Mount Barker renovation Our clients at Mount Barker had been growing veggies in some small raised beds on their property. But the time had come for a makeover. Out with the old to make way for the new! Incorporating chooks into the design Attracted to the idea of having chooks on top of raised beds they contacted us for a price for a food garden renovation with a chook house on one of the beds. Now this is a brilliant, space saving way to keep chooks in a small back yard that has a few raised beds as the chooks feast on the bugs and provide incredible fertiliser for the soil in the fallow bed. However, as this Mount Barker property has plenty of space for chook roaming areas, we advised against a the main chook house being on top of a bed and suggested a dedicated free standing chook house with an attached chook run instead. To get the full benefits of the chooks fossicking around and fertilising the veggie garden, we agreed to make a temporary chook structure that could sit on one of the unused beds. Our client was happy to put the chooks in here for periods and return them to their bigger home at night. With lots of space to work with, we kept the veggie garden design simple: four large hardwood raised beds surrounded by sawdust paths. The sloping ground would be retained. The chook house would be situated as close to the house as possible and fenced off from the large veggie garden. Delivery dilemmas We started by clearing and levelling the area while materials and equipment were being delivered. Coming up a steep driveway and around a tight corner gave the delivery drivers just a few challenges!
Vital Veggies soil coming into the back yard around a very tight corner. On the left is our driver Brett, just checking how close his wheel is to the drop! Hardwood timber for the garden beds is being dropped down into the garden area by crane.
With the material delivered and the site cleared, we are ready to begin work. Sloping ground Where it s difficult to make the entire surface area of a yard level, we have to assess whether to dig out ground, build the ground up, or adjust the garden beds to suit the sloping terrain. Many factors influence this decision including the client s budget, time constraints, necessity, hardness of the ground etc We do insist on garden beds being level on at least two sides and in consultation with the client, we decided these beds would sit horizontally at different levels. Due to the sloping ground in both directions, we had to build in extra height to one side of each garden bed. Effectively the beds are two sleepers high on one side and three sleepers high on the opposite side. A great challenge for Roger and Nik to construct, but the final outcome would be stunning! Irrigation and weed control mat is down. Roger and Nik now start making the garden beds
Sequencing and Logistics Logistics and how we sequence the building and filling of garden beds is crucial in some jobs. It is determined by the area we have to work in and where materials such as soil and timber are stored on site. In larger areas with good access we can use the digger to quickly fill garden beds with soil. In smaller areas with limited access (gates etc.) we have to use wheelbarrows). Luckily we could get the digger down onto the work site here, which would make filling the beds much quicker and easier. We began by digging channels, laying irrigation pipes and connecting them to the water source. Over the irrigation lines we then laid out weed control matting so that tree roots and weeds don t invade the garden beds. The first two garden beds were then constructed, put in place adjacent to the retaining wall and filled with soil. Some sawdust for the surrounding path was dumped behind the beds ready for raking out. If all four empty beds were constructed and put in place before filling, the digger wouldn t have room to fill the first two beds with soil or dump sawdust behind them. Overall we were quite lucky with the weather hardly any rain during May up here. On the one day with intermittent showers, we abandoned building the beds and assembled the chook house instead! The first two beds are in place. One bed has been filled with soil and some sawdust has been raked out behind it. The chicken coop is assembled too.
Here you can see the different ground levels beneath the beds. Three beds are now constructed, two are filled with soil and have drip irrigation lines in place. Chicken coop and paddock Biological floors are fantastic for chicken coops. They only have to be cleaned out once a year and the litter mixture of straw and chook poop is super nourishing for your compost heap. We start with a ground frame of concrete sleepers on which the assembled coop is bolted. A minimum 20cm layer of straw is then laid down for the biological floor. At the back of the coop we cut out a hole and insert a doggy door for the chooks to get out into the paddock (but not into the veggie garden!!!). These chooks have enough area and vegetation on the property to roam freely over one large paddock. No separate grazing areas needed to be made. The back of the chook house on the right, and the gate dividing the chook paddock from the veggie garden on the left. Sorry chooks the veggie garden is a NO GO Zone for you!!!
Planting Jenni was super excited to plant out her garden as soon as we d finished putting drip irrigation lines on the beds. Being an experienced gardener from way back, she didn t need any help with this. We arrived on our last day to find that she had already planted out the entire 4 beds over the weekend: Lots of Lettuces, Rocket, Kale, Spinach, Asian Greens, Bok Choy, Peas, Red Sorrell, Sweet Alyssum and other veggie- loving companion herbs and flowers. And she had installed worm farms in the middle of two of the beds!!! The newly planted out food garden, much larger and prettier than their original one. This is a very beautiful and functional veggie garden for a small country property. Along with Jenni s front yard full of fruit trees, she will soon be producing most of her own food