Selfsufficientish.com

Two years ago I moved from the hot and arid and drought-stricken central regions of the Australian Mainland and moved into heaven - Cornelian Bay in Hobart on the island of Tasmania. Here I bought a tumbledown old Victorian house in the inner city area on a really large allotment (for inner city) of half an acre. It was an unusual shape - the block essentially the shape of an arrow head, facing north (good for this south part of the world) with the house sitting in the back west corner and the land spread out to the east and the north (front garden). The land also sloped steeply from the back line of the property bounded by a hawthorn hedge at least 150 years old (I've seen it in early settlement paintings of the area) down to the front tip of the arrow.

The garden had hardly been touched in 45 years and was tremendously overgrown - the back eastern corner was a massive jungle - when I finally hacked my way through it I scared a back neighbour who declared she'd never seen anyone emerge from the jungle in the 25 years she'd lived there! The bits that were not overgrown were covered in weedy lawn - apart from 3 or 4 large trees and the pittosporum hedge that bounded the west and front fences, there was not much worth saving. I counted my pennies and brought in 2 willing lads with a big yellow machine and the entire lot went. Then the 2 willing lad's elder pub mate came in and built me some sandstone retaining walls, by which time all my pennies had gone and I was left to make what I could of the mud. (And all this time the house was being tended to by builders and painters and roofers, and by this time I was hoping we'd find a stash of pennies in the garden - we found a WWII air raid shelter, but that was it.)

Over the past year I have transformed the entire space: the front arrow tip garden has now become a bog garden and meadowland; the vast east garden up the side of the house has become a flower and herb garden (with a few potatoes and courgettes tossed in!), the extreme back which get the most sun has become the vegetable garden, and the far eastern corner, which once was the jungle, is now a rainforest-woodland, planted out with manferns and woodland plants and sheltered by silver birches and a huge and ancient walnut tree. Bordering the edges of the woodland is a berry garden with raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries. Thus I have 4 clearly differentiated areas of the garden.

Piccies! Click on any of these small images and that will magically transport you to larger views.

This is a view of the east side garden as it was before the 2 willing lads and their big yellow machine moved in - weedy lawn looking back towards the walnut tree and the jungle - I had no idea how much land was behind there at the time.



And, lo, this is the same view (or from a very slightly different angle) showing the new flower garden about 8 months after planting out - stuff grows here! The path is leading up towards the vegie garden.




This is the vegetable production area - 3 raised beds (Now mostly dug out for winter manuring and composting but you can see some saladings and onions and leeks growing), then some compost bins before the woodland. There is also a a prop clothesline over one of the beds. Note the protective goblins.



And finally a picture of my potato cages - I grow potatoes in cages rather than tyre stacks - they go up to about 5 feet high stacked with pea straw and compost, and once I am ready to harvest I just undo the wire and stuff tumbles everywhere. This was a nasty patch of land, and all the compost and straw left over from the potato harvest has really improved it. These were by a pathway that led down to the meadowland/bog garden.



In just under a year I have dug in 20 tonnes of organic compost into this soil and spread 300 bales of lucerne hay and pea straw as mulch and long term soil improvement.

Hi Cornelian, the pictures were great. Did one of those goblins have its finger up its nose?
Your spud cages. How many spuds per cage? When they show through do you just put straw on top each time, or do you mix compost as well? I've got three old tractor tyres that were here when we came. I have been thinking of using them. I don't think it will be too hot as you mentioned in another post. Spuds do take up a lot of room in a normal sized garden.
You also mentioned that you were into bumble bee houses. Can you give me some dimensions as I am keen to get more bb into my area. My place is an oasis. We are surrounded by a dairy farm and our nearest neighbour is about 1km away, so I want to attract bb and keep them around.

Robin

Wow! What huge changes you've made! It looks fantastic.
mithril.

Oh, Cornelian, that looks lovely. You have obviously worked really hard. Well done. I love seeing what other people have done.

Zoe

it looks great - you have obviously worked very hard!

its gorgeous!!

thankyou for sharing - i'm nosy and love seeing what other people have done!

Thanks all for the comments - like most gardeners, I suspect, there have been times during this transformation when I just wanted to toss in the towel and move into a 5 star hotel somewhere.

Did one of those goblins have its finger up its nose?
Your spud cages. How many spuds per cage? When they show through do you just put straw on top each time, or do you mix compost as well?

Yes, one of the goblins has one of its fingers up its nose. Down to earth, these goblins.

The cages were about 0.8 of a metre in diameter (probably close to a yard). I put between 6-8 seed potatoes in each of the cages. In some cages I mixed in compost with the straw and in some I just put straw, and I got by far the better results with the cages with compost in them, so will continue this way. I used about 5 different varieties of potatoes, too, and by far the best performers using this system were the King Edwards.

Bumblebee boxes - I have a couple of boxes slightly smaller than shoeboxes, lined with hay, tiny opening, sloping downwards. I was very proud of them, but frankly the bees prefer odd spaces in the dry stone walls and the dark places in my potting sheds.

The bumblebees were an illegal import into Tasmania about 9 years ago, probably a hive from NZ. They've spread throughout the island since then, and there is some concern on the mainland about the inevitable move there - it is felt that the bumblebees out compete the honey bees. They certainly do in my garden.

Thanks for showing us the photos - I love your garden!

Can you tell me what pea straw is though?

Pea straw comes from commercial pea growers. Once the harvest is in they bale up the pea vines and sell them on - they make fantastic mulch and add all the useful legume materials to soil. It looks very much like ordinary straw ... only it has lots of peas remaining in it and you can be guaranteed a crop of peas from your mulch - also attracts lots of birds and rats.

And it breaks down better than other straw types.

Robin

Ok thanks!

Wow Cornelian that is really good! Love the piccies!

There has been some discussion on another forum that I attend as to the efficacy of spud cages. I have just built two for use next spring. but a number of the people on the forum have had severe crop failure using spud cages and there is an air of disspapointment with them. One or two have done well. The compost seems to be the key, roughtly how much would you use as against the volume of straw?

Thanks mate!

Nev

How much do I use? Um, enough that the spuds know it is there. I'd put in enough straw to cover most of the growing vines, then I'd add enough compost to make sure it was all weighted down and would permeate through the straw, and then I'd water it all in well. As I said, the best results I had were in the cages I used compost in - a great return of spuds.

I've had people tell me they have had no success with tyres, others tell me they've had no success with cages. Perhaps it is other factors than the type of enclosure.

Cornelian wrote: I've had people tell me they have had no success with tyres, others tell me they've had no success with cages. Perhaps it is other factors than the type of enclosure.

sounds reasonable...........

Nev

Gidday

You sure have bin a busy little person.

I think with both the cages and the tyres, that the most important thing is to keep them moist. Both being raised above the ground drain very easily so tend to dry out quicker than the normal soil. Just my observation.

Can you show us in a bit more detail, the bumble bee houses. Please, pretty please.