Permaculture Living

Whether it’s Midsummer, Yule, Christmas or the Holiday Season.. have a happy one.

I wish I could remember what variety this is; I’ve never seen such a large number of flowers on the one stem.

ETA: It’s a variety called Sweetbite.

Some more instructions and photos on building your own instant vegie garden…

How to make a no-dig garden bed – From Go Greener, Australia

Fact Sheet: No dig garden – From the Gardening Australia website

Building a no dig garden – From Suite101.com

Sabrina’s ‘No Dig’ Garden – From Overnight’s Horticulturalist

In late October I found a spare space in the backyard to expand from growing in containers to a proper vegie patch. Just five weeks after planting, it’s now looking lush. Along the way, I took a few photos.

The finished no-dig garden. I started by digging a brick perimeter slightly in the ground, then laying wet newspaper straight on top of the grass. That was followed by a bale of lucerne hay, a bag of composted chicken manure and a bale of sugar cane mulch. The fence of animal wire was the last part but most necessary if I wanted anything to grow; it keeps the possums out.

Now, it’s lush and green and starting to show fruit. The afternoon storms and odd spell of rain have been keeping the water up well (it rained a lot just after the seedings went in, conveniently) and today was the first time in weeks I’ve had to water.

Four days after installation, 28th October

Planting the Seedlings, 8th November

Tomatoes (two types), basil, capsicums, rockmelon, watermelon. Two pumpkin seedlings at the bottom right which are waiting to go into the ground elsewhere.

Beginning to fruit, 13th December

The tomatoes have set fruit (and there should be a lot). The capsicums are covered in flowers, as are the rockmelons, the watermelon has just set its first fruit. There’s now also snake beans and a cucumber in the jungle.

This watermelon vine is growing about 20 centimetres every day.

The first female flower (and fruit) on the watermelon vine.