In Our Own Back Yard - Part 5 - Vege Gardens.

Anyone who knows us is aware we like to have a little vege garden.  Out of town it was a rather large vege garden that got rather neglected, so smaller is better.

When we moved into town into our little in between house we installed a couple of raised vege beds.  They were fantastic.  No bending and you saw the weeds easily.  So easy to care for.

In our new garden we wanted some more raised vege beds in the area just out the back of the house.

Once again Mick got out his notebook and scribbled away.  Firstly, as soon as we moved in, Mick placed a big bit of flat steel on the lawn and placed our fire pit on it......just temporarily.  You can see it here when they started to build the shed.

And again here one foggy morning.

The plan evolved into the idea of having L-shaped beds with a built in seat around the fire pit.  Behind the raised beds would be two long beds for the raspberries with an arch between them to climb beans up.  It was undecided as to whether the whole area would be paved, or left as lawn.  Measurements were taken to facilitate either option.

Time was marching on, and if we were going to get our veges in this season something needed to be done.  We were also going to be away at the end of September for a week, so it would be ideal to get something planted before we left.

It is handy having a metal worker in the family.  Also, it is handy having a LARGE SHED.  Happy dance.  They say "All Australian Boys Need a Shed".  Whether that is true or not, this Australian Boy certainly needs a shed. 

Starting to get an idea on how they will look.

Now with the raspberry beds in behind and some sheeting in place. While this was taking place, I was at the Bathurst Blog Meet.  It was rather exciting to go home and see how things had progressed.

Now we're getting somewhere.

The arch was a great use of what was laying around.  Mick had some steel stashed behind Mum's garden shed, including these lengths of pipe.  He remembered them when he was scheming on the arch.  Perfect.  It took a couple of big trailer loads of dirt to fill all the beds, but now they were ready to plant.

One little extra was added before the soil.  The white pipes sticking out are worm tubes.  The theory is that you put your kitchen scraps down the tubes and have worm farm worms in there as well.  They are supposed to come to the tubes to feed and then disburse all the goodness throughout the garden beds.  Who knows how they will go, but as our little worm farm often does not require all the scraps we generate, this will be another way of composting them.  Worth a try.

Look at that!  The first early planting before we headed off to collect our caravan.

Once we returned from our little trip, we planted our tomatoes, followed by the other frost tender plants.  Unlike last year, when we had no frosts after September, this year we have had more frosts since the beginning of October than we did all winter.  

We have been diligently covering the veges every night until this last week.  Hopefully that will be the last of it, but we aren't out of the woods yet in this part of the world.

The next project was to make frames for the raspberry canes.  We were lucky to have been given a dozen plants last year.  They are all doing well and we should have plenty of raspberries for Christmas.  Now we just have to plant a red current bush to complement them.  As raspberries can get rather unruly, Mick has made steel T-pieces at each end of the beds and run wires to the arch.  This should keep them in check.

So that is everything planted.  Now we just wait for the soil temperature to increase for things to get a wriggle on.

Doesn't it look lovely with the sprinkler on in the sunshine.

Finally, earlier this month Mick put on the finishing touch.  The timber on the seats.  I think he deserves a well earned rest after all that.  

The jury is still out on whether the area will be paved or not.  At this stage Mick will probably pave just under the seats out to the edge of the garden bed, to make it easier to mow and keep your feet dry.  We'll just wait and see whether the rest is paved......but it certainly isn't a priority.  That one is on the bottom of "The List".

Oh, there is still more to come.....