Life in the Hill

Living on a 35 acre property means there's always space somewhere to do something new.  A few weeks ago, the hill in the picture below was nothing but molasses grass and piles upon piles of pebbles.  Well away went the weeds, the pebbles are slowly being used to ornament other gardens, and say hello to the food!

Digging with a pickaxe was like quarrying for minerals.  I made some level surfaces, approximately 1m x 1m each, and then mixed together some different soils and nutrients to add some life back to this hill.  The large amount of soil you can see on the bottom of the pile is organic garden mix we got (10 barrels full) from Wards Landscape Supplies.  On top of that is about two kilos of Biochar that we purchased at The Living Earth Festival.  Also in the mix is about a kilo of organic Dynamic Lifter.  Mix it all up, and you have a perfect combination to add as a base layer for any plants you want to put in.

My friend Nino gave me some zucchini seedlings.  I have to admit, zucchini had never seemed to do so well here (anywhere I've tried it on the property) so I was a bit reluctant to accept these, but nevertheless I thought they would be a great ground cover while this soil is being reinvigorated.

And finally, one of my favorites, Jap Pumpkin seedlings are just starting to come up.  I planted about 12 seeds, not knowing how well they would take to this soil, but it seems they've all decided to come up and I might have to spread some of them apart by creating more level planting surfaces along this hill.

For now, I'm happy knowing this hill is still alive and is ready for more of my gardening efforts!

Back To Life

After 17 weeks away from home you can only imagine the state my garden was in.  Although there was a couple renting the house for the better part of 14 weeks, and although they seem to be hobby gardeners, there was certainly plenty of work to be done.  It's now been almost 8 weeks without a serious rain here in Northern NSW and man does the soil tell the story...rock solid. Another surprise I came across were ashes from the fireplace that had been added to the raised beds.  Turns out ash can be used as a great input for compost as it adds valuable nutrients and can deter insects & weeds from accumulating.  I started by forking the beds in order to loosen the soil and prepare all the areas where I planned to @addmoregreen.

Below is a display of how we have the compost setup at home.  On the left are two small trash bins that are used on a daily basis for kitchen scraps such as orange peels and egg shells (only Guy eats eggs though).  When those bins are full we add their contents (usually quite smelly) to one of the larger bins on the right.  The triangle shaped bin takes much longer to process as the contents sit stagnant for much of the time unless you have a compost turning tool.  The tumbler on the right is our greatest piece of compost equipment.  When I go out each day with the kitchen scraps to add to the trash bins I give the tumbler a good six or seven spins which speeds up the process...nearly twice as fast as the triangle bin.

Next, I took the contents from the tumbler which were ready after our 17 weeks away from home and added them to the areas I already forked.  To this mix I added Yates Dynamic Lifter and Searles 5 In 1.  With freshly forked soil and natural fertilisers added to the beds, I stirred it all together using my garden fork again and then gave the beds a nice drink of water to settle the fertilisers in place.  Now that the soil was ready for new plants I spread out the "starts" in an arrangement that would allow each to get an optimal amount of sun while also working off each other in a permaculture sense (basil near the tomatoes, etc.).

And finally, I got my hands dirty...NO GLOVES!

I hope this post has been a great example for turning your old and worn out soil into something more useful and beautiful.  Let us know what you thought about this post in the comments section.  Take a peek at the pictures below to see exactly what I added to the garden.  Also, be sure to check back for upcoming posts as I will be posting more pictures as all of these plants progress!

Lettuce- Mignonette Mixed

Found these vines growing in two different pots when I got home.  Initially, I thought it was pumpkin but a friend added her input stating the vines are watermelon...I suppose we will have to wait and see when these plants begin to produce.

Tomatoes!

Lettuce- Mixed

Roma Tomatoes

Silverbeet- Fordhook Giant

Eggplant