The Versailles of Veggie Garden's!

One of the first things I did when we moved to Bird Cottage was to plan a vegetable garden. I love having, at the very least, a selection of herbs and maybe a few mini-tomatoes for salads. Growing vegetable is a very rewarding experience and there is a lot to learn, especially growing them for the first time in a cold climate!

I'm also a big believer in recycling as much as you can so I was really pleased to find out that the timbers of our old carport were solid hardwood. As this was being torn down for a new double garage and workroom I was able to salvage the timbers and began planning a design for my veggie patch. I have always loved the French-style 'parterre' garden with it's axis, symmetry and proportion. This was the starting point for my garden. I worked out, with some planning, the exact size I could make each garden bed using only the reclaimed hardwood from the carport, the roof rafters and posts you can see below; pre and mid-demolition.

                                       

These incredibly strong and heavy timbers would have cost a fortune to buy so was really lucky to have these at my disposal.  There were set aside till the construction of the new garage was almost completed before i could get to work. 

I marked out the garden beds, there would be 4 in total with central square bed in which i would plant a small 'Ballerina' apple tree as a focal point.

    


The 3 pictures above show the stages from planing to final concept. Four garden beds in a formal style with a small square as the central point. The four posts would be strung with galvanised metal cables so that a net could be thrown over everything to protect the seedlings and vegetable from birds and possums. (This was the theory anyway, as you will see that idea lasted only one summer and a complete rebuild began).

      

So I planted up the first seeds and seedlings and threw a net over the whole structure and it did last quite well for that first season. Unfortunately the netting was messy and tore easily if you accidentally got caught in it. I needed to come up with a solution that was more permanent but also looked good. After all, any garden, even a productive veggie garden, should not only be practical but pleasing to the eye. We decided to borrow the design idea from the pergola that we built the previous spring. The pergola pictured below, came in kit form from a company called Softwoods in South Australia

www.softwoods.com.au  .I couldn't find a design and style I liked nearby and this fit all out requirements. Lucky we are pretty handy with a drill and screwdriver and with the comprehensive instructions we were able to construct the pergola without too much trouble.

In building the pergola we learned how to construct the pitched roof frames and this was the start of our design for the garden. We wanted to create more headroom and extra height in the middle to allow for the growth of the apple tree which would grow up to 3m tall but have a 'columnar' form.

A timber framework was added to the original corner posts to tie the structure together, a gate was created as an entrance and the roof structure was added. I love using satin black paint in the garden as it creates strong visual lines, yet allows things to recede into the landscape. I remember one of my TAFE teachers saying "you can use pots of any colour in your designs, as long as they are black!".....a bit like Henry Ford and his cars! 

I was limited in space with this design and had to work within the footprint of the exisiting 4 garden beds. I didn't have room to put in 4 more posts outside and around the gardens to create walkways for access all around so I needed to come up with an idea to allow good, easy access. This was achieved by creating flip-up walls all around the gardens. All of the 8 side panels are hinged at the top and can flip up easily allowing me to get to the outer edges of the garden beds. I just lift up the wall and prop it up with a stick while I'm weeding or planting. It also allows for good access when the beds need to be topped up with compost or mulch.

The entire structure has been clad in galvanised bird aviary wire with a 1cm x 1cm gauge. I have added an extensive watering system which runs off the tank water attached to the new garage and is on a manual timer, just flicked on when needed. The whole garden is now bird and possum proof and I'm hoping the wires are small enough to even keep out the dreaded white cabbage moth!

On 2 fixed panels we have used the redundant containers from our Vertical Garden to create a hanging 'strawberry patch'!  Unfortunately the vertical garden did not like the climate here as it was either too cold in the winter and the heat of the combustion fire dried out the pots. With a drip water system installed above hopefully we will get a good crop of strawberries in the summer.

Some hanging baskets with flowers to attract the bees and a few scattered pots of herbs, strategically placed to catch the dripping water from the pots above which have micro-sprays watering them from the watering system, the garden is now complete.

I've planted up seedlings of beetroot, shallots, 2 cauliflowers, fennel and a few different lettuces. 3 metal spiral supports have seedlings of snow peas planted under them.  I've sprinkled in some wild rocket seeds and 8 zucchini seeds. They will start to sprout in the next week or so and hopefully we are over the frosts for this year!!!! I brought some tomato seedlings and have potted them up and they will be ready to be planted in the garden in early September but will stay indoors for now. My next job is to construct a cold-frame out of some old timber and glass windows to protect seeds and seedlings from frosts.....but that can wait.

Not only is this a more permanent solution than the netting, but the whole veggie patch is now a focal point and adds another dimension to our garden.

Of course, a little country touch with a reclaimed weathervane topped off with a metal rooster garden sculpture from Bunnings is this finishing detail!!!  

Sneaky stone-clad planters. Build them yourself in almost any situation!

Sometimes a 'planting situation' calls for more than pots or planter troughs. Sometimes you want something that really makes a statement and looks more like hard landscaping. The problem with a lot of built-in planter boxes is that they are usually constructed of bricks or concrete blocks, are expensive to construct and more often than not you will need a professional to build it for you.

Well I have a sneaky way of achieving a solid stone-clad planter look which anyone can build. It's incredibly easy and costs a fraction of a brick built planter. I've used this technique a number of times in many of the gardens I've created and have shown my friends who wanted to achieve the same look how to build them. 

The back of our cottage has a large deck which had a long step running across the back edge. This step was still a little high to step safely down to the ground so we decided to remove it and replace it with a set of central steps flanked by two planter boxes.

To build the structure of the planter boxes I use 50mm wide by 200mm high treated pine sleepers. The cheapest building material around. Measure, cut and screw the sleepers together using screws especially made for treated pine to create a box. You could simply use one box which would be 200mm high, or make multiple boxes and place them on top of each other to get your desired height.

We decided to bring the planters up to the height of the deck. Once planted up they would create a barrier to stop anyone falling off the edge! 

In all I created 3 boxes and stacked them on top of each other. As each of these boxes is not attached to the next it is important to tie them together. Do this by using 100mm screws and screwing down at an angle in each of the corners from one box down into the one below. I also used aluminium strips cut to about 55cm long and drilled and screwed these inside the planted as a brace to tie each planter together. 

Your finished planter box should look something like this. From here you can do pretty much anything you like to create your desired look. I'm going to use a stack stone cladding in sandstone but you could just stain or paint the boxes as they are. In one garden I painted the boxes with a satin black paint and screwed hardwood 'Merbau' oiled deck boards to the planter. Space the deck boards apart so you get a line of the black paint showing between; this give the impression of a ships timber deck and looks very stylish. You can also see in this picture that for the central steps I have just used a treated pine 2-step stair kit which is available in flatpack form from most hardware stores. 

In order to clad the planter with stone I have a few things more to do. Firstly I will line the interior of the planters with black plastic or 'Builders Film'. This is just a black plastic sheet and I tack this around the top of the planter ensuring that the plastic slightly rests on the soil in the base of the planter. You can see in the picture above that the planter has been levelled and there is a gap at the bottom on the right; the builders film will also help to keep your soil in the planter so it doesn't seep out. The plastic also helps to stop moisture transferring through the sleepers which might ultimately affect your external finish. After lining with builders film I then cut fibre cement sheet to size and using 'Liquid Nails' and 40mm clouts, nail the sheets to the outside of the box. I use the cement sheet as it gives me a hard, smooth and flat surface to attach the stone cladding.

 

You can see that I have already planted these up with buxus as I want a nice neat little hedge in each planter but you could really use anything you want. Now it's time to clad the planters. This is where a little expense may come in but you can choose to spend as much or as little as you like. I have chosen a sandstone stack-stone tile which come in 150mm x 600 mm tiles. To get a tailored look I use a tile cutting machine to mitre the edges; these are by no means perfect but the tiles look much nice butting up in the corners with a mitred edge.

And these are the finished planters! I've topped them off with Merbau deck to cover the top of the timber box and the cladding. The area is in the process of being levelled and shortly a new pergola will be constructed over the deck and all the decking replaced with new Merbau hardwood deck. This will create a wonderful outdoor entertaining space that can be used in all weather. That will have to be in another post!!!

So if you have an area that needs something more than pots this might just be the idea for you. 

These were constructed directly on the ground but you can just as easily construct them on a hard surface such as tiles, pavers or concrete just as we did in the 'Inner-city Courtyard Makeover' a few years ago. This same construction technique was used on a paved courtyard which had good 'fall' across the paved area to built in drainage. The important thing to remember in that situation is to place a sheet of geo-textile fabric on the hard surface in the base of your planter and then fill to about 10cm with blue metal to allow for good drainage. Place another layer of the geo-textile fabric over the metal before filling with soil as this will stop your compost and soil washing through the metal but allow water to drain freely.

Happy gardening!

    

The ultimate veggie garden

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!!

                               

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!

A picture is worth a thousand words......a garden is priceless!

We all know the old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' but when that picture is of a garden, and painted by one of the most famous Impressionist painters that lived, then that picture is almost priceless.

This is true of the incredible paintings of Claude Monet (Nov 14, 1840 - Dec 5, 1926). Claude Monet was the founder of the French Impressionist movement. He also happened to be the most prolific painters of the genre. The Impressionist philosophy was of expressing one's perceptions of the natural environment with particular emphasis placed on the depiction of landscapes painted 'en plein air' or outdoors!

Monsieur Monet was born in Paris in 1840 but it is for the paintings created in his garden in Giverny that he is most famous. Initially Monet and his Impressionist contemporaries were met with rejection from the Académie des Beaux-Artes. However in 1873, Monet along with Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley joined forces to exhibit their art independently. At their first exhibition in 1874 Monet exhibited the work that was to give the movement it's name. Impression, soleil levant or 'Impression, sunrise' was painted in1872 and depicted the sunrise over the port of Le Harve, France. The art critic Luis Leroy in his review of the painting coined the term 'impressionist' as a disparaging review of the painting, however, the artists took on the term, appropriating it for themselves and their style and movement were born!

Impression, soleil levant.   Claude Monet: 1872

During my recent visit to France I was lucky enough to take a day trip to Giverny and visit the home and the garden of Monsieur Monet. The small village of Giverny is approximately and hour from Paris' Gare St Lazare. Rather than doing an organised tour I'd highly recommend you buy tickets in advance for the house and  garden online at www.digitick.com. I was able to do this and taking the printed tickets with us got us to the head of a cue of about 100 visitors waiting to buy tickets at the door. You can also buy your train tickets in advice online. You actually catch the train to the village of Vernon and from there you can get a bus or taxi, or the 'kitsch' road-train which we did. It's a small open-air 6 carriage motorised 'train' that winds it's way through the medieval streets of Vernon and on to Giverny. It was very reasonable (about 6 Euro per person return). A great website to check out before your visit is www.giverny.org which has lots of useful information about getting to Giverny and visiting the house of Monet and the famous gardens.

The house of Claude Monet is now a museum and has been restored and painted as it was when Monet lived there. Painted in a 'salmon' pink with bottle-green shutters, the rendered house looks like spring itself!

 It's quite wonderful to be able to wander through the house; up and down the steep steps, through the bedrooms and ante-rooms. Of course it's the studio of the painter that is captivating. It has been recreated with original pieces and some reproductions to be the same as it was while he lived here. Claude Monet lived in the house for 43 years, from 1883 to 1926. The house is over 40m long but only 5m and one room deep. Monet chose the colours of the house and shutters, and designed the fabulous blue tiled kitchen that could cater for the family of 10 that lived there.

The studio must have been an inspirational place to work and contemplate life. The large windows allowing the sun to illuminate the space and inspire the artist.

 The kitchen was kept warm by the huge coal and wood fired cast-iron stove and the warm glow of the polished copper pans reflected the sunlight. The walls were covered in a traditional blue and white patterned 'tile of Rouen'. Next to the kitchen was a dining room that was en explosion of yellow. Monet didn't follow the fashions of the time which called for dark wood and the sombre interiors of the Victorian age, instead infusing his home with the passion for colour that he saw in nature and which translated into his art.

The house was our first stop but then it was on to the garden. Anyone with a passion for gardening will be overwhelmed by the colours, shapes scent and abundance of flowers in this garden. Even if you don't love gardening, you will fall in love with this garden. It's so inspiring that you literally want to take a photo of every plant; every flower, and every bumble bee on every flower!

These are only a few of the hundreds of pictures I took and if you can imagine each of these flowers multiplied by 1000 then you get some idea of the colour and vibrancy of this garden!

For me, however, the most beautiful and inspirational part of the garden is the lily pond. The lily pond was the inspiration of some 250 oil paintings which were painted in the last 30 years of Monet's life; many of the painting created at a time he suffered from cataracts.

Throughout his career Monet made a point of exhibiting a series of paintings related by subject. Painting from the series Watery Lily or 'Les Nymphéas' are exhibited in galleries around the world. The photos below are my interpretation in film of what Monet was able to create with a brush and oil paint.

As you can see below, no camera can capture the beauty and tranquility of the lily ponds in such as was as Monet was able to do on his canvases.

On 24th June 2008, one of Monet's water lily paintings 'Les basins aux nymphéas' sold at Christies in London for £41 million.....almost double the estimate!!!!

That may be a lot of money and someone is now the owner of an incredibly beautiful painting. For me, it's knowing that I have experienced the garden in person and seen the house, the flowers, the lily pond.....it is an experience and a memory that is priceless.