This was a week of more firsts and learning as we worked through our to-do list.
The big task we had set ourselves (postponed from the previous week) was laying three no-dig garden beds. There was nervousness about the ride-on mower (from me, anyway) and long deliberations over the positioning and alignment of the garden beds, mostly because we know a little but not a lot, of the theory, because all the experts seem to have different advice, and because we still don’t have a crystal ball. So the first beds will be neither north-south, nor east-west. Then they’re only partly wrong? Our logic is to prioritise getting to them and to more or less follow the main slope, so that the water shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll put up hedgerows to slow the wind. And cross our fingers.
With my new set of wheels (our red ride-on mower) I carved out a small square of grass where we then laid and sowed our first bed. The neighbours probably think we are nuts. It was very slow and after hours of mowing and carting wheelbarrow loads of compost and woodchips we have a single 10-metre long bed! After three trips to the hardware store – a new single-day record for us – we had also fixed our hose so we could water more easily.
We had to begin somewhere
Every day we take our seed trays outside in the morning and bring them inside in the evening. While last week we were scrutinising them for any sign of action (most turned out to be grass that got caught), this week’s trips were much more rewarding. Zucchini, peas and beans are the most rewarding. Zucchini are fast but substantial (unlike broccoli, which is great because it is fast but it feels too easy). Peas and beans erupt out of the ground, blowing the soil above them off and splitting their original seed. Likewise, the eruptions in our potato bags have been fantastic to watch each day. All of this has made me wish that I put just a little more time into my largely unsuccessful veggie garden in Sydney – it would have been so much more fun. Now the trick is of course to keep our little seedlings alive.
Watching the seedlings focussed our minds on the next step: transplanting and the need to protect them from cute animals (wallabies and rabbits mainly, we think) and insects. After half a day of research into fence designs and insect row covers, we had expanded our vocabulary (a strainer is not just for making tea) and hoped that we had identified everything we needed and which corners we could cut. We plucked up our courage, deflated our egos and went to our closest rural supplies store to try to buy what we needed without embarrassing ourselves too much. It a two-fold success: we have what we think we need and it seems safe to return there.
Next week we will begin our ambitious infrastructure expansion, erecting the fence and the hoop-house kit that we have pre-ordered. Fingers and toes crossed.