New Design Update

This is the original design of the Main Vegetable Garden. You can see the trees surrounding the beds. The pond in the middle.


This Year's New Design! Please click on the photo to read it better!
The Red line in the centre is a new fence to keep the chooks out (or in depending on which way you view it). The area on the left will be for the chooks. This will enable them to have full range under all the Apple and Pear trees (named here)
I'm using the chickens to help combat the Coddling Moths that plague these fruits up here. The idea is that the chooks will scratch around the base of the trees and help break the cycle of the moths as they spend their larval stage in the ground or hidden in the rough bark of the trees.

You may notice that the above design has already changed from the one that in that June post!
A new chook house is being built and the greens (no longer called 'weeds') have been left to grow.

On the right hand side of the design the area is being turned into a more intensive veg growing area. Beds 1-4 are all now Wicking Beds as are Tanks a, b and c. The other 2 tank beds d, e and f are just raised beds and there are a couple of other tubs around too. Beds 1-3 will have one shade structure built over all three beds, the tanks will have individual shade.

The Non-Wicking Bed is where I'm growing Atomic Red Carrots and Jerusalem Artichokes (and later Luffas on the fence) this year and the Bush Food Bed will hold any of the Bush Foods that decide to grow for me (not having a lot of luck yet...but it is still a bit cold for a lot of them).

The coloured pathways are covered with 'Crusher Dust' to enable a firm clean surface to walk on. Doc and I are both over 50 now and our mobility ain't what it used to be...so we don't need to be tripping over things and dodging obstacles. The un-coloured areas will be planted up with herbs and flowering companion plants and contain rocky areas, wood piles and water containers for beneficial insects and lizards to live. (Mounds for habitat)

The little hot house has become the Shaded Water Beds this year as I venture into growing edible water plants...there's a bathtub in there that will grow some Water Chestnuts and Duck Potatoes as well as some Kang Kong and Watercress. More about that later.

Between the Hot House and the Shade house we have put up a temporary hot house for the seedlings to grow in until the frosts stop. The plastic will be removed as soon as the seedlings are planted and shadecloth put on the arches.

The next area to work on is the Compost Area!

Here's a current view of the area from the western end (under the Apricot Tree) not much growing yet!


More about Wicking Worm Beds