our vegie patch

One of our goals for this year (and last year, but shhhh) was to do 'something with the side garden'. Last year we pulled out the lamandra (leaving us with a big expanse of white rocks) and built a wooden fence and gate, which I just love.

But now....

L had some time off over the holidays and built 3 raised beds for us. We live on the side of the hill with lots of retaining walls, and have come to realise our soil is terrible. It's thick clay, has little drainage and no goodness. So for us raised beds are the way to go so we can add in some goodness and drainage.

Before: Lots of white rocks, a few big rocks that needed busting up, and lots of pots. 

Compare the size of the rocks to the jack hammer and wheel barrow. Yep

First up was a garden bed made out of treated pine. We just used a few plans we already had that were in pots. The pots in front are lily pillys, waiting to be planted on the other side of the fence. 

Then two big, deep vegie gardens. These were made out of hardwood (treated pine not being a great idea for vegie gardens with the leeching of the chemicals). They aren't quite finished yet, there is a narrower plank to sit along the top of the walls so we can place pots, rest vegies, sit down.

This one has a cover to protect things like lettuce and herbs from the sun, especially when they are young. It's just too hot here for most of the year for them. We will also plant some seedlings into pots to establish them, and then replant into the garden. We lots a few zucchini seedlings early on that way-just too hot!

We have planted herbs, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumbers, zucchini to start off with. The stuff we eat a lot of, or the stuff that we buy and doesn't last in the fridge more than a few days (herbs and bags of salad I'm looking at you!).

The trellises on this one will be for zucchinis and cucumbers to grow up, rather than out.

We used used lots of good stuff in our soil to retain water and add in goodies-rock minerals, compost, manure, coconut coir, worm castings, lucern, with some seasol, worm tea and molasses mixed in for good measure. 

Now we just need rain! :) It's a big improvement on my pot vegie patch, but it did teach us a lot about what we should and shouldn't do before we went for the more permanent and expensive beds.

How have your vegie patches been going?

i think i'll eat some...

I don't think I've really blogged about our little pets. Unfortunately, it isn't a sweet little puppy (yet!!!), or a fluffy little kitten. It most definitely is not a bird!!

link
Look at those eyes...
Couldn't start with a yucky picture!!

It's worms. Hundreds of the writhing, slimy, wriggling things. We have a worm farm. 

It started off at school last year when our SOSE unit was about waste management, and our Science unit was about bugs. What else to do but make a DIY styrofoam box worm farm. It was more about keeping the worms alive-what living things need to survive, what they eat, how to treat them, similarities and differences with other bugs we studied, feeding them our food scraps and a bit of a sensory experience. We weren't using the castings or worm juice. At the end of the year I bought a proper worm farm from Bunnings, and brought them home. 

They are so easy to care for, and actually give back too! We have a container in the fridge that fills up amazingly quickly for two people who are away all day! At the moment our worms are eating lots of egg shells, banana peel, strawberry ends, kale stalks, as well as all of our general vegetable waste-peelings and ends-carrots, lettuce, zucchini, beans, potato and sweet potato. Basically any fruits and veggie that isn't too acidic-so no citrus, tomato, kiwi fruit, onion and the like.  We just chop them up so they are fairly small bits. 

I feed them every 2-3 days, burying the food a little to stop mice and flies and the like, and give them a bit of a water if the 'blanket' on top is feeling a bit dry. Any excess water drains though to the bottom, and I collect the tea to use on our veggies, herbs and citrus and chilli bushes for some extra nutrients, diluted to about 1:10. I try to alternate worm tea and seasol. 

I also used the worm castings (basically the soil and food waste they have chewed through) to mix in with potting mix when I plant, especially for our veggies and herbs. It also helps to bring the level of soil down in the farm (as you are constantly adding matter, and the worms are aerating the soil). 

I'd really recommend a worm farm-it was great for the kids I taught, it's a fantastic use for all of that food waste that you create (and it's shocking how much you go through). I also don't feel as bad about getting rid of a rubbery carrot buried in the fridge when I can feed it to the worms. 

Do you have a worm farm, or a compost bin? What happens with your food waste?
I'll post something pretty next!! Promise! :)

veggie pots

I mentioned here and here that we had planted some veggies in pots. 

Sometime soon we will build some raised garden bed, but for this season (unless we start quite soon!) we will grow them in pots. I'm actually really pleased we went ahead and planted in the pots, because after just a day or two, we moved the pots from their original location (where we were thinking of building the raised beds) to where they now sit. Their new spot gets a few extra hours of sun each day, so that will be where we make our raised bed. This side garden is just down a set of external stairs from our kitchen, so will be nice and close when it comes time to harvest.

We used a few bags of potting mix, and added extra goodies to it, including dynamic lifter, some kick along, and some worm castings, from our worm farm. We also used some Seasol to give them some extra nutrients. 

Probably should have worn gloves...

We planted some new basil, coriander, parsley and mint-we have grown these for years, but they were kind of at the end of their lives, so we started fresh. We use them all the time in cooking. 
We also chose to plant mixed lettuce and cos seedlings, as well as kale, tomatoes and capsicums. We figured they will be the most useful to us, and will grow well in pots. Hopefully next year we will be able to expand a bit more. 

Our lemon and lime trees already have baby fruits on them, and our chilli bush has lots of green chillies just waiting to ripen. Unfortunately, last year our chillies all were eaten by birds as they ripened, so we have hung some CDs this year, in the hope that the reflections will  scare them off. Will see how we go. 

Have you every tried a veggie patch? How did it go?