Working the soil

This new house is built on a Canberra clay bed ... when it is dried out, the clay bed is as hard as rock. Before we moved in, we had a huge pile of soil delivered, and that has gradually been spread out over the parts of the block that will become garden, as has a pile of clean river sand. We've kept a bit of the river sand to make paths around the vege beds.

Where the clay is still close to the surface, Gail is making good use of her brother's jackhammer and clay spade attachment. Too long, and she begins to look a bit like jelly, but then she stops and returns to her normal state of firmness.

We'll be turning all the soil over a couple of times before we plant anything more now. We'll turn it once, making sure that we are getting down about 20-25cm, then we'll spread manure across the turned soil and turn it again. It might be overkill, but it will mean that when we do get to planting the next lot of things, they will have very comfortable roots.

Gail has started our Bokashi bucket, which is taking care of our scraps for the moment. Soon, we'll want to get a tumbling composter going. We might have to get out and meet all our neighbours and ask them to keep their vegetable scraps for us.

Well this morning has been very satisfying, even if I have a blister. (Gail is being very restrained and not saying "I told you to take a break" ... but she did suggest that it would be a good idea to alternate tasks and tools. I might listen next time ... maybe.)

Anyway, here is the evidence of the work from this morning.

Turned soil in the garden bed
near Gail's end of the house

Turned soil along the back fence, and
a new sand path beside the vege box

This is a very tricky little corner in the
far left-hand side of the garder. Eventually,
we will plant a couple of climbing roses
and some groundcover there. That will
have to wait until May, when the bare-root
mail order roses are available again.

We also need to buy a new wheelbarrow. The one my father gave me about 15 years ago has finally karked it. It's been great, but it is plastic, and the handle is going to crack off, and there is going to be a very big hole in the bottom quite soon. Still, we figure we'll work it until it dies completely. 

The state of the garden

Work on the garden continues ... slowly. We picked up quite a few plants at one of the local school fetes a couple of weeks ago, and they are starting to let me know where they should be planted. The vege boxes have been filled: cardboard followed by newspaper, then bales of meadow hay, covered with a layer of soil mixed with chook poo (on special at Masters), followed by a layer of soil mixed with blood and bone.

The seedlings went in next: pumpkin, climbing beans, sugarsnap peas, lettuce, capsicum, eggplant (both kinds), zucchini, chillis, tomatoes, and watermelon.

Bed 1: mostly tomatoes and other salad vegetables

Bed 2: beans and peas, zucchini and eggplant

New pavers, now surrounded by Hutchinsia Ice Cube
(some sad little half-dead things from a school fete),
Japanese blood grass on the left, and Myoporum
Parvifolium Purpurea on the right in the shade.
The Ice Cube groundcover may or may not
survive; it's looking good, though

Le Hoa's blueberry bush continues to do well

The cherry tree with the healthiest crop

Half-grown cherries up close; we might
even get to eat some this year.

The nature strip planted with herbs and strawberries.
We've also put in hundreds of seeds*, which are
starting to come up: I have seen dill and
nasturtiums. Let's hope that all the others sprout as well.

One of the very beautiful Kangaroo Paw bushes
planted beside the front steps. I saw a
yellow one the other day .... will
have to find a space somewhere in
the garden for one of those, too.

* When I say hundreds of seeds, I mean literally hundreds of seeds of all kinds: feverfew, poppies, camomile, wild flowers, nasturtium, verbena, dill, alyssum, nemophila, nigella, bunny tails, dichondra, forget-me-knot, and Swan River daisies. Hardly any have come up yet, so I am wondering if some were blown away by the wind, and how many the birds ate. Surely some will have survived ...