Transformed

I thought I'd post a few photos showing the progression from the sad lawn to happy veggies.
I couldn't have hoped for it to have gone any better.

19th of March 2010

1st of April 2010

7th of November 2010



Ready to go

It's nearly time for the main crop. I went to an agricultural supply place in Carlisle and got some 2400mm star pickets. These will be strung with wire to form a sort of cage for the tomatoes to grow in. I don't know why you can't get decent sized stakes from nurseries for tomatoes. They sell the seedlings knowing the stakes they supply wont be tall enough. Why? Anyway, this long weekend is planting time. 



Topping Up

Six weeks after filling the E bed, above, it had composted down nicely to the level below. The greenery at the front of the bed are some peas that came up fromt the pea straw. This is the bottom leg of the E that's filled with soil rather than the no-dig layers, a bit of bonus nitrogen fixing.

So it was time for another layer of sheep/cow poo blend, some dolomite and wheat straw, but only on the no-dig part of the bed. I watered this in then spread some blood & bone/sulphate of potash mix over the top. This brought it back up to the level below. I'll be planting in this at the begining of October. Maybe mid September for the cucumbers.

Green Manure

On the14th of August, two months after planting, I dug in the green manure along with a bag of chook manure and some more dolomite. This is now compostng down ready for the tomatoes and eggplants around the end of September/early October. In retrospect I might have overdone it a bit with the manure. A bit late now though.

The E shaped bed

17/7/10 – Time to fill the E shaped bed. I had 20 x 100 litre bags of manure delivered, 10 chook and 10 cow/sheep mix. I borrowed a friend’s ute to pick up 15 bales of straw, 5 pea and 10 wheat. The majority of this bed is going to be a no dig garden. I over ordered the soil for the first three beds so I filled the bottom arm of the E with that mixed with a bag each of chook manure and a bag of sheep/cow blend, blood & bone, (with 10:1 potash), and dolomite lime.
Now to the remainder of the bed. I’ve ended up with 9 layers to fill the bed to about 100mm above the top of the border as follows...
A good thick layer of newspaper to try and stop that couch grass coming through
Wheat straw
Chook manure with a handful of dolomite lime per square meter
Pea straw
Sheep/cow manure with a handful of dolomite lime per square meter
Wheat straw with a handful of rock dust per square meter.
Chook manure with a handful of dolomite lime.
Pea straw with a handful of blood & bone per square meter. The blood and bone had sulphate of potash mixed in to a ratio of 10:1.
Sheep/cow manure with a handful of dolomite lime and rock dust per square meter.
Wheat straw with a handful of blood & bone potash mix.
After a few days I dug down into this brew and it was HOT. Just as planned. It will now compost down nicely ready for spring.

I also concreted in three 75mm x 50mm x 3400mm steel posts and strung these with 2.5mm wire. They are this heavy to support the perpendicular pumpkins.

First planting

Planted

And growing

On the 7th of June I planted Telephone Peas, Broad Beans (Early Longpod), Radishes (French Breakfast), Carrots (All Season) and Rocket in bed one. Impatient to grow I also planted some Pak Choi and Cavelo Nero seedlings in bed two.

 

Filling them up

On the 29th of May 2010 I had a truck load of premium soil delivered and filled the first three beds. After filling the beds half way I dug in a 100L bag of sheep manure and a hand full each of the following per square meter. Dolomite lime, 10:1 mix of blood & bone/sulphate of potash, dynamic lifter and rock dust. I then added more soil and the same again adding an extra bag of manure. In the bed nearest the house I only added the first bag of manure as I wanted to plant this in a weeks time. Basically because I'm impatient.

Raising the beds

I went through all the options when deciding on how to raise the beds. In the past I've used sleepers but eventually went with the corrugated steel option. I went to Rainfill Tanks with my design and they were happy to build these custom sized beds.

As you may have noticed I sent the palm trees to hell along with the grass.

Death To Lawn

I hate lawn, all lawn, but couch in particular. The old saw says that only cockroaches would survive a nuclear war. If this is true they would be running around on couch lawn stretching to the horizon. For the rest of this blog you'll hear no more talk of poison, everything organic. I'm sorry though, couch is different, couch deserves glyphosate. So rightly or wrongly that's what it got. 

Then I dug it up and hid the bodies.