Pics Of My No Dig Garden

[Henno]

Should have taken a few shots before this stage, under this cane mulch is a layer of rocks, you can make them out in the bed on the right which will be next. Over the rocks is a layer of cardboard to try and smother any grasses or weeds coming up from below.


Here you can see my darling wife shoveling shit. This took bloody ages to get a good depth of cow poo over the cane mulch. A layer of blood and bone will cow on this followed by the mushroom compost in clear plastic bags outside the top right of the bed.


We finally raided our worm farm after 2 or so years of feeding our kitchen scraps to them and also split them into two farms.

Not pleasant to look at but a gardener's dream.

On goes the dry vegie scraps from the top of the farm, the worms and castings are already there with the mushy compost seen earlier.


A layer of newspaper, quickly wetted down so it didn't blow away in the southerly, is added to the mushy and kitchen compost.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Looking pretty dry there....same here... <_<

 

[Henno]

Then more cane mulch and a generous amount of pelletised natural fertiliser.


Another layer of manure covered with dolomite went on next, more manure went over the dolomite and it was wetted down and left over night.


Next day more water on the poo


Followed by 18 bags of really good locally made potting mix, the most expensive bit. This will be the initial growth medium until the worms eat everything and mix it all up.


After raking nice and smooth and watering in cane mulch is added to the top.

This last layer is pulled aside and plants or seeds are put in the potting mix.

 

[Henno]

Looking pretty dry there....same here... <_<

Real dry mate, one of the reasons we went no dig gardens. They are heaps more water efficient. Luckily I have a monsterous dam in the front of the house and even though it is looking a bit low it has over 3 metres till I run dry so I am way better off than most people in this area water wise. Our tanks are still 60% full where a lot of people with kids have been carting for months.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Lucky we have 3 tanks with a total of 70,000Ltrs, but I have noticed the big Tank ( 35,000ltr) was getting low, so I have had to open up the transfer tap from the tank off the shed. We havent had top cart water, but there is a 1 week wait for water deliveries around here...

Dam wise we are lucky 30x30x 3.5m so we have plenty, and it was cleaned out about 2yrs ago

 

[Henno]

I went a bit silly when we built our dam, it is about 60x50x 5m and although it is looking sad it has enough for at least a year or so yet so no major panic as yet.

This was at the end of last summer



What it looked like today

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Dams are like sheds....They are never big enough B)

 

[raven19]

I hope the plantings go well.

Lots of effort put in there with the different materials going into the garden bed.

 

[Bribie G]

I've done a couple of no diggers over the years with a layer of newspaper then chicken poop and a couple of bales of Lucerne hay and had good results. The problem I have found was getting enough water to the garden during the first couple of weeks to get the whole thing rotted down for the worms.

Nowadays in my present location I rely on a constant supply of spent grain and hops, plus hot break, as a mulch. Here on Bribie Island we are almost pure sand from the bottom four inches down but nevertheless I've now attracted and breeding up some worms.

 

[bconnery]

My folks have put two in recently and they can no longer keep up with the supply of veges and herbs they are getting.
The secret ingredient in their case has been Brush Turkey mounds...

Dad dug up one near their house and sifted through a big strainer he made from chicken wire and another mesh.
Best compost bar none he said, including the 10+ year old one they had going when I was a kid.

 

[komodo]

I built a no dige vegie garden last year. Worked a treat till it got killed by those few hot days we copped last summer down here. I'm actually about to get stuck into it and clean it up and replant it this year next weekend.

As for your dams and water tanks - wow makes my 9000L water tank pale in comparrison. Mind you I dont think I could fit 70,000L worth of water tanks on my standard suburban block LOL. My 9000L tank filled in under 3 days once I finished redoing all the stormwater pipes (tree roots smashed them up so I couldnt build pressure to get the water up and into the tank from underground)
My parents have about 55,000L on their place. But with the amount of roof space they have it doesnt take long to fill them! I only wish we had rain water tanks here at work 22,000 sq/ft of roof space is sure to fill a reasonably large water tank fairly quick...

 

[Fents]

Bit off topic but.....

Hey henno ever heard much about permaculture? One of my mates did a course in it last year, he loves gardening and he was blown away.

watch this clip, guys a genius...

 

[absinthe]

ever tired aquaponics? i have a small setup and it uses about 1/10 of the water my dirt garden does and it grow 3 times as fast

 

[Henno]

Funny you should mention aquaponics absinthe, I was going to reply to Fents about my interest in that over permaculture as such. One of my customers had a cool set up he was just starting up that got me thinking about it. One of the sites I was on said one guy was growing algae instead of vegies and making his own bio diesel from it that was enough to run his little tractor around his property.

I'd like to do it with barramundi up here and can't see any reason, except cost of course, why some of them couldn't be on display in a tank. Most set ups I have seen have the fish in poly tanks. I'd love a big glass tank next to my bar with barra cruising around in it.

 

[brettprevans]

Henno

What size are those garden beds?
(L)3m x 1.5m(w) x 60cm (h)? its more the height that im interested in.

We are re-doing our backyard and probably converting most of the yard into veggie/fruit plots. wil dig out the draft plan and post.

 

[brettprevans]

draft plan attached


you can see all th garden beds at the back. im thinking 'no dig' is way to go as that area is currrenlty sparsly grassed and rock hard clay.


edit: should have added that im happy to here from any other gardening gurus out there

 

[AndrewQLD]

CM2, nice plans, wish I had the space to do that..
I'm not sure about Vic and your local council laws but up here in Bundy chickens can only be housed if they are situated x metres from the house for health reasons.
Also, do you really want them so close to your living areas, the noise would be annoying.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[brettprevans]

CM2, nice plans, wish I had the space to do that..
I'm not sure about Vic and your local council laws but up here in Bundy chickens can only be housed if they are situated x metres from the house for health reasons.
Also, do you really want them so close to your living areas, the noise would be annoying.

Cheers
Andrew

good point. not sure about council requirements. the chicken are the missus thing so she has been looking into it.
bugger the noise as thats the kids bedrooms at the back! actually, hang on... i dont want them waking earlier than they already do! nah it should be ok as there will be no roosters, only chickens. althought we will have to chicken proff the garden beds so they dont eat everything. but we probably have to do that (and get a paintball gun or similar) to get rid of the possums

 

[Henno]

I know the sleepers are 7 foot which is a standard length. So 7 foot by 14 foot and I assume they would be about 1 foot high, so 30cm. As they are two sleepers high I reckon you're on the money with 60cm. We toyed with the idea of making them one sleeper high but after the mulch collapses, as it already has, you loose a bit of depth. My wife wants to grow these long skinny Japanese radishes that go fairly deep as well.

We have corn, rockmelons, tomatoes, beens, eggplant, carrots and some others I think all going in there at the moment. I think the cow manure may have not been dried enough as the beens don't seem to like being transplanted into it. Luckily we have just harvested several kilos of beens from a different garden and they are full again now after a week away.

Good luck CM2 and let us know how you go.

 

[Henno]

Now I am using a different browser I can open up you plans CM2. They look great. I'm kinda with Andrew with moving the chooks though. What about the space in between the two little sheds up the back or is that the side?