Hugelkulutur Bed 2

More free mulch delivered, time to start covering the rest of the back lawn. Moved the pile of timber that was start of the second hugelkultur bed into the middle to make accessing everything easier.



Using the cardboard to sheetmulch the area and then the sticks and mulch on top.


And this is the completed section with the Hugelkultur bed in the centre. Will build that up a little more and then plant some seeds. Meanwhile the apple trees along the fence have more than 100 apples on them - so exciting!

Moving Mulch

We were lucky enough to get a truck full of free mulch from Shayne's Tree Services two weeks ago, as you can see it is a large pile!

 We needed to move over 80 wheelbarrows full of mulch and topped up the banana grove area in the back garden and all of the paths. Then I needed to make multiple trips to recycling bins at the local shopping centre and furniture stores to collect carloads of cardboard. I layered this four boxes thick and then placed the mulch on top.

I left an edge along the verges and driveway as the grass will need to be dug out there and then filled with cardboard and mulch and sloped down so that it does not all spill onto the road, The mounds that are left are to fill these spaces.

After collecting more cardboard and a lot of digging Andy has managed to finish the area on both sides of the driveway and half way along the front garden. It looks great! We will now collect more cardboard and when he is back from work again hopefully the rest of the front verge section will be completed. The final step will be putting wood edges in on the edge between our lawn and the neighbour's lawns. So still a few steps to go but the bulk of it is done and it looks great.

Bananas, Herb Spirals and Sheet Mulching

We removed one of the original fridges that we had used as a no-dig garden from the beginning as it was too rusty. We then decided that we would transplant the two banana plants which were struggling to grow beside the pool and put them in this space. This puts them back near the original banana plant and as we now know that they like to grow in clumps, close together, we hope that this will see them flourish. As well we have learnt now that they need a lot of food so we used compost, wood ash, chicken manure.potash and pea straw when we planted them and watered them thoroughly. We found some really useful articles online and you can read them here, here and here.

When we removed the old fridge I was then able to lift up the pavers beneath it and start a second herb spiral. Whilst doing this I was very pleased to be able to harvest another 4 kilos of sweet potatoes.This will need to be completed more slowly than the first one as I am not on holidays, but I hope to get it built in the next week or two.

Finally we also used a huge pile of cardboard that I had collected and a pile of free mulch to extend the area of lawn that has been sheet mulched on the nature strip. We managed to get to the edge of our property and will need to start collecting boxes again.

Sheet-mulching the Nature Strip

We have now decided that we need to that we need to get rid of the rest of the grass at the front of the house, which is actually a large nature strip which we had already partly covered and planted out.

It is about 70 square metres of Kikuyu grass and the best way to do this is to use the sheet mulching technique which involves covering the grass with cardboard, papers and mulch to a depth that ensures light cannot get in.

So I went to the recycling bins of the local Furniture/Electrical shop and filled the car with boxes and then laid them about three layers thick. The cardboard from here is particularly good as it is usually thick and quite big which means that I need less of it. A whole carload has allowed me to do the next strip, we think we have another five strips to go. So once we have more mulch I will be back at the recycling bins! Luckily for us the mulch is available for free at out local tip.

This is the strip completed, once we get closer to the kerb we will need to dig it out so that it is the same level as the kerb. This will need to be done at the driveway as well and the sleeper that you see here will be placed as a dividing strip between our edge and the one next door. It will also need to be dug into the ground. So there is still a lot of work to do, but we will just do it as we can and one day we will be lawn free!

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Berries and Boards (cardboard that is!)

These are the first few flowers on our raspberry plant, last year was the first time we had a crop so I am hoping that we are able to pick them once again. Being able to pick a range of different fruits from your garden is a pleasure that is now part of our daily lives. we do not have a huge garden and we do not tend to have multiple plants of the same type, preferring diversity, so each time we get a crop it is exciting.

The Mulberry tree in the front garden appears to have finished fruiting now, however if is still providing valuable shade for the vegetable garden and a great place for the birds to perch as they swoop in and out of the bird baths. In the back garden we planted a Weeping Mulberry tree this year and are pleased that it is cropping. The fruit is smaller but incredibly sweet and delicious.

We have now decided to get rid of the small rectangle of grass in the front garden and remodel the latest bed so that it is three separate beds with paths in between. So we have laid down newspaper and two layers of cardboard as preparation, this is called sheet mulching. I have stopped planting in the newest bed until we can change it, but harvested Kale today and made some mouthwatering Quiona and Kale Patties from a new blog, Yummy Supper,  both the recipe and the blog are highly recommended.