which self seed.
I am continuing to try to document my gardening with a simple journal -and it is already worth the effort because I can look back to see what I did as an intervention, and how long it took to get a result. In the summer, for example, I give the roses a dose of worm wee and the next week I get more flowers!
If you are a person of faith, or no faith, I wish you all joy in waging peace and caring for the earth.
Here are some inspirational links for you this week
2 comments:
I love reading how people garden in different parts of the world, it is the same yet different too. We have a wormery here too, they are amazing aren't they? Your raised beds look wonderful, so practical.
Oh they make all the difference! I love my red wiggler worms in my compost pile! I bring them up to the cabin and put them to work in that soil. I need to add more carbon to my compost pile, too. Using the small branches is a good idea. I'll have to do the same.
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