Take a journey with me as I take you on a guided tour through my humble yard.
You will see the beginnings of my self-sufficiency journey; and along the way my failures and triumphs. I am on a limited budget, and looking to use recycled materials where possible. Everything I have today (soil, pots and tools), I have accumulated over four years.
It is currently a warm Autumn, with winter looming three months away.
Let's begin!
The raised bed at the back given to me as a birthday gift two weeks ago. The yellow one I saw on the tray of a friends ute (crazy man was going to throw it out!)
My soil composure is made up of organic compost, worm castings and various high-grade bagged soils from Bunnings mixed together. This is probably where most of your costs will add up, however, over time, and through making your own compost, you can eventually have an abundance of rich, nutritious soil to use as the foundation for your planting whilst spending very little.
Above the bed and to the left, I have fixed cheap, wooden trellis along the sides. I have also for the first time dabbled with drip irrigation using poly-pipe. This way the plants will get water closer to their roots, instead of wasteful overhead watering.
In the front yard I have honestly lost track of what plants I actually have, almost all of them have been taken from unidentified cuttings from my grand parents house. Would love if someone could help me out in the comments with some identification!
* Passion-Fruit *
Now onto my favourites. I love passion fruit. These two were planted two months ago in January, and I'm hoping I stay long enough to witness them fruit. The one on the left is Enduro Gold, and the other is Ned Kelly grafted black. Enduro Gold has been growing like crazy, climbing it's way up onto the front patio support beams - whilst the grafted one has been stunted - I think this is caused by the morning-midday sun being blocked by the canopy of foliage above.
I'm currently trying to research like crazy to find the best feeding methods for these vines. Even if I don't live here forever, the experience and knowledge I gain from this will serve me when I build my dream home with a luscious, edible garden abundant with fruit and vegetables.
* Dwarf Mandarin Lime *
This fella has a nice mix of soil, and watered in with Seaweed water to help deal with transplanting shock. The top of the soil is covered with about 10cm of shredded pine mulch to help keep him warm during the nights and hold moisture.
It is currently situated behind a East facing fence, catching at least a good five hours of sun from 11am - 5pm. This fence will also catch the afternoon Westerly sun and help create a warm micro-climate for this area.
* Grape-Vine *
And here's my grape vine, looking a little sad to be honest.
Crimson seedless variety. I've had it for about 6 months, and it actually set a bundle of grapes which were ready early February. I eagerly watched them grow for months, waiting for them to ripen perfectly. Unfortunately I was beaten to the punch by birds - so I need to plan a way to provide more support and protection for this vine. It was also re-potted into this larger pot early Autumn whilst we get this last run of constant sunlight and warmth.
Look tomorrow for a follow-up post showing the Vegetables and Herbs which I will be attempting to grow this season. Thanks for coming!
BONUS: Obligatory American-Staffordshire Terrier photo.
Have a good day folks!
No comments:
Post a Comment