Below is an extract taken from a Facebook Post we put up 11th November 2015
Over the past 5 weeks or so since Scott Andrews and Adon Bender arrived, we've been working very long hours creating a huge, new, terraced garden bed out the front of the house which runs down the front west side of this rental property, attached to a new storage shed for pots, bins, etc.
To do this, we chainsawed around 22 x 20-25 foot high Leylandi Pine trees on the east and west side of the front of the property and used a wood chipping machine to create massive amounts of valuable biological material for composting down-the-line. All the larger logs were used as part of the landscaping of the native garden we have also created out the front of the property. The Leylandi trees are now around 8 feet in height allowing heaps more sunlight to pour in early morning and late afternoon. We plan to take down all Leylandis on the east side in the future.
We also put in an 18 metre storm water run off with seeper pipes sitting on blue metal in channels we dug. This is to prevent the build up of water around the house and where the new 6 (l) x 2.5 (W) x 2.5 (H) metre storage shed is to be built, that happens during heavy rain. The new garden bed goes over the top of most of it.
Over the past two years, when required, we've been transferring rotting wood chip full of Mycelium fungus and storing it all underneath and around the Leylandi Pine trees on the west side of the property. This wood chip was originally used for all pathways around all the garden beds at the back and side of the property as well as being taken from inside and around the hot house.
When the wood chip on the paths starts becoming muddy/dirt-like we move it all and replace it with fresh clean wood chip. This growing pile of rotting goodies was mostly used in the huge new garden bed we just built out the front and for the upgraded composting system Adon has introduced.
We also transferred tons of organic soil into this new garden bed that had been composted and stored in the storage bays out the back of the property for around 2 years. We have brought in around 12 trailer loads (7x4 box trailer) of fresh wood chip with at least another 10 to go. We have planted well over 100 natives of many varieties in the new native garden out the front of the property, adding the usual concoction of rock dust, zeolite, DE, soft rock phosphate (not for the natives), boron and kaolinite. We are laying wet cardboard over grass and weeds before adding compost and woodchip.
Over the past three weeks we've planted around 4 thousand mature seedlings of all types....veges, edible flowers, etc. We are also planting a bay tree and plan to plant grapefruit, lemon, orange, mandarin and lime trees, as well as apples, pears and stone fruit and nut trees. Adon brought some macadamia, loquat and bitter orange seedlings and these will be planted once they have grown a bit. We are also planting a mulberry tree and 12 blueberry shrubs.
We have used 40+ metres of black plastic garden edging staked down with hard wood to separate the lawns, path and drive ways from all the new garden beds. We still have a few thousand seedlings of various types to plant over the coming week or so.
Adon is implementing a new composting system which is an aerobic, thermal compost/soil probiotic to re-establish soil microbiology, especially fungi. Fungally dominated composts are vital for plant immune systems and to help with pests and diseases. Fungi brings nutrients to plants and brings back a diverse soil food web structure (bacteria/protozoa/nematodes/macroarthropods/fungi, etc).
This compost uses a diversity of ingredients to ensure a diversity of soil biology so we are using straw, woodchip, leaves, garden excess and kitchen scraps, horse poo, humates and all sorts of goodies and whatever Adon finds to chuck in. A diversity of soil biology ensures support for a diversity of plants and not digging the soil avoids disrupting the mycellium and avoids overriding natural succession if possible. Always maintaining mulch is vital and we are now using rye straw to achieve high levels of carbon in the garden, while still using Lucerne for its nitrogen and protein content and triacontanol root stimulant. Many of the vege plants that need to be pulled out are being chopped and laid back on the beds providing huge bacterial flushes.
Part of implementing the new compost system has involved pulling out all our plastic compost bins and making space for Adon to make compost heaps on the ground which he turns regularly and which can produce ready-to-go compost in 18 days. We also plan to remove some of the garden beds on the East side of the back garden to fence off an area that will house all the fruit trees in pots and make space for a chook shed and run, as well as the compost heaps. While we don't eat eggs, the dogs and the cat do and they are also great in composts, which the bantam hens will do a great job of turning and fertilizing.
We are also getting an actively aerated compost tea brewer that maintains 6ppm oxygen in the tea which is used mainly as a foliar spray to feed the plants.
The hot house continues to progress. Mark Musil brought timber and started building the main supports for the shelving system and Scott has continued where Mark left off. These supports are now temporarily clamped in place with shelves on as we urgently needed space for all the seedlings, especially those that have been potted to give them time to grow before we plant them out. We will be getting aluminium glass sliding doors with screen doors for the ends of the hot house which are currently still open. We will also be putting a manual ventilation system to allow for greater airflow when it is hot. We have replaced the wood chip on the floor with blue metal and have also put it between the plastic walls to prevent worms coming up when it rains and to keep the slugs and snails at bay.
The storage bays have been rearranged and we are now able to hold a lot more compost materials in them.
We've also upgraded the storage system used inside the temporary storage shed that houses all the wood, potting mix bags, worm farm and other bits and pieces.
We are putting together a video to show a lot of what is being done and what is happening for everyone but we are so busy outside at the moment that it is sitting waiting for attention. We will get to it as soon as we can.
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We are currently constructing a 3 meter x 4.8 meter arbour.
Will post photos when finished.
