August is a great month in this part of
the world to get everything ready for the coming new season. It’s not too late
to get new beds laid out and the ground prepared for your spring planting. I love
the idea of turning your whole backyard into a food garden – incorporating
vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, berries, nuts, herbs and flowers. Doesn’t that
sound delicious? The best thing about it is that it will not only be good for
you and your family but it will be good for the land itself, the birds, the
insects and bees etc. You will
save money in the long run, you will know where your food comes from and what
has gone into growing it, your whole family can be involved and any surplus you
can share around the neighbourhood.
We have recently moved to a block of land
and I am also making a garden out of a bare patch of land so if you are
starting out – you are not alone. I will include some pictures and plot progress as I go along
although at the moment the orchard just looks like a whole lot of sticks in the
ground. We have been very lucky that not only was this piece of land previously
owned by an old organic pioneer by the name of Trevor Ross, but that he ran a
composting operation on it. There are piles of compost dotted over the land –
gardening heaven. I know he must have used nettle as there are also lots of
nettles but they have their uses. Also
planted was a good shelter belt on the south and west of the property plus rows of native trees here and
there. There are walnuts and pinenuts and a fruit cage
that contained 100 or so cherry trees in bags. We have planted some of those
out into the ground as I am not a fan of that type of growing and we have taken
the opportunity to get in some gooseberries, blueberries and currants under the
bird netting.
So if like me you are creating a garden
from lawn or a bit of paddock then you have a great opportunity to set the
foundation for a magnificent garden. Even if you are working with an existing
bed or you have inherited an old patch, let me introduce you to a plan of
gardening that incorporates a good level of design, utilizes the organic principles
of crop rotation and permaculture, and enables you to not only feed yourselves
but be a beautiful space to be in.
Some of the things to consider when
designing this garden are the following;
1. Choosing your Site – Shelter and Aspect
2. Garden Size and Design
3. Marking out the beds
4. Preparing the ground – getting rid of
the weeds
5. Preparing the ground – building up the
soil.
No comments:
Post a Comment