Coming to fruition ... the vegie garden

I mentioned in my previous post that our vegie garden had been a long time in the making. Well in recent weeks it has been coming together in leaps and bounds. Thanks in most part to my husband and his determination to get our first crops planted.

Our property sees a multitude of visitors, from little bandicoots, native quails, wild hares and livestock from neighbouring farms who clearly see our paddock as being the greener pastures. A couple of weeks’ back I arrived home to find 4 steers munching happily on our grass. It was an amusing sight until one snapped off the branch of a soon to be fruiting mango. They were quickly herded back through the fence. Mind you I took the organic matter they left behind as a form of compensation and promptly shovelled it into the compost.  

So fencing around the vegie patch had to be a priority. To limit some of the back breaking work required to dig the 10 post holes needed to fence our large vegie area, we decided to hire a post hole digger. It took a few hours to dig the holes which included a few extras (a few meaning 25) around the property where we are planning to create wind breaks and a small water tank stand (more on that to come).

I wanted an old style ‘post’ fence to surround the garden and we had been looking at our options. A neighbouring farm had split posts for sale for $10 each. But I had my mind on something a little more well- worn. We checked with our local recycle centre and managed to uncover very old hardwood posts that were approximately 5.2m long. The guys at the centre cut them up for us into 1.5m lengths. In the end we had 12 posts plus 4 smaller offcuts which would make the basis for the water tank stand. In total the posts cost us $70 which was a saving of at least $50 if we had gone with the first option. I love a bargain.

 

We had already created a timber gate using old fence palings which we used to separate an area behind the shed. It was always left open so we decided to repurpose it and I think it fits in beautifully.

I had to chuckle though when my son kept taking the time to open and close the gate as he was coming and going. Despite the fact that we hadn’t put up the chicken wire towards the right of the gate and he could freely walk in when he chose. I took it as a quality assurance measure - him testing the gate’s durability.

So with the fencing near complete and housing a sturdy gate, the next step will be to:

·         build up the garden beds with organic matter;

·         plant out the first crops; and

·         lay the saw dust paths around the garden beds.

What are your gardening plans this weekend?