Growing Vegetables in Fridges

Frank Fekonia shows us how to turn a dead fridge into a productive vegetable garden for people living in dry arid areas ...

So the blurb reads...

BUT these are giant Wicking Boxes
Now all we have to do is find some dead fridges!!!!

Watch the Video Here:

Main Vegetable Garden

Main Vegetable Garden:
This is the plan for our major re-design of the Main Vegetable Garden. For our original layout see here.

We have increased the size of the chook run to include the Apple and Pear trees that were part of the veg garden. They need the chooks running under them for pest control. The red line in the middle is the new fenceline.

This has meant reducing the number of beds. These new beds will mostly be raised, wicking beds to get the most value out of the smaller area and the water applied to them. The plan is to have a smaller area for ease of watering and tending. It will mean more efficient use of space.

Doc has cut a couple of the tank beds from the Dog Pen area (this area will be redesigned too) down to half to create some round raised beds around the pond.
Three of these will be built as wicking beds with the tanks forming edges for the raised sections. The wicking pool will be in-ground leaving a raised growing area.

The two other tanks will be left complete for higher beds. These will be placed near the gateway to the chicken area.

The old beds that are now in the 'new' chook area have been planted with fodder plants for the chooks. Fencing the areas off as needed and then allowing the chooks controlled entry. Plantings include Lucerne and Kale so far.
Bed 'D' has cherry tree suckers growing at 1.5m spacings which will later be grafted with Stella Cherry wood. These will be grown as Spanish Bush Pruned bushes by keeping the plants well pruned, making netting and picking the fruit much easier.

Soon Doc will be building a new chook house within this area so that our 10 'younger' chickens (already 3 years old) can move in.

Note also that the little plastic hot house is listed as a shaded bed it will be completely covered with 50% white shade cloth to allow protected growing space for greens in wicking beds during summer.
Bed 5 will also be covered to provide an almost sealed growing area to prevent grasshopper/locust attack.
The other beds will have poly-pipe shade structures with white 50% shadecloth over them in summer to reduce evaporation.

The Fruit Trees are still there:
1 Bartlett Pear
2 Narrabeen Plum
3 Red Fuji Apple
4 William Pear
5 Cox’s Orange Pippin Apple
6 Stella Cherry
7 Figs Cuttings from Garden Club Members' Trees
8 Anzac Peach
9 Golden Delicious Apple
10 Santa Rosa Plum
*11a Goldmine Nectarine* This will be removed as it has never produced well.
11 Jonathon Apple
12 Moorpark Apricot
13 Nashi Pear
14 Mariposa Plum
15 Trevatt Apricot
16 Meyer Lemon

Perennial Beds:
Rhubarb, Asparagus (green and purple), French Sorrel and mixed herbs. These will be continued through on the Eastern side of the Shade Covered Propagation Area. The Rhubarb and Purple Asparagus will be moved out of the 'new' chook area.

Perennial Edge Beds:
In the garden area shown on the map the light coloured shaded areas pathways the other areas will have a collection of herbs and flowering plants for beneficial insect attraction.
Daisies, Evening Primrose, Lucerne, Catnip, Hollyhocks, Westringia, Rosemary, Sage, Lambs Ears, Oregano, Golden Marjoram, Roman Wormwood, Sunflowers, Yarrow, self seeded Parsley.
Elderberries and Grapes will be grown up the fences.

Australian Bushfood Area:
Grown in and around the tank 'c' and the western non-wicking bed. These plantings will continue under the two trees (Plum '14' and Apricot '15') that are out of the chook area.
I some seeds ordered from Outback Chef and shall see which germinate as to which get planted.

The seeds that I have include:
Bush Bananas (Leichhardtia australis)
Bush Tomato (Solanum centrale)
Chocolate Lily (Dichopogon strictus)
Muntries/Munthari (Kunzea pomifera)
Nitre Bush (Wild grape) (Nitraria billardierei)
Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora)
Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata)
The last two will take a bit of extra care up here but I'm hoping they'll go OK. I've heard they both do well in the Adelaide Hills but they get more rain than we do down there. They will live in a pot so they can be moved.

The rest seem quite able to live under my desert conditions according to Tim Low's Wild Food Plants of Australia book.

Hopefully the new plants will add to those (listed below) that are already growing around the garden.
Bramble Wattle (Acacia victoriae) seed
Kangaroo Apple (Solanum aviculare) fruit (only when fully ripe)
Desert Quandongs (Santalum acuminatum) fruit
Warrigal Greens (Tetragonia tetragonoides) leaves
Native Hop-bush (Dodonaea viscosa) medicinal (root and leaf juice for pain relief)
Ruby Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa) fruit
Fragrant Saltbush (Rhagodia parabolica) fruit and leaves (dried for salt flavour)
Lillypilly fruit.

Please check these links for further information:
Companion Planting for Fruit Trees
Do I Spray?
Poly-pipe Structures

External links:
Spanish Bush Pruning
Outback Chef
Locust Information