Week Two of our Regenerative Journey
Enter soil, seeds and sun.
Another week down
Phew, I hear you say. Where does the time go.
At last I feel as though I have landed in my skin.
Settled in to our cottage. Become familiar with its unique place in the valley.
Where the sun rises and falls.
The best place to put our sun chairs to watch the evening glow.
To sit with a morning cup of tea and listen to the dawn chorus.
The choreography of the Australian bush. Her orchestra rising and falling with my breath. Quietly sitting and listening. Waking up that little bit earlier.
The form of the edible garden starting to take shape. Moulded into a corner using scrap pieces of wood. Compost deposited on to thick cardboard.
It’s called a #nodig garden. If (unlike I was up until a few years ago) you are familiar with this concept, feel free to skip a few paragraphs.
I learnt of the no dig garden via an English gent called Charles Dowding.
The idea is basic enough.
Find a suitable place for your garden.
Cover said place with thick cardboard.
Cover cardboard with about 10-15cm of compost approximately one metre wide. These are called “beds” and are where you will plant your garden.
Cover your walkways between the beds with cardboard and then something like wood chips that will handle you walking along them.
Plant your garden and enjoy.
It doesn’t disturb the amazing activity already going on under the surface of your soil. There are literally trillions of living beings down there. Going about their business. Transferring nutrients. Communicating with each other. Think worms, microbes.
It helps to retain moisture. The cardboard helps to keep moisture in your garden bed.
The cardboard suppresses unwanted growth (we won’t upset them by calling them weeds - up till now they have been keeping your soil covered which is a very important job).
No need to for chemicals, no need to dig into your soil (now you get the No Dig label).
When the time comes to harvest your bountiful crop, the plants will come out with ease. Again, no disturbance.
I have an amazing array of useful implements already on the farm. Fence posts. Shovels. Scrap wood.
I chose a corner of the yard that will get full sun during the Winter. Handily it also has a tap with running water.
Lay down my cardboard. Added compost. Began planting.
Made friends with the local plant nursery. Came away with some out of date seeds. I know it’s not best practice to sow out of date seeds, but I’m also not prepared to “look a gift horse in the mouth”.
I’m excited and a bit over excited.
I spread those seeds all over the place. I’ve watered them. I can now see some tiny shoots coming up. I’m not sure what varieties are growing but I did note down (mostly) what I had grown.
If it’s all beginning to sound like something from a romantic novel, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
Our newly adopted dog and her long lead became entangled in my makeshift potting bench and managed to successfully upend every carefully planted seed (I did actually buy some precious “in date” seeds) on to the verandah floor.
Maybe because of the slatted timber floor we will see some spring onions growing up through the cracks in the months to come.
We swept up what we could and replanted the soil back into the tiny pots.
Something and I’m not sure what, has taken to walking all over said tiny plants and snapping them at the base. Also some fairly large gnawing has been going on of the sweet potatoes planted in recycled milk cartons.
The weather has been hot. Over 30 degrees most days. And like most things in that heat, some of our lettuces have wilted into compost.
On the upside, my new friends at the nursery delivered four tonnes of beautiful black Australian compost yesterday.
Alongside six fantastic well grown trees. Nectarine, cherries, pomegranate and lime.
Now I just need some sharp implements to dig through the carpet of kikuyu grass and compact sun baked soil.
And there may be some hens on the horizon. I can feel it in my bones.
#regenag #regenerativeagriculture #permaculture #gardendesign #FarmHer #GIY #GYO #YoureGrowing #AustralianGarden #GardenMyStyle #HappyGardening #LoveYourSoil #LoveYourSoul #HealthySoils #HealthyPeople #HealthyFood
You can also follow our journey on YouTube at Magners Farm.