Monday 22 July 2013

New vegetable garden/potager design

It's been a bit gloomy and drizzly lately so I decided to spend some quality time indoors to plot my new veggie beds.  I borrowed a great book from the local library which has plenty of practical and easy to understand design tips so hopefully that has helped.  

I'm keeping the crop rotation system I devised last year to minimise the chance of disease.  It seemed to be working quite well at the old place although it wasn't in place for long.  The soil here is quite impoverished and water repellent so the green manures will be essential to keep the nutrition up.  I've also started up a couple of compost heaps to kick things along before I start planting.


I've discovered our property is a giant termite terminal so I need to be very careful about which mulches and edging materials I use.  The termite man informed us that sugar cane mulch is a big no-no.  Fortunately I hadn't yet ordered the two round bales I'd been planning on getting for the gardens. Instead, I'll have to do some research to find out what mulches termites aren't super-attracted to.  I was also planning to try no-dig garden beds but cardboard and newspaper is out of bounds now too so it's back to cultivating the soil with chicken feet and my hoe.  Fortunately there is plenty of rock around the place to use as garden edging.  The local landscaping supply lad informs me this is basalt from Beaudesert.  Hopefully that means a good source of minerals and iron.

Now to find some motivation to get of the couch and mark it out then lug edging rocks around.  Although the drizzle has just started up again so light it's like the sky has dandruff.  Just wet enough to dampen the washing on the line and the spirits...Perhaps I'll continue with planning the orchard instead.

5 comments:

  1. Our termites say hello to your termites :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe thanks Jeni, I'm sure they have a termite telecommunication connection to your place. I can just imagine them yelling down their mud tunnels at each other :P

      Delete
  2. There is nothing like a drizzly day for bright ideas. I had no idea about dealing with termites (we don't get them here, thank goodness), so this post has been an eye-opener! Enjoy making your plans!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're lucky not having termites although I'm sure you've got other things to worry about that we don't. Working out some technical issues on the plan at the moment. Just as well I decided to mark it out before digging!

      Delete

Thanks for leaving a comment or question, they will be published as soon as possible after review to avoid spam. This usually takes less than a day.