Pics Of My No Dig Garden

[drsmurto]

Let the chooks revitalise your vegie patch between seasonal plantings.

I've forgone winter crops and let them loose for 4-5 months and the next crops love it. Built in compost machines, bug killers and rotary hoes.

Love the plans CM2. Make sure you leave plenty of room to expand the hop 'plantation'! :icon_cheers:

 

[brettprevans]

yeah ive mentioned the chook issue to the missus and she admits she kinda just plonked it there. so we will probably move it.

+1 to letting chooks go nuts in un-used beds. will definitely be doing that.

I havent worked out the best place to grow hops yet. but they will be there eventually.

the east is towards the back fence (ie veggie gardens will get morning and midday sun).

 

[brettprevans]

Henno

+1 to moving the chooks between sheds if I dont make that into another shed. its empty space atm. so its a possibility/

I also meant to ask...whats holding your sleepers together. I can see a few angle brackets in a couple shots. but cant see any long metal bolts drilled into the sleepers. just the brackets?

 

[Henno]

What is holding my sleepers together is a bit doggy I spose but we can both walk around on them no problems. It is mostly angle brackets in the corners. To join them together on the flats we bought those big flat sheet nails that are stamped out. I don't know how to really describe them but they use them in roof trusses. The sleepers are so heavy that they tend to stay put on their own anyway. The original idea was to bolt 9" x 2" panels over the joins in the middle and on the corners and sink them in as deep as my shithouse clay would allow me. I don't think it is too ugly without them so am gunna leave it as is.

Regarding your chicken coop the other advantage to putting them between the two sheds is that you could use the fence as your back wall and the two shed walls as your sides. You'd only need a front wall and a roof. I don't know how frugal you are but I hear chooks love old lawn mower catchers to nest in and mower shops will give you the old buggered catchers for nothing. Just a thought.

Please show us some photos as it evolves.

H

 

[brettprevans]

Lawn mower cathers hug? Bloody brillant idea. Will def post pics once work begins

 

[Leigh]

You might want to check with your local council Brett, I can only find Moreland, but Casey and Cardinia have the same rules...

http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/mccwr/publi...%20chickens.doc

In a nutshell:

3. Chickens are not to be kept within:

a. 10 meters from the frontage of any street or road.
b. 3 meters from any other street or road.
c. 1.5 meters from the boundary of any adjoining allotment of land.
d. 7 meters from any dwelling whether on the same land or adjoining land

My take is the "kept" refers to their coop and not "roaming" the backyard by day.

[edit] Just found Wodonga and Bendigo, they both require the coop to be 10 metres from a dwelling

 

[///]

Heaps of good books on no dig gardening and the like. Grantw is a bit of an experience no-digger, and as well as being a head librarian is a fountain of knowledge (and damm fine brewer, but I digress).

Chooks are on par with dogs for pets I reckon. Grew up with them and they are so low maintenance they are not funny. Reckon the best ones we ever had was a lot of bantams, the rooster was not aggressive and really looked after the brood. He also did not attack like Brett the Leghorn; everyone was scared of Brett and you had to carry a broom when he was out, he was a mighty angry chook!

Tops thread fella's, enjoy the fruits an veges of your labour!

Scotty

 

[Kleiny]

[edit] Just found Wodonga and Bendigo, they both require the coop to be 10 metres from a dwelling

i have not ever heard of them enforcing that. But it may be in their sites for revenue at some point

Plenty of people i know have chooks and they just roam free with a safe house at night.

As long as you dont get a rooster, you might like it but your neighbours will hate you

 

[Leigh]

By-laws are usually only raised when a neighbour complains. They are put in place becuase the stoopid council workers can't figure out who was in the right...

Those particular rules are about where the chook house goes as far as I can tell, not about where they scratch during the day...

 

[np1962]

Lawn mower cathers hug? Bloody brillant idea. Will def post pics once work begins

Another nest box idea is to use an old 20L cube and cut the bottom out of it, any no chill cubes past their best could be used.
Excuse the dodgy pic. Just cut the bottom off along the red line. Lay down and fill with straw, collect eggs. Easy!
Cheers Nige

 

[Kleiny]

Another nest box idea is to use an old 20L cube and cut the bottom out of it, any no chill cubes past their best could be used.
Excuse the dodgy pic. Just cut the bottom off along the red line. Lay down and fill with straw, collect eggs. Easy!
Cheers Nige

View attachment 33473

This works great

ive used the containers cut out before and the chooks love them, just line them with staw.

 

[brettprevans]

landscaping kicks off next saurday.
6m3 skip bin, dingo, auger, chainsaw all booked.
just got to double check my plans and measurements then order timber, dirt etc.

Henno - any idea of the dirt/mulch/manure quantities you used? or at least depth of each layer? I can work quantities out from that.

 

[Henno]

We were really flying blind CM. It turns out lucerne or pea hay are a bit better than cane trash for the mulch layers. I know I thought I was going to need half a dozen bails but used less than two in total as they tend to fluff out when you undo the string. We used 22 bags of the poting mix though, the most expensive bit. I think it was about 8 bags of the mushy compost but we could have doubled that and saved a bit on potting mix.

Hope this helps
H

 

[brettprevans]

I'm buying sq ms of soil in as we have a bit so buying in bulk should be a but cheaper. But good to know all the details. I'll get pea straw.
Ordered all my fence/garden timber this morning. All the hire equip is ordered (dingo chainsaw etc). So keen ti get started.

Chers fir the info

 

[yardy]

lucerne is a bit dearer but it breaks down quicker and puts nitrogen back.

 

[brettprevans]

must post some pics.
beds are made and backyard is finished bar planting of fruit trees and actual veggies in the gaarden. used dromana toppings for the ground all around the backyard for paths.

oh and havent actaually put the soil in the garden beds yet. I'll need 12m3 of soil! faaaaark.
found a good source for the soil though. 20% chicken manure, 20% mushy compost and the rest is screened organic soil. $70m3 from memory
so im chucking down a heap of gypsum to break up the underlying clay then the soil, going to add some more manure half way up, more soil then top with lucerne. i'll use pea straw or cane mulch after that and only use lucerne once a year.

4 garden beds means we can rotate crops and have one growing clover to replace nitrogen etc.

just waiting on autumn before we get everything planted.

will be pissing off the stupid passionfruit vine that grows nuts but isnt producing fruit. that section will now either grow hops or grapes.

all coming along nicely if not a bit slowly.

 

[Leigh]

Good work CM2.

You don't need much gypsum to break down the clay, just enough to dust the surface. If you add too much, you can end up losing the ground stability entirely (think quick sand, but in clay).

I have moved 20 m3 of horse manure from a local stable to my vegie patch. I estimate I'll need at least another 20-30 m3!

 

[brettprevans]

Good work CM2.

You don't need much gypsum to break down the clay, just enough to dust the surface. If you add too much, you can end up losing the ground stability entirely (think quick sand, but in clay).

I have moved 20 m3 of horse manure from a local stable to my vegie patch. I estimate I'll need at least another 20-30 m3!

yah fkn what?!! 20m3 of horse crap! wow. some of it was from chappo wasnt it :lol:

that's heaps. How did you transport that much? and did they charge you for it?

 

[pdilley]

I've got the 4 grow bed square design with chicken coop in the middle planned for the new house -- as seen on ABC Gardening Show.

I have not sussed out if I want to put no dig raised garden beds in there or just let nature take its course.

I will have to look up the show but its a 4 years cycle from what I gathered so 4 years to get fully operational.

Year #1 chooks in pen#1

Year #2 chooks in pen#2 and leafy plants liking high nitrogen planted in pen#1.

Year #3 chooks in pen#3 and leafy plants liking high nitrogen planted in pen#2 and tomatoes and cucumbers and plants of that ilk in pen#1.

Year #4 chooks in pen #4 and leafy plants in pen#3, tomatoes and cucumbers etc in pen#2 and then root vegetables in pen#1.

Year #5 system complete, chooks in pen #1, leafy in pen#4, tomatoes etc in pen#3, root veggies in pen#2

Year #6, etc. same as above but keep on rotating one pen at a time.


I've not spent much time sussing out the rules and design yet as I'm still on house architecture, house design is done just need architectural drawings and engineers reports. Then onto shed system including brew shed and then design chook/garden 4 pen system.


EDIT: I still have aquaponics on the cards but its main strength is in leafy plants if you go the cheaper route and use gravel in the grow beds (roots have a hard time pushing tons of gravel aside so it can develop big flesh root veggies. If going through salads like crazy, aquaponics can get you from plant to harvest about 3 times over in one season so 3 times the amount of lettuce and green veg from a tiny amount of space. This might be important as the small village I am building at has a tiny supermarket and very large prices for small quantity items. Plus you get to eat the fish every year if you grow eating fish. If you go with gold fish (carp) then its all feed expense with no protein return, just the veggies.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[brettprevans]

In regards to 4 bed/field permaculture, historically u would need a few years but if u improve the soil to begin with in all 4 beds then u can start immediately. In fact the 4th bed is kind if surpurflous in the first year. I would have liked to have 5 beds so the chooks can have free reign over another area if needed.
Not sure how chooks will go if they had full free reign over all beds as I expect they will eat the veg?
All in all it's just back to basics of the agricultural revolution in 14th? century.