Ok, so you lovely ladies have motivated me to get this veggy patch i have been talking about for months going.
So far i have built the box from unused timber that was under our house, now, not having any DIY skills its a bit of a hash job but i recon it will do just fine!!
Im going to put it on an unused bit of garden but it will be directly on soil (bad undiggable soil)....is that going to be ok, how do i stop the weeds growing up through....and there are a few weeds where im going to put it!
Its direct sun so will have to research what will grow best there and what sort and where to get the soil to fill this big box i made!!
Any and all tips welcome....my thumbs are less the green!!!!
have a look on google for no dig garden bed solutions. there are forums on gardening express website where the gardening gurus talk about it. i've also posted some stuff elsewhere. it involves layering with newspaper/cardboard and mulch before you put in soil to kill off the weeds underneath by smothering them - as the layers breakdown they "feed" the soil...
im just looking up stuff now, but a few sites say that you build it up with layers and then you have to wait a few months before planting....im not happy about that, im keen and want to get planting soon. might look at getting a book specifically for the queensland (sunny coast) climate. saw one recomended in another garden thread.
OK In Qld this first option should work really really well.
Water the ground really well and even give it a little bit of liquid fertilizer. It should make the weeds very very happy. Then once they look nice and green (probably a week or so) put some black plastic (a few garbage bags will work just as well) and hold it down with some bricks or weights or pieces of wood. After a couple of weeks (or even less) they will all be dead. They effectively cook under the plastic if it has been warm.
Alternatively, if you are really keen to get going mix a up of salt in a litre of vinegar (it will take a bit of stirring to get it all mixed in) and then on a warm sunny day spray or water it onto the weeds inside your new box. It will kill them within hours. But a couple of days later give the whole area a good water to dilute the vinegar.
Also, before you start building the bed on top put quite a bit of gypsum at at the bottom of the box as this will over time make the soil underneath easier to break up and help with water penetration. Then cover it with a layer of cardboard or newspaper and wet it down really really well before you fill your box.
As for the type of soil you put in - it depends on how big the box is. You need to work out how much you need.
Here is how to calculate it - length x width x height.
So, if it was 1m long by 1m wide by 20cm high you would need 1 x 1 x 0.2 = 0.2
This means 0.2 cubic meters or 200 litres.
So either you ring a soil supply shop and ask them to deliver you some - but usually they won't deal with less than about 2-5 cubic meters - or if you have a trailer you can usually go to their depo and get it (a trailer generally holds between 1/2 and 1 cubic meter) or if you are talking only 200ish litres the easiest thing would be to go to bunning and buy it in bags.
As for what you want - the more organic matter the better - so ask if they have cow poo or similar and get half half soil and cow poo - or if you are buying it in bags get a few soil, a few cow poo, a few mushroom compost and mix it all together.
And then - put a big layer of mulch like pea straw or lucerne or something over the top of it all to help retain the moisture.
put really thick layers of news paper down then all your dirt and mulch and goodies.. the weeds wont get through the paper then by the time it has disintergrated there definatly will not be any weeds around...
We now have layers... compost, lucerne, cow poo lucerne, more poo and then a thick layer of compost on top. its about 30cm deep. hoping it will rain soon but think il have to wait for a few days for that!!! did give it a bit of a watering on each layer of lucerne. going on holiday for a week in a few days so will see what it looks like when we get back, maybe stick abit more compost ontop and then mulch and plant!!!! Looking good so far!!! WOOHOO
Raised bed veggy garden....finally(well, almost)!
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might look at getting a book specifically for the queensland (sunny coast) climate. saw one recomended in another garden thread.
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