Wednesday 10 December 2008

Garden Layout

Kelly the city mouse asked about our garden layout.

I'm afraid you'll have to click on the panorama below as it's come out very small!


Starting on the left of the picture is the fruit cage (brambleberries, raspberries, cherry, gooseberry, red and black currants, loganberry, thornless blackberry, boysenberry, raspberries (5 types). In the bed that goes around the inside I'll be planting capsicums and a few tomatoes, and maybe cucumbers).

Outside of the cage there is another bed that has tomato, rocket, radish, chillies, peas, beans, sunflowers, irises and a peach tree (the bed goes along 2 sides of the wall)

Between the fruit cage and the first raised bed (before the first silver birch) is the no dig area with a random potato or 2, little yellow squash, a zucchini, and a bed with cucumbers (4 types), tomatillo, and some mixed bug attracting flowers.

Along the long fenceline there are tyres with potatoes, some onions and a few beans.

Next are 5 raised beds with (at the moment) carrots and leeks left to flower to attract bugs, a bed with beetroot, chinese broccoli, carrots, NZ spinach, perennial leek and a random strawberry.

Next is garlic (what's left, I've harvested a lot) and broccoli and silverbeet gone to seed - this will be replaced later with more summer crops. Then a few beds of tomatoes (we will probably have 40-45 plants in all), then a long bed with pumpkin, corn and beans (a 3 sisters bed Kelly!!). Oh, and a few lettuce in there too, and a bit more garlic.

Then by the water tank is a bed with asparagus and rhubarb, a bed of mixed walking and tree onions, a bed with cabbage and corn, and a bed with herbs. Oh and a passionfruit and another tomatillo. By the lattice fence is a bed with aloe vera, valerian and feverfew.

At the back of the garden you can see a hint of blue - the compost tumbler Jerry made - and that's where we put the extension to the garden that you'll see in the picture below.


This garden has potatoes, a range of beans (green and drying) a squash, several pumpkins, a few cucumbers, and a couple of tomatillos.

Elsewhere in the garden we have
  • a big bed of potatoes
  • greenhouse with galangal, ginger, lemongrass, arrowroot and more seedling herbs and tomatoes
  • a few more tomatoes in pots
  • 3 apple trees, an apricot, another cherry and a dwarf nectarine
  • a bay tree
and that's about it - I think!!

As for varieties we are growing:
Cucumber - mini white, mini lebanese, armenian, lemon
Tomato - red fig, purple russian, hungarian heart, mixed zebra, tommy toe, principe borghese, amish paste, riesentraube, beefsteak, mortgage lifter
Bean (drying - bush and climbing) - zebra, yin yang, kidney, cannelli, lima, borlotti, and a couple of varieties I got in a seed swap
Bean (green - bush and climbing) - rattlesnake, blue lake, cherokee wax, violet queen, brown beauty, anderson's wonder
Pumpkin - marina di choggia, pink banana, jap, butternut

5 comments:

greenfumb said...

That is really very inspiring, well done. I am going to go out right now and see if I can squeeze a 3 Sisters garden in somewhere.

Kelly said...

You are my total hero(ine)! And I love that you have the 3 sisters! Gawd, I need to go to a gardening seminar or something to learn how to effectively use our space. We've been flying blind this season, and just praying something gives us food lol. Thank you SO much for sharing!

Margo said...

Nah! The trial and error method is the best teacher.....you saw what ours was like when we started (non existant!) The main thing is to just start, and not be disheartened if/when things dont work. All it took was for my first bean crop to work and I was hooked - the taste was out of this world. Having said that though in 3 years I haven't been able to grow a decent crop of corn or a really good pumpkin crop.....maybe this year!

Anonymous said...

Hi Margo (waves)... there was a link here from the ALS home page.

Your garden is absoloot-elly wonderful, well done both of you.

I'd like to know how you set out your photos that way, please! And I'd like to know what two people are going to do with the harvest from FORTY-FIVE tomato plants!?!

And yes - trial and error seems to have been the best method for me as well. One learns things along the way, however so many varying factors come into the scenario such as climate for one, that you really have to experiment with what works best and how you can tweak the rules on what you can grow in your area!

Ree
(Mumchook)

Margo said...

Hi Ree. To make the panorama photos I used a etting on my camera which allows me to take sequential shots, then a program called photostitch that came with the camera (it's a canon ixus) to put them all together.

As for the 45 tomato plants - my aim is to try and be self-sufficient in dried and canned/bottled tomatoes for a year - so we need a lot. Last year I started with 75 bottles plus a few big jars of dried, and I have about 10-15 jars left. So we've done well - but if you think that we use 1-2 bottles (or cans) a week then we need at least 100 cans equivalent..........but you can't beat the flavour! Last night I opened a bottle that was tomatoes and I'd put a few basil leaves in when I processed them - oh my the smell was AMAZING - Jerry thought that I'd put fresh basil in. :)

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