The Good Life

Quite a pictorial post tonight, but I'm rather proud of my handiwork so I thought you'd like to see it in all its glory.

I'm quite tired now. Got up nice and early and straight out into the garden after some breakfast. The days are gradually getting longer again but quite nippy in the morning. As you can see from this photo there was still a goodly amount of frost about when I headed out dressed in many, many layers of clothes.


I think as the day and I warmed up over the course of a number of hours I must have reconfigured my clothing at least 4 or 5 times. This first picture shows the lucerne hay, straw, lime and dynamic lifter that was delivered on friday...and the frost that was delivered overnight.

First job of the day was to finish off the stand on which i will build the chook nesting boxes. There's room here for 3 luxurious chook nests.

Here is a sequence of shots showing the Veggie Garden construction

Step 1: Build a big box with sleepers.


Step 2: Line it with Newspaper. I have collected a LOT of newspapers via a cunning DVA wide appeal. This was very successful to the point where I was convinced that I had more than enough papers. Boy was I wrong! If you plan on doing this I suggest thinking about how many papers you need, then multiplying that number by 4 or 5 and you will probably be in the ball park. It also turned out that its quite annoying with a bit of a breeze (you need a lot of paperweights) and that in many ways this turned out to be quite physically demanding for me given that I'm not precisely in the peak of physical fitness. Principally because this step required bending over for an extended preiod of time and I was quite sore by the end of it.


Step 3: Layer of Lucerne Hay. This was topped with some ag-lime and some dynamic lifter. I have no idea if the amount of lime and fertiliser I added was the correct amount but i did find that a small round garden pot (about the size of a small glass was very handy for spreading lime as I could dip it in the bucket and fill it and then wave it randomly about and the lime would fall out the drainage holes in the pot and spread most efficaciously about the place. I had 4 bales of lucerne and frankly I though I'd be forced to use most of them to fill this one bed. I'd planned for 1 bale of lucerne and 2 of straw per bed so I was thinking this was going to be a lot more expensive than anticipated (lucerne ~$25 a bale ). As it turned out 1 bale did the bed nicely.


Step 4: straw followed by more dynamic lifter. I was a bit closer on the estimates with the straw. 2 bales covered ok, but i think I'll try 3 on the next bed as it doesn't quite look enough with just 2.


Step 5: Admire handy work. As the sun was nearing the horizon I finished off the other 2 beds. Here is a shot of the 3 beds (one nearly ready to plant). Each bed is 16 feet by 8 feet (128 sq ft) for a grand total of 384 sq feet (thats about 34 sq metres for you metrical types) of vegie garden give or take a bit for the not quite square construction. I should point out I measured the width of the mower and added a bit to determine the size of the gap between the beds, it also means it doesn't feel like a balancing act walking between them.