New bed #2

Fionn, Brighid and I made the new raised bed today. Prompted by Patrick's recent comment, I did go for the no dig style. Favourite Handyman and I had great success with the no dig raised bed at the beginning of 2007 when we layered cardboard very thickly to cover tree roots which we had found impossible to remove (hiring a digger wasn't an option for us) and then added 30cm worth of compost, straw and soil.

This time we only had lawn and weeds to squash out and the 'walls' of the raised bed are perhaps 10cm high - they are are the old beams from the fence which Favourite Handyman repaired last month. I layered the newspaper thickly. I've had relatives collecting newspaper for me over the last year precisely for these raised bed projects. Fionn watered the newspaper down with the hose. Brighid pressed it down further by crawling all over it. Why use the paddling pool when you can climb in the garden project? Then I emptied the three bags of sawdust/chook manure mix over it which I had from our last visit to Rayleen our wonderful chook keeping friend. Looks pretty good so far and not time intensive to create at all.

Did some culling in the mixed vege garden after that. Pulled the tree spinach as it had gone to seed and didn't taste much good. Also pulled the bok choy that had begun to bolt and the last of the purple sprouting brocolli. I was browsing the Koanga site recently and noticed a comment about purple sprouting brocolli not moving beyond leaf stage in Northland due to the warm weather. Decided that if I'm not going to get any actual brocolli off it until it gets colder, then I may as well get rid of the white butterfly attracting, hole riddled plants and put something else there. I've got tiny wee seedlings of various winter brassicas coming through in pots now which should be more timely.

Things aren't generally growing in the mixed vege garden as quickly as the warm weather and water supplies suggest to me that they could. So I figure that comes down to low soil fertility and thus threw some of our own compost on as mulch and dug in some bought stuff where the brocolli had been. Once we've got our own chooks, I doubt this will as much of an issue.

Rinsed the salt off yesterday's kelp find this afternoon but then realised that my seaweed brew-making bucket is currently housing the Christmas tree. Once I've got a suitable vessel again, I'm planning on cutting up the seaweed into small pieces before I make the brew. Once the brew is poured off twice, then I'll bury the pieces into the area which currently has the garlic once I've lifted the bulbs.