Wednesday, October 29, 2008

NO DIG GARDEN BED

Since I wanted to grow some pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers and a few other rambling plants and don't have the space for them to ramble in our yard I have decided to utilise some of the land outside of our fences. The land is council land, walkways between our house and the next. There is a paved pathway between the houses and grass on our side and on the neighbours side too. I have planted about 15 natives out on the council land to give our place privacy and I maintain the area by mowing and looking after the trees. The natives I have planted are a few metres from our boundary so this is the spot I have reclaimed for my vegetables to grow. Hopefully they will be protected from passes by and hidden by the native trees so no one helps themselves to the vegetables. Although since it isn't actually my land I don't mind sharing with the neighbours. I just don't want the veges I hopefully grow to dissapear overnight.
I planted three pumpkin seedlings in a very rought no dig garden mid September and they are growing really well. I was thrilled to see a couple of pumpkins forming on one of the plants.
For this no dig garden bed I layed newspaper over the grass, added lawn mower clippings, blood and bone and a few bucket loads of dirt from another garden bed. Into the dirt I planted the seedlings.

Today I made another raised no dig garden. For this one I bordered the garden with old palm leaves as the sides of the garden bed. Then placed a thick layer of grass clipping onto the existing grass. Followed by newspaper, fertiliser, sugarcane, compost and more sugar cane mulch. I am going to let the garden settle for a week or two before planting out with cucumbers and watermelons.

Eventually I will extend the garden bed the whole length of the fence which will more than double the existing vege patch I have in my yard. This area is perfectly positioned for sun. But watering will be an issue as I will need to bucket water to the veges. from the tap in our front yard as the hose wont reach.

M xx

1 comment:

Kelly said...

what a great idea! good on you. dont they call people like you 'geurilla gardeners'. i love it.

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