Week three

Week Three - The greening continues

We have transplanted some peas and beans into the garden this week, thinking the seeds had failed to germinate. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a couple of days later, some seeds started to push through. The peas come up like a spear, the beans looking as if the shell of the seed is used as a crash helmet to push through the soil. The carrots have started to appear now, too.

The first plants were put in the no-dig garden a week ago, with a second planting of peas also put in. In the laundry, we have seen the first two tomato seeds germinate. We have planted a variety of herbs in this bed, and also have planted some red onions, who are currently suffering due to their planting mix not really attaching to their roots.

I do like the way this garden self-mulches, but it does mean you can only plant seedlings.

Just a picture of the herb tubs (now cleaned up) between the two garden beds.

Week two - the story continues

Another week, and the gardens continue developing. For my part, I installed a drip irrigation system. This is more efficient than a spray system and did a good job for my vegies up here last year.

We have solid growth on the early risers, some are putting out their first differentiated (or "true") leaves.

The peas are new-comers this week. They come up almost like a spear, and rapidly grow their new leaves. As their seed is bigger, they have a much more robist approach to early development.

The key negative issue of the sieved garden relative to the "no-dig" method is rapidly appearing, there are small sprouts appearing everywhere. Until the desirable plants get stronger, it is too dangerous to disturb the soil to remove the weeds.

The "No-dig" bed

As you can see, the degradation in the no-dig bed continued this week. In fact, it has got to the stage where I planted seedlings in this bed in the evening. The layer under the top mulch is deep brown and rather free flowing. In fact, it collapsed in so readily that putting the seedlings in felt like plugging them into a socket.

The winter solstice has now passed, looking forward to a bit more sunshine (even up here in the tropics)

Week 1 of garden trial

The two gardens have now been going for a week and its's time for the first update...

Sieved Soil Garden

This garden is predominantly used for plants whose seeds are directly planted. These include peas, beans, radishes, carrots, giant red mustard, mizuna (an asian green), lettuce and chinese broccoli (Kai laan). The climbing plants are at the back. The two plants you can see are oregano and Italian parsley that have been planted as seedlings.

The big development in this garden is the arrival of the first germinated seedlings. So far, radish (front left), rocket (back left, trust me -it's there), chinese broccoli and mizuna have made their first appearances yesterday. This is a wonderful time in a garden, you can go back a few times a day and see significant changes every time. Now we just need the frosts to hold off for a few days...

The other plants should make an appearance over the next week or two.

The no-dig bed

While the other bed is off to a flying start, the no-dig garden is in a "bedding down" phase. It must be left 2-3 weeks before plants can be introduced. You can see cracks and unevenness in the surface. These are where air and moisture have been able to get down into the lucerne layer and it is starting to degrade. In the process it gives off a slight odour and the garden warms up due to the heat from the rotting process (this is why plants can't be introduced yet).

One good thing about setting up a no-dig garden in winter is that the risk of self-combustion is lower. On the hottest day of summer here last year, one of my friends here had her no-dig garden dry out a bit too much on top and start to smoulder from the heat being generated from below.

The plants in this garden will be predominantly seedlings - spring onions, garlic chives, rosemary, golden marjoram, strawberry, tomatoes and capsicum. The rest will be filled up with greens. Those seedlings being grown from seed are already in their biodegradable newspaper pots, waiting on the worst of winter to pass before being put out.

I am loving this, in one garden I am cheering on new life, in the other I am waiting for the decay to happen before new life can be introduced. These are both key processes in gardening, and also in life...

A new gardening experiment

Last year, I grew a vegetable garden with mixed success. More than in part, this was due to my location's rocky soils. This year I read a book that got me interested again, it is "square foot gardening" by Mel Bartholemew. While this is an English book, there are parts of his gardening philosophy I find particularly attractive, so I decided to make two gardens of this style for my wife and I.


There are two solutions to stony soil. The first is to dig out the garden bed and place a barrier around it...

Then you take the soil and sieve out all the stones...
Leaving a fine soil left.

Sounds a lot easier than it is!

Thus the appeal of "no-dig" gardening





Take a bag of composted cow manure, a bail of lucerne hay and a bail of cane trash...

Spread half of the manure in a layer, then the lucerne, then the cane trash as a final mulch, wetting down each time.

This bed needs a few weeks before it can be planted in, and won't be able to handle root vegetables for a while - but the total construction time was less than two hours.

Which garden will be the most fruitful? Only time will tell, but the native dirt bed is fertilised and ready for planting...


Yes, the author of "The Square Foot Garden" is a retired engineer.

Can anyone guess why I like his design?