My Garden Gnome, or Mr Elf, whichever you prefer, has been giving our back yard a makeover.
First. Clearing the area of matted couch grass gone wild.
Second. Lots of digging. My Garden Gnome is good at digging, even though he has a sore back.
First. Clearing the area of matted couch grass gone wild.
Second. Lots of digging. My Garden Gnome is good at digging, even though he has a sore back.
My Garden Gnome digging in the garden Third. Design the yard. Draft it all on AutoCAD, a computer program Mr Gnome was an expert on in the past.
There was three times this much soil to screen. Fourth. Screening two cubic metres of soil from an earlier project to take out all the weeds and all the stones in the soil.
Building a garden bed Fifth. Build some raised garden beds. Engineering skills were called into action, lots of sleepers bought, and many trips to that famous all purpose handyman store, Bunnings. Pretty jazzy design isn't it? This is the fourth bed. They are all different designs.
Covering the base the garden bed with lucerne hay Sixth. Filling the bed. We started off with a layer of lucerne hay. This is bed No.2. It needed to be this shape to fit beside out chicken's shed. Garden Gnome is also pretty good at moving wheelbarrows full of soil. Heavy work there!
We added chicken manure from our chicken sheds, cow manure, soaked coir to retain the moisture, some compost, and lots of other goodies along the way.
We added chicken manure from our chicken sheds, cow manure, soaked coir to retain the moisture, some compost, and lots of other goodies along the way.
Zucchinis taking over the garden bed Growing veggies
I had some potatoes with eyes that had been hanging around for just too long, so they were first in the bed. Next came some carrot seed, and zucchini. Well the zucchini plants were tiny when we planted them, but, you know what? They grew and grew, and grew. They ended up with leaves twice the size of my head. The leaves covered the carrots so we didn't get any carrots. The potatoes grew and grew too. We have harvested zucchinis and potatoes.
I have decided that I don't like the leaves of the zucchini. They are very prickly and they spread everywhere. So maybe next year, they will not be invited back, although it was lovely to eat fresh, organic veggies without much work.
I also planted some spaghetti squash in there too, but they didn't stand a hope with the aggressive zucchini. Oh well, now I know.
That's the story of Bed No.1.
I had some potatoes with eyes that had been hanging around for just too long, so they were first in the bed. Next came some carrot seed, and zucchini. Well the zucchini plants were tiny when we planted them, but, you know what? They grew and grew, and grew. They ended up with leaves twice the size of my head. The leaves covered the carrots so we didn't get any carrots. The potatoes grew and grew too. We have harvested zucchinis and potatoes.
I have decided that I don't like the leaves of the zucchini. They are very prickly and they spread everywhere. So maybe next year, they will not be invited back, although it was lovely to eat fresh, organic veggies without much work.
I also planted some spaghetti squash in there too, but they didn't stand a hope with the aggressive zucchini. Oh well, now I know.
That's the story of Bed No.1.
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