I’m taking the time while I have Dylan around to shake off the thick layer of digital dust my photo archive has been gathering. I have so many moments to share it’s hard to pick what to tick off first.
Baby is in a feather light sleep next to me which involves a lot of dummy sucking and arm flailing, but let’s see if I can finally post these photos of what was happening in the food forest as spring turned to summer. Today a scorching hot day, so I imagine it will look a lot different when we next visit. So glad we have a watering system!
Things were too hectic with the new baby to capture the apple blossom in all its powder pink glory, but we were organised enough this year to net the apricot and peach against fruit fly and the red apple against the birds. The billowing white nets are actually quite beautiful in a way, they float above the thick carpet of yarrow like a mist of benign ghosts.
Last year the feijoa had its first two, maybe three flowers. Now it is covered in red Christmas bauble blossoms. The jar of parsley seeds I saved from home and lazily broadcast months ago has also come good. The umbels are beautiful under the trees and promise we will have parsley this coming year too without having to resow. The nasturtiums and pepinos had withered in the late frosts, but their massive amount of regrowth following has smothered all competitors.
The food forest was looking a bit grim in November and I thought it just couldn’t cope without my attention, which had been elsewhere while I was pregnant. Turns out all it needed was a good water after a dry winter and a broken timer on the watering system. Drip irrigation operational and some heavy downpours saw the food forest lush and green in a matter of weeks. The weeds also awakened though and we had to do quite a lot of grass pulling.
The silvanberry fruit are ripening and unlike the thornless bramble we have at home birds seem less willing to grasp their stems to feast.
No time to obsess over paint swatches for the nursery, my nesting was all about gardening.
Normally winter hits me hard. It’s cold, it’s dull and leaving work when the street lights are lit, deflates what little spirit is left in me. The weather is not conducive to plant growth or a sunny disposition. This winter was different though. Perhaps the promise of our little babe softened its chill. Definitely the addition of a bedroom heater made mornings a little less spartan; the outrageous power bill was a problem for spring me to deal with. Of course, those frigid days make it the perfect time to plan and prepare the garden for the spring. However my activities were limited as our baby rapidly cycled through the fruits and vegetables from poppy-seed towards watermelon. By the time she hit cantaloupe size I had great empathy for hedgehog “trying to get out of bread”. I was able to do the dreaming, but needed to call in some physical philanthropists to do the doing.
Time was running out before I popped and I feared, quite justifiably it turns out that after she was born I wouldn’t have time to get anything done. Less than a month before giving birth, saw me join the rosy-cheeked group of permablitz volunteers to completely renovate the Farnham St Community Garden.
The design
Key features
5 seat height wicking beds
5 standing height wicking beds
2 large communal garden beds with drip irrigation
4 reused corrugated metal garden beds
Mulch paths
Existing features
Adjacent to neighbourhood house, food forest and playground
Water tanks connected to roof
Worm farms
Hot compost bays made from recycled pallets
Compost bins
The Problem
The garden had a lot of heart, but only the hardiest gardeners ever stuck it long enough to see multiple summers. When our little one starts toddling I want her to have a beautiful space to learn about growing food, surrounded by a passionate community. We needed to reinvigorate the garden to attract and keep the young professionals and families who to this point found the upkeep too hard. Accessibility needed to be improves as well for the stalwarts who have kept it running. It had to be a joy to maintain not a chore.
The existing garden was shaded and sucked dry by the towering eucalypt. It demanded a twice weekly watering roster in the summer holidays when everyone would rather be relaxing at the beach. The low sleeper beds with their narrow paths between also excluded people with back issues or disabilities from enjoying the garden. We warred a hopeless battle against Kikuyu grass which was continuously invading and pillaging nutrients from the gardens, it was hard, demoralising work.
The Plan
The invasive grass needed to be completely removed. We suggested it be replaced with mulch paths that could manage the water over flow from the garden beds. Near the gum tree, raised wicking beds in two different sizes were custom-made by MODbox to suit our geometric design. These beds will only require fortnightly filling of their water reservoirs once plants are established. The layout is as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional. The paths are wide enough for a wheel barrow and even a pram, something I never would have thought about before being pregnant. I am really grateful for this now!
The tops of the beds are capped to allow them to double as seats with sustainably harvested cypress used instead of merbau on special request. The L shaped border beds will be connected to the food forest’s drip irrigation system. This is where we will grow communal crops that can be harvested for use in the houses’ cooking classes. Hopefully soon the less than charming chain link fence will be covered with lush pumpkin vines, ripe strawberries dripping over the edge to be plucked by little hands.
It is exciting to have the opportunity to breath new life into the garden. All this was made possible by the tenacity of Pip from FSNLC who had the unglamorous task of securing grants. Let’s hope that this new garden will encourage more community members to invest some time into the garden.
The Permablitz
Every great cause needs a tireless leader. Pat made sure the day was a success, not only by facilitating the permablitz, but spending weeks beforehand coordinating: the deconstruction of the existing garden, re-use of resources and the inevitable mountains of gravel, sand and soil that wicking beds require. Besides, it is no mean feat to keep a motley crew of blitzers happy, hydrated, sated and on schedule!
The MODboxes arrived on pallets and once we got our head around the instructions it was great fun putting the beds together, like adult lego! We were lucky to have some tradies attend, and they were good-natured enough to let us bully them into setting out all the beds to make sure they were level. The layout is the moment when installations by volunteers can veer from wonky charm into a hot mess. I’m not going to lie, having some experts involved took the pressure off considerably. We could confidently leave them to work away while we instructed the other volunteers to build up the layers. By the end of the day it looked amazing, leaving us itching to get planting.
It is always astounding the amount of work blitzers can accomplish in a day, that magic moment when a sketch becomes a reality. By lunchtime it always feels like you will be left with piles of unmoved soil. Then suddenly, perhaps reinvigorated by lunch, the crew shovels, and barrows and the garden in transformed. How beautiful to have such a fantastic bunch of people sacrifice their weekend to make this happen.
Removing grass and levelling groundSlotting timbers together to form baseBuilding up the layers
Attaching the liner Installing the overflow
Checking depth of gravel reservoir Food grade liner Geofabric and fill with soil
Adding the cappingPlanting the communal beds with salvaged strawberries
Everything is glistening wet. My freshly planted seedlings have been released from their prison of shadecloth, only slightly singed. Is it only gardeners who feel relief when a storm breaks a 30C streak?
My wicking beds are finally filled and the faces of tiny bean seedlings have pushed through the soil. I had forgotten that feeling of sweet expectancy, waiting for life. Garden it has been too long!
After fantastic results with square foot gardening in my community garden bed I have carefully laid out a grid and begun companion planting a bed of strawberries and tomatoes. It’s a fantastic method for people like me who enjoy getting their watercolours out for a good planning sesh. Crop rotation covered!
Installing drip irrigation and wicking beds is going to reduce my mosquito bites dramatically this summer, no more standing in the dark reviving shriveled seedling! Soon some more wicking beds should be sprouting up in Flemington and Ballarat, as we repay in labour our friends and family who helped move sand, gravel and soil into our raised beds. For anyone interested in understanding how wicking beds work I can highly recommend VEG’s wicking bed site.
I’ve got high expectations for the year’s gardening now I can capture winter sun and hopefully protect my plants from dehydration. I have gone through quite a few variegated oregano and thyme plants in the past so all my optimism is resting on the shoulders of my new pretty herb purchases. Let’s hope it’s not too much of an emotion burden for them to bear and they are bolstered by their new home. Next I want to get my hands on some willow, because tomato stakes just don’t cut it when a woven teepee could be had instead.
It’s 8:14 and the sky has only just shaded a dusky purple. I’m so glad it’s spring!
This winter was particularly dreary because I spent the entirety studying and taking my architecture registration exams. Darkness and endless pages of notes to read, that dragging unending exhaustion. So this spring is particularly special, I’m filled with the energy that only comes after being tied to a desk for the last four months. There is just so much time to enjoy life!
So I funneled all those bouncing beans of energy into a project I had been dreaming of through dark winter evenings. Raised garden beds to capture the sun that brushes a fingernail of light across the back of our south facing garden in winter. Ever the demanding apprentice, I kept a fire lit under Dylan to ensure a Cup Day planting of tomatoes. He did such an excellent job mainly using hand tools, what a champ! It’s so fun to see how the garden has transformed.Next post, filling the wicking beds…
Bare fences begging for edible vines + green starting to invade the concrete pavers. Hanging baskets, strawbale raised garden + seat positioned to capture that sliver of sun.
2014 our garden when we moved
2015Winter 2017
Charlie given a boost in 2014
fences down
Taking the fence down was another step towards creating our little patch of resilient retrosurburbia and doubling it! The fence divided our house and my parents and with it gone we have brought light into their garden and a mini “bushland” aspect into ours.
Charlie was particularly pleased with the extra pats!
