raised vegetable gardens Archives

square foot wicking

November 16, 2017 No Comments

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.

Garden

our garden transformation

November 8, 2017 No Comments

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.

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!

Garden

community rehabilitation garden – stage 1

November 2, 2014 5 Comments

Hidden away, just off busy Mount Alexander Road there is a little community with a patch of lawn that dreamed of being something more.

After months of life-affirming moments: fly-fishing with a reconstructive surgeon in Oregon, building Earthships in New Mexico, green woodworking in the Sussex forest, wild camping in Napoleon’s pine forests; it was hard to find inspiration touching down into the old rhythm. After weeks of work, eat, sleep, finally a project brought me out of my stupor and gave colour, energy and meaning back into my world. I hope it touches others as deeply.

The residents of Norfolk Terrace are coping with long-term serious mental illness and disability and we were asked to design a permaculture garden to engage them in growing their own fresh food. We hope as well as turning a bland patch of grass into an edible garden, this becomes a place to building connections and community.

6am awaking with a start to a downpour, 3 years to the day since our own Permablitz was a near wash out, who says Melbourne weather is unpredictable? 8:30 ticked over and the rain had eased so…what the heck, let’s just go for it, if only a hand full of people show for two hours it would still accomplish more than us slogging to complete it by ourselves (and more importantly the sausages and vegetarian delights were already prepared and waiting)!

The residents hadn’t slept well, what with the hot night and the storm, they might not be roused to show up, Greg, a staff member, informed us with an apologetic grimace. We’d heard it before, don’t expect too much, wandering enthusiasm, and the like, but in my honest heart a Permablitz without the residents would be disappointing. Oh well, our volunteers (those undeterred by rain) were pouring in and there was a promising crevasse in the clouds, we threw ourselves into the business of making a permaculture paradise!

It only took a few minutes for Tony to prove him wrong, rocking up to observe, joke and water when required despite his tricky heart. Then another shy smiling resident came to tuck our pile of turf into bed, our main man when it came to covering grass with hessian to stop it sprouting. Tony pointed out it looked like the grave of someone with a loooong body, a boa constrictor a volunteer suggested.

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To the delight of the workers the rain restrained itself to only spitting and that only after we had worked in warm sun long enough to need cooling off. Smiles were wide and laughter was easy, everyone was excited to construct raised garden wicking beds, despite having to do some tricky levelling off the ground beforehand. Elsewhere the brick laying gang finished their pretty angled edging of the no-dig gardens and were rewarded with a little planting. Although unplanned the CERES donations of punnets and punnets of corn and white cucumbers meant we could try out the three sisters’ method of planting: hungry/thirsty corn, with trailing vines to keep the soil moist and beans to climb up the stalks and fix nitrogen into the soil.

Lunch was ready just in time as hard working bellies began to growl. Sausages went down a treat with the omnivores who were also pleasantly suprised by the vegetarian fare of beetroot burgers and delicious quinoa salad with grilled mushrooms. The work had been going along well so volunteers, residents and staff relaxed for a chat while everything digested.

After the last crumbs were brushed from beards and raincoats Dylan ran a wicking bed workshop, which I will paraphrase in a future post. Sand and compost went in and then those who had been pushing wheelbarrows for most of the day had a chance to finish it off with some onions and eggplant seedlings.

The sun started to halo our workers as the afternoon wore on just as the finishing touches were going into the second brick no-dig garden. It was planted with adwarf manderine, buddha’s fingers, tea plant, maqui berry and artichokes which would form an edible evergreen hedge to the south of the raised vegetable gardens. As the sand was levelled in the second wicking bed it struck 5pm and Dylan could only usher everyone off by promising a second Permabee to finish off the two other wicking beds this Tuesday. Now if having to bribe your volunteers with another day of labouring isn’t a sign of a happy and successful Blitz, I don’t know what is! Thanks to everyone who came and a special thank you to Norfolk Terrace and the Flemington Neigbourhood Learning Centre for making this happen.

If anyone is interested in attenting the Permabee on Tuesday 4th November contact us at info@thedesertecho.com and to be involved as a volunteer at the Norfolk garden please contact pip@fsnlc.net 9376 9088, we will be running workshops for residents every Friday morning and welcome volunteers to help out.

P.S. You might like to our Community Food Forest Permablitz post

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