Every country cottage needs a veggie garden!
Whether it's a few pots in a courtyard to grow some tomatoes, lettuce and herbs or a full-on market garden taking over half of the back-yard; nothing can dampen the joy of planting, tending and harvesting the fruits of your labours.
I've been lucky to have a small vegetable garden previously, when we lived in a duplex in the city. Then moving to a city apartment it was a few herbs in pots that struggled in the intense western sun and wind that buffeted the 9th floor! Now at Bird Cottage I have the opportunity to realise a long-held dream and create a vegetable garden that is not only productive, but also decorative.... something that adds to the form and structure of the garden as a whole!
When deciding to create a veggie patch, no matter how big or small, the most important thing to consider is the site. Vegetables need from 6-8 hours of good sunlight each day to thrive so position is important. At Bird Cottage we had just pulled down and old shed and carport and replaced it with a large double garage and workroom. It's a pretty big structure on our 1020m sq block, but sighted to the eastern side of the block, it was the perfect place to start our design.
First thing was to mark out where a planned deck would go. Then could we could plan the position of the garden beds (yes..I'm going plural!!!). I'd initially planned a 7m long 1.5m wide garden bed that run the length of the lawn. That would leave space for a couple of fruit trees to be planted between the garden bed and the shed. But drawing it up on paper it looked a bit...well...boring! I've always love the French 'parterre' style of gardening and I wondered if I could create a parterre vegetable garden that would not only be beautiful but productive!!
But amazingly it all fell into place perfectly!
I was even able to use some of the old posts in the corners! They are not only a decorative feature but I have installed low-voltage lighting on the posts to light up the garden at night as a focal point (set on a timer ...of course!!!), and the ball finials have been topped with a galvanised spike that I can use to support netting if I find that birds see the vegetables as irresistible! If required I'll run galvanised support wires around the perimeter of the garden and diagonally from each post to support the netting but I don't want to do a permanent wire cover for the gardens).
So the garden beds are now in place and now they need to be filled with a good mix of garden soil and decomposed compost. Before that could be done it was important to break up the ground soil. Our ground is CLAY...yes...CLAY...and I mean clay so hard that it might actually be bricks!!!! I felt it important to break up this hard layer so that the soil and compost on top didn't just sit on top of this hard, almost impenetrable layer. I'm sure over time nature would have broken down that layer but I got in with the pitchfork and mattock and broke up the ground anyway.
I then had 4 tonnes of garden soil mix delivered and a further 4 cubic meters of good compost (thank you 'Curley's Compost of Penrose NSW)......a back-breaking job to fill the gardens but the effort was well worth it!
Whether it's a few pots in a courtyard to grow some tomatoes, lettuce and herbs or a full-on market garden taking over half of the back-yard; nothing can dampen the joy of planting, tending and harvesting the fruits of your labours.
I've been lucky to have a small vegetable garden previously, when we lived in a duplex in the city. Then moving to a city apartment it was a few herbs in pots that struggled in the intense western sun and wind that buffeted the 9th floor! Now at Bird Cottage I have the opportunity to realise a long-held dream and create a vegetable garden that is not only productive, but also decorative.... something that adds to the form and structure of the garden as a whole!
When deciding to create a veggie patch, no matter how big or small, the most important thing to consider is the site. Vegetables need from 6-8 hours of good sunlight each day to thrive so position is important. At Bird Cottage we had just pulled down and old shed and carport and replaced it with a large double garage and workroom. It's a pretty big structure on our 1020m sq block, but sighted to the eastern side of the block, it was the perfect place to start our design.
First thing was to mark out where a planned deck would go. Then could we could plan the position of the garden beds (yes..I'm going plural!!!). I'd initially planned a 7m long 1.5m wide garden bed that run the length of the lawn. That would leave space for a couple of fruit trees to be planted between the garden bed and the shed. But drawing it up on paper it looked a bit...well...boring! I've always love the French 'parterre' style of gardening and I wondered if I could create a parterre vegetable garden that would not only be beautiful but productive!!
So I went to work and marked out the design with gardeners spray paint and then it was on to construction!
I'm quite proud actually, that all the timber used in the construction of the vegetable garden beds was reclaimed from the old carport that we pulled down! Timber that had been onsite for who knows how many years was now being repurposed to become our new veggie patch! This timber included great long lengths of some type of hardwood and was amazingly heavy. I certainly broke a few driver bits .......and the drill-bits were smoking during construction!
I have to be honest but I didn't measure up the lineal meters of the timber to see if I would have enough for my design....I just went for it (it's like an architect designing a building and letting and engineer see if it will work....well....sort of!!
But amazingly it all fell into place perfectly!
I was even able to use some of the old posts in the corners! They are not only a decorative feature but I have installed low-voltage lighting on the posts to light up the garden at night as a focal point (set on a timer ...of course!!!), and the ball finials have been topped with a galvanised spike that I can use to support netting if I find that birds see the vegetables as irresistible! If required I'll run galvanised support wires around the perimeter of the garden and diagonally from each post to support the netting but I don't want to do a permanent wire cover for the gardens).
So the garden beds are now in place and now they need to be filled with a good mix of garden soil and decomposed compost. Before that could be done it was important to break up the ground soil. Our ground is CLAY...yes...CLAY...and I mean clay so hard that it might actually be bricks!!!! I felt it important to break up this hard layer so that the soil and compost on top didn't just sit on top of this hard, almost impenetrable layer. I'm sure over time nature would have broken down that layer but I got in with the pitchfork and mattock and broke up the ground anyway.
I then had 4 tonnes of garden soil mix delivered and a further 4 cubic meters of good compost (thank you 'Curley's Compost of Penrose NSW)......a back-breaking job to fill the gardens but the effort was well worth it!
Before filling the beds with soil and compost I installed an automatic garden watering system which is essential! Oh yes...I know there is nothing better than standing with a cooling G&T watering the garden but ....trust me....a watering system on a timer is essential!
It's a bit late in the season for the Highlands but then it was on to the planting! I have tomatoes, zucchini, beetroot, bok choy, rocket, lettuce, eggplant, basil, parsley, kale and peppers planted. And I moved my asparagus from a bed where I had been growing them to their new home! Asparagus can produce for up to 15 years so one of the garden beds will be my 'permanent bed' where I grow asparagus and rhubarb!
The small square planter in the middle of the parterre has been planted with a Ballerina Apple tree. It had beautiful blossoms this spring but unfortunately didn't produce any fruit. This is because this apple needs another apple tree to fertilise it. I was hoping that one of my neighbours might have had an apple tree in their garden and was close enough for fertilisation but no.....so I guess I will be planting a Granny Smith somewhere to ensure that there is an abundance of fruit next year!
The next project is to fill in around the garden beds with pink decomposed granite to create solid pathways. We painted the garden beds a satin black so the pink granite will look amazing and I hope the garden will be not only a practical but beautiful part of he garden as a whole!!!
It's wonderful to finally have a few large garden beds full of vegetable and herbs. But just remember that you can always have a small strip of garden in a courtyard, a few pots, or even your Greenbo planters [www.greenbo.com.au] on your balcony railings to grown your own produce!
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