BACKGROUND

For those that are not following along, we are building a large vegetable garden in the unused area behind the swimming pool. The idea is to be able to grow lots of the veges and herbs that we use and also provide some flowers and a bee haven as well. My husband is keen on hosting bees in the future as well. Me i want chickens...

We are clearing the back garden that was very unkempt. Pulling out all the stones, sifting to get the soil out, repreparing the ground underneath, washing the stones. After all that, we are putting them back. On top of this we are building very large garden beds.

The soil we are creating our own as it would be very expensive to bring in. We are making large compost piles in each of the beds (starting with one main one and working down. So far in a couple of months we have made a lot of our own soil. this soil will be so rich and has so far saved us about $500 in soil i am certain. Grass clippings, garden waste and all the food scraps minus a few for the worm bins. (again they are making soil for us too.) Also lots of the cardboard (without plastic and tape).

THE BACK GARDEN BED PROGRESS

As you can see the beds are in... The area to the left is still untouched and the back slope is still a catastrophe.

Its been a slowing month to be sure. We are still pulling out and washing stones, however we HAVE ALL THE GARDEN BEDS COMPLETED!!!! last post they were still 1/2 done i think.

We are starting to put the stones back in the gaps in between the beds. We need to keep these nice, so lots of weeding early and i'll fill them up a bit more when we know how many stones we have. I also scrubbed the pavers (some of them at the back) with soap and water and its looking really nice i think.

Still a huge pile of rocks to clean on the left hand side though.

All these stones still need cleaning and putting back in here and also down the side of the pool (Ill show you THAT disaster soon)

COMPOST

Here is the progress of the compost. Its super rich, breaking down in days and turning into beautiful FREE compost. If i can i try and ask the local vege shop for a few lettuce leaves or old veges so i can add to the pile as needed. soon we will loose the regular lawn clippings though as its nearly winter.

GINGER

Not sure if you remember me posting about planting some ginger in a pot. Its so expensive here in Australia. like $40 -50 a kilo. for comparison bananas are $2-4/kilo so its very expensive.

Its coming along nicely and there is lots of ginger forming under the surface.

I think we will get lots of pots and we will plant ginger ALL ALONG the side of the pool in the area we pulled out all of the palm trees (nice but ontop of a retaining wall... so ????? previous owners what WERE you thinking... lol

PHOTO GINGER

SIDE OF THE POOL

as you can see this is TERRIBLE at the moment. This was where all those palm trees were. we are struggling getting out all the roots and they keep jolly shooting. Even though i was very bad and used roundup... sorry mother nature it was necessary. This is where pots with ginger will go.

I'm getting ready to put back all those stones that i have washed in here. You can see them all sunning out on the concrete at the back there...

still a bit of digging and root clearing to go though.

This is the area i am working on today... The Dodgy corner...

The Dodgy corner

So this is a bit tricky, its the area in between where we are digging out and not. There was a HUGE stump here that needed to come out.

It took some digging from my husband Hive account@azthal about 40 mins in boiling hot heat to yank the sucker out. but it is... out... Thank fully. we are going to put a tiny retaining wall step to make it look a little neater, but i need a bit more digging. The dirt needs to come out more and then the white stones are all going back along the side.

Eventually the back section will need to be dug out too, but i'm not doing that now. Its better than the rest so i'll leave it. WE will take out a couple more stumps though

THE BACK SLOPE -- JUST SIGH

We are getting there. This will unhappily be one of the more last areas to be done i think... but we will be removing and cleaning the stones removing the BLACK BLOODY PLASTIC MATT underneath it, rejuvenating the soil, removing the stumps and planting flowers and melons down here.

also behind the water tank will need some work too... yikes that is a mess as well.

CONCLUSION

So as you can see we are making progress. I'm hoping for a pretty good go in the garden a couple of days this week. I'm close to putting the stones back in along the pool side.

eventually we need to fix under the water tank too and repair the mini retaining wall there.

SOOOO much work to do to turn this into both a "pleasant aspect" and a "productive garden"

I would like to make it pretty and productive. Lots to work to go... better get digging...

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