Sweetpea's Garden

[ssweetpea]

Ok it is nothing fabulous, definately not glossy maganize material and it is easy to see what jobs I don't like (weeding, spraying) but it is a real suburban garden.

I thought I would just wander around with the camera every season just to track the changes and keep track of what worked and what didn't.

[ssweetpea]

This is an anti-clockwise wander around my trianglular section Nov 2008
East side of the house, shaded by a hill.

Front yard - facing north



The "clothesline yard" looking south

and looking north from the south boundery

The main back yard, this is heavily shaded in winter.



Weeds
Convulvulus roots - dispose in the rubbish bin not compost or you will be digging it up all over the place.

[Brownie55]

Your garden looks fantastic SP.  We have convoluvus as well...drives me crazy.

[Newtown-Fella]

if th soil shown in the fledgling herb garden is an indication of what your soil is like i'd be getting worried ...

looks to be dead i'e lacking any goodness ....

fixit with several bags of mushroom compost laid straight on the soil or any good organic compost lightly forked into the soil ....

if your planning on planting Mint put it in a large plastic pot and bury it into the soil leaving around 4 - 6 inches above the surface ... that way it wont take off and take over ....

[ssweetpea]

Yes that is the soil that most of my garden has. Awful isn't it. I brought in 5m of loam for the vege patch nearly 10 years ago, wow what an improvement. With regular fertiliser and compost I get good yeilds there now in summer.
That area were the herbs are hasn't had much compost in the last 3 or 4 years.

I wanted the mint to spread in that patch but the horseradish is confined to a pot.

I am in the throws of weeding and speading more compost and sheep pellets around to grow winter vegetables in the front.

[Newtown-Fella]

loam for the vege patch nearly 10 years ago ......................

gardens need yearly additions of good rich compost not 10 yearly .....

you are well over due to add some more and the yield in your crops will be unbelievable 

as for sheep pellets ........ Weeds Weed Weeds Weeds is what will be the main benefit from using them ... 

better to try and get some Chicken Poo put it in a sack hang it in a plastic rubbish bin full of water let it soak then take out a baked bean tins worth mixed in a watering can with water and use it like that....

[ssweetpea]

I think you misunderstood me. 10 years ago I had a truck load of loam - as in dirt - brought in, as the clay soil was proving nearly impossilbe to breakdown into a fine tilth. I can dig it to a double spade depth now. Fertiliser and compost are an annual addition to that part of the garden. Other parts get it as we produce it and I buy in bags as well, I must have spent $60 to $80 on compost last spring. The flower beds, which is what the new herb garden was tend to get the dreggs.

BTW my home made compost has improved no end since we got the rabbits. They are all litterbox trained and kept on hay (I buy it by the bale) rather than moved around the lawn. The result is the soiled hay and the bark chips we use for litter, including all the droppings and urea, go into the compost. No need to add blood and bone like I used to to get it to cook.