Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Veggies


I thought I better do a post about veggies, seeing as there is quite a sizable veggie patch here. A few years ago we built a sort of circular cage, with a diameter of 12 metres. All the posts are from eucalyptus trees that got slightly burnt in the fire at king lake. They have not been milled and give the whole structure a nice rustic feel. We then wrapped full sheets of concrete reinforcing steel around them as the walls, and had two steel gates made up. Inside it is made up of 8 small beds laid out in a grid, approximately 3m by 1m each, and then a narrow bed that runs around the perimeter, just inside the steel. The steel then acts as an ideal climbing frame for things like beans and pumpkins. Around all the beds are gravel paths which allow plenty of room to work on the beds.

View from outside the veggie patch

















View from inside

















This seemed like more than enough for growing, but with a few people growing their veggies in there, it filled up pretty quick (Looks a bit sparse in the photos, but they were taken last week, and we’re in the middle of a bit of a crop rotation process). Two extra raised beds have now been created, in semi circles just to the north side of the original circle. there's been a bit of re-landscaping and earthworks in this immediate area, so it does look a bit muddy and unappealing at the moment.
The inner one is empty at the moment, but I planted the bigger, outer one with potatoes and snow peas on Saturday.

Potato bed


I sowed four different types of potatoes – Desiree, Royal Blue, Sebago, and Russet Burbank. There was just enough space to plant a bag of each, in rows 750mm apart, with the stem tubers 250mm apart in the rows. I sowed a few rows of the snow peas between each different type of potato for ease of identification. These were planted much closer, with rows 500mm apart, but seeds 75mm apart in the rows.

6 comments:

  1. What a great garden Matt, where is this?

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  2. In Alphington, at the bottom of Alphington park. It's private land, but Kate's more than happy to let the locals wonder through

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  3. This is where the we had the gathering for my work mate who sadly passed away last month. I didn't realise at the time this was where you work but I just recognised the circular vegie garden. It's so beautiful down there and yes you are VERY lucky to work there! Keep posting photos please.

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  4. I love the use of the burnt tree trunks. This is a really great space you've created, I am very jealous, but it has given me inspiration. Might have to go and have a look sometime

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  5. Funnily enough I nearly made it down there today while having a break from marking Crop species reports!! My partner says she has been down there a lot so I'm going to have a look myself. I finally checked out the new native gardens at Alphington Park...great intentions but arguably not very long term plantings...I may take the class there next semester...by the way doing that garden is an awesome gig to get as a gardener/landscaper

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    1. Pity you didn't make it down today, i was working so i could have taken you on a bit of a tour of the property

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