Vegie Garden: Autumn Report
Written by Nick   
Monday, 10 March 2008

Blooming Nasturtium
Over the last few weeks we have FINALLY managed to begin on the vegie garden so I thought now would be a good time to start another Milkwood ritual - The Change of Season Vegie Garden Report!

Our new vegie bedsBeing on the bottom half of this great big beautiful blue ball summer has slipped away and autumn is upon us. The evenings are getting chilly already.

While we were digging our first dam, we got the local earthmoving company to bring in a gianormous yellow excavator to dig two big terraces just uphill from the dam. This is the spot we (hope to) will build our little strawbale studio, the first part of our future home.  Trying to follow the "oftenest = nearest" permaculture principle we extended the terraces to the south east to create a very large space for our kitchen garden, only about 10 meters from our back door.

Celery seedlingEach terrace is 20 metres long and 5 metres wide (65ft x 16ft) which gives us a collossus vegie garden of about 200 square metres (over 2000 sqare feet). Of course after the excavator had finished digging we were left with a lovely surface of clay and rock.. not exactly garden of eden material. Lucky for us there was quite a bit of topsoil left over after covering the dam wall, so we got Justin the driver to dump that over in the vege garden area and last week I started the serious labour of shaping this topsoil into the basic form of garden beds. Gotta love the burning feeling of geek body meeting spade and barrow. So far I've only found time to make 4 beds about 4 metres long by 1.2 metres wide (double reach beds)

Garlic chivesAround here when we talk about topsoil what we really mean is powdery ash like clay of the sickly grey type. Really we are only expecting to use the 'topsoil' as a base for no-dig garden beds. So we piled on the compost that Kirsten has been making along with some well aged poo from aunty Linda's chickens and a very thick layer of spoilt oaten straw we got cheap from a local farmer.

Now the first frosts usually hit us in April so we only have two months at best to get any real growing going on. This somewhat limits what's worth planting. I want to put in a heap of broad beans and a bunch of other assorted legumes, even if we don't get a harvest from them they will improve the soil and produce a lot of organic matter. In fact I have planted a whole bed of mixed lab lab bean and cow pea. So far we have planted leeks, red onions, celery, chives, parsley, nasturtium and garlic chives. I'm even trying a few potatoes that started growing in the pantry.  I also have to admit that I cheated a little and bought a punnet of rainbow chard (silverbeet) seedlings from the garden centre in town.

Ruby ChardAutumn will be a serious season of planting, the summer has been quite wet so we really need to take advantage of all the moisture that is in the soil. Apart from the vegetables we want to get as many trees planted as possible so they can establish themselves over the cooler months.

With all the earthmoving going on it's taken us a while to finally plant some things in the ground, but it feels so good to have started...  we really have begun Planting Milkwood. Oh I nearly forgot... WE HAVE CHICKENS.... and a chook dome for them to live in, in our next video I'll show you my attempt at making a movable chicken dome so we can kick start our food forest using CHICKEN POWER.

Whats been going on in your garden over the change of seasons?
Comments (15)add comment

gary said:

Hello there,

Long-time reader, first-time commenter.

How long do the frosts continue? Presumably through to October or early November? Can you divert the frosts around the vege patch?

Also, I'm looking forward to your chook dome video.

Regards, Gary
March 10, 2008 | url

K said:

Hiya Gary -

Yep, we get frosts from April-ish to anytime in Sept-Oct... We're planning to frost-proof the kitchen garden with diversion plantings, but it will take a while before those plantings start performing their diversion task... hence the first year it's going to be a little frosty in the kitchen garden, methinks...
March 10, 2008

Drew Meyer said:

Hi There,

I want to congratulate you on all you have accomplished thus far! As far as making your veggie garden frost resistant, you could always place dark stonework on the terraces. Here in the uppermidwest of the USA, we can even get some semi tropical varieties to endure winter in this way....with a lot of cover!
March 11, 2008

rhonda said:

I stumbled (I really do mean stumbled - as I found your site via stumbleupon)onto your fabo blog and stuff by accident and what a lovely find! 20 odd (ok - very odd) years ago I bought bill mollison's 'permaculture' whilst I was still in high school - with visions of chooks and sheep and fruit trees and vegies and a glorious solar fuelled, pesticide-free future. And lucky me I've lived in my own special patch on the far south coast of nsw almost ever since.... sure I'm sheep- and chook-free at the moment, the vegie patch is more a weed sanctuary than food bowl, and the fruit trees serve as rich pickings for local wildlife... but reading your bit reminded me of all the exciting bits of starting out and keeping on with a life project that is permaculture..... hope its a wonderful journey and I look forward to seeing/hearing more!
April 18, 2008 | url

owlfarmer said:

I just dropped in to tell you folks how much I admire what you're doing--and how much I envy the effort. I loved the dam-building video especially. I'm not sure why so much of the creative work in permaculture is being undertaken down under, but you have my best wishes and my appreciation. I keep hoping more of it will catch on in the US, especially in the southern midwest, where we need innovative thinking more than what we're getting: more and bigger houses, suburbs, strip malls, and bad planning.
April 25, 2008 | url

Robbyn said:

I'm so glad I found your site! We're very interested in permaculture and your blog is great smilies/smiley.gif I'm including it on one of my recent blogrolls, if you don't mind
April 28, 2008 | url

Jesse and Tanya said:

Really enjoyed the beautiful photos. It is obvious you have done a lot of work. MONTAZ This means Excellent!! smilies/grin.gif
April 28, 2008

ClareSnow said:

I've been having fun with my autumn planting too. in Perth there's no frost so I have more options, it's just space I run out of. I just discovered the joys of garlic growing. I found some tips from Trina and Matt here http://greenfoot.com.au/2008/03/31/growing-garlic/ I guess your frost has set in, but Matt says you can put in garlic after winter, it just won't grow as much by summer. I hope your van is cosy enough as it gets colder.
April 30, 2008 | url

Stuart & Gabrielle said:

It's May already, and we're impatient to know what you guys are up to ...

Best wishes,

Stuart & Gabrielle in Brittany, France
May 09, 2008 | url

Robin said:

I love your blog, your courage and your lifestyle. Thanks for sharing. The composting video is the best. I thought you might enjoy our "Building the Art Barn" (Kentucky, U.S.A.) blog as well. Enjoy!

Blessings,
Robin in Ky

http://buildingtheartbarn.blogspot.com/
May 13, 2008 | url

ppp said:

hi, just discovered your site and I love it. keep up the good work, I'll be dropping in once a week or so for some inspiration
May 19, 2008

Anita said:

Like everyone, I'm anxious to see what you all are up to! Hope everything is all right! smilies/smiley.gif
May 20, 2008 | url

Paul Green said:

G'day Nick and Kirsten
my garden? sigh. A very hot summer (40degs) kicked the sh!t outta the tomatoes and . .well everything really. Baked the vege beds and my apples didn't go so well. The citrus trees had trouble as well.

So this autumn I went to town on the manure and bought some shade cloth for putting up in few months.

Put in pees (flowering now. . .just as we start frosts so I cover them up), beetroot, onions (the first of which I've eaten) and the first set of brocs which are flowering and we are eating. I put in second round of purple brocs and some onion too. Lettuces are going to seed now, which I kinda like because they are elegant.

Carrots planted at the end of the heat are harvestable and I've always got spuds of some description in the ground. I let them run even though they are heavy feeders.
I did well/okay with garlic last season. Encouraged by this, I've got a little nuts.

My new seasons resolution is to stop fiddling so damn much with thing out there and let them grow.

ok and we grew a little human as well. Robbie didn't come from the cabbage patch though. That's another story and another blog.

well done guys, looks like you are doin' it!
May 29, 2008 | url

Jason said:

You guys are doing so well. Congrats on your efforts to date. I can't wait to see how it progresses.

Jason smilies/wink.gif
May 31, 2008

Vikki said:

Chickens really seem to be a reoccurring theme throughout a lot of Permaculture installations. Seeing them poping up everywhere kinda got me thinking and doing a little research. I ended up coming across something that looked like what you were mentioning about a moving chicken coop so that they can be moved to focus on specific areas. http://home.centurytel.net/the...ctors.html So, hope that helps and keep up the good (and inspiring) work!
June 10, 2008

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