Given the width of the space around it I had a mental picture of rendered straw bale walls to make a 'secret' garden! Highly impractical of course, but it was a nice fantasy idea while it lasted… One of our longer term members who hasn't been by for a while is HardWorkingHippy. She had a fence woven out of sticks or split bamboo or something. Was a thing of beauty it was! And cheap too. I'll see if I can find it….
Hmmmm I found her blog - La Ferme de Sourrou - but not the picture that I remember. There's a glimpse of it in the Romantic Permaculture and our Spring gardens story under the wisteria. Not sure if that helps...
A woven fence like that would be considered a Wattle fence I believe. You drive the poles about 2 meters distance between and then weave green sticks to make the fence. I've seen some that were around 20 years old and still serviceable with just a little maintenance. They are also good at keeping predators out while allowing air circulation.
haha love the secret garden idea, that does sound kinda cool Thanks for finding that pic, I did see it next to the shed there, looked really nice indeed :y: Certainly worth considering this. I've seen some done with willows and it looks absolutely brilliant as well as being a good fence. I have a few spots this would work great. Only issue for this specific garden would be the light issue.
I too, love the idea of a secret garden but I think I would build cob walls or some sort of hybrid walls, maybe cob with rocks (lord knows I have plenty of rocks and more to spare). :rofl: I think the type of fence would have to be determined by the height needed if it is going around a vegetable garden. I've seen wattle fences that were only three to four feet tall and some that were as high as six feet. It might be a great thing for some gardens, but it would most likely depend on the sun's travel line for that garden. I have a south facing slope and a north facing slope, the south slope could be fenced with a wattle fence but I doubt that type of fence would be good for the north face slope. If light is an issue, maybe if you found some of those glass blocks being discarded by someone updating their home or office, those have always seemed like a doable idea for a garden wall to me. They could make up the whole wall or just be inserted where and as you needed light to shine through, perhaps as part of a cob wall or they could be incorporated into a wattle wall by using some daub (cob) to hold them in place in the wattle wall.
You are spot on Bryant Redhawk, its the height of the garden and the light issue. If you had plenty of light you could make it work. Im on a south facing slope though and battled the last 2 years removing certain trees to fix this and have finally got a bit of light back. I would still like to try out a living fence in another spot, I'm glad you mentioned it :y: Never thought of those glass bricks, they could be useful so i'll look out for some.
The garden framing is 99% complete arty: View attachment 2769 I'll need to make up 5 doors, so am figuring out how to do this. Would rather use metal frames and I have a mig welder but will need to get gas for it and my angle grinder just blew up, so am weighing up costs etc. After that will need to crack the soil and add as much compost I can get my hands on and then chicken wire it all up There are baby bush turkeys running around everywhere, they are very cute King fishers are mating down the creek and the water dragons have also come out in force and are laying eggs around the place as well. :y: Put some things into pots, a native raspberry, blueberry's and wormwood. Will let them grow up a little before planting them, plus there is a swale that needs digging which my back isn't looking forward too View attachment 2770 Slow progress but better late then never....
Looking awesome there Chookie.:clap: It is great to get to that 3/4 point in any project. I know all about slow progress, everything I am doing is by hand, seems like I have been clearing out blackberries for a year and still have so many more to get rid of. Finally got to the point where I can start some construction this last weekend. Storage shed is first on the list of things to build, following up that with a combination storm shelter/root cellar then come the coop and goat house. Woot! Finally I can see the glimmer of light showing me there is an end to the tunnel.
Cheers Bryant I hear you, clearing is such a chore. It's great when you can start actually constructing and I think you get a sense of achievement doing things by hand. Having so much fun putting all this together, can't wait to do more
Cheers Chookie Yes it is fun doing everything by hand, just wishing I was a tad younger :rofl: We started this on a five year plan, and so far we are about 4 months ahead of that schedule. In April of this year, wolf (my wife) decided that she wants to be living full time on our farm by June 1st of 2015, so that meant get-er-done time for the clearing phase. Wore out one weed eater already, poor thing just blew apart (literally) so I now have a true professional model. The biggest chore will be reworking the road up to the home site, 500 feet long by 100 ft. elevation change. I have to chip the up hill side, make a ditch for water runoff that right now is washing out the bottom of the road that's there now. I kid her that I'm going to end up with muscles like a body builder. I'm hoping to be able to post some pictures in a thread by January, right now we don't have internet at home. I keep being told to take a weekend to just relax. I keep explaining that the working on the farm is relaxing to me. It's a hoot to see the progress we make every weekend, and we are now very sad to have to head back to the city to go to work. If all goes smashingly well, I should have us up there full time by the end of spring here. Love seeing your progress, it encourages me to keep at it. I really like the ideas you have shared, some of them are going to be used on our place.
hehe I think it's an added bonus that you get fit whilst doing all this. Certainly gets me out of the house and keeps me out of trouble anyhow I feel the same and find that when I get some 'me' time, I'm straight out working on the garden, can't stand sitting around doing nothing lol
I have started wiring up the frame and it feels good! arty: My fingers took a beating trying to stretch the wire from 1.8m to 2 metres for the sides but I made it happen. Being a perfectionist did not help the situation either..... I used screws and washers to fix the wire instead of the usual 'U nails'. This means I can replace any old weathered timber and reattach it easily in the future without cutting the wire. The possums and brush turkeys will have no chance getting into here after its done. View attachment 2820 Ive kept a layer of mulch over the garden space and try to keep it moist. Every time I've had to dig a hole I find heaps of worms, which is a good sign. I just want to keep it that way. Still figuring out how to make the doors but leaning towards welding up some frames, I think this will be the most cost effective option and will all last for ages. Only other thing is sourcing some cheap compost but the wiring will keep me busy for the time being
Looks great 2m is a nice height too. Regarding compost any ideas yet? My local mushroom farmer apparently fills a trailer for $30 (friends all get it off him). I will more than likely be going that route when I work on the soil at the new place.
Thanks Australian Beekeeper, yes 2M is perfect...even for my tall friends 8) I was planning the same thing and going somewhere to fill up my trailer. I have a 2 ton trailer with a cage, so should be able to fill up quite a bit. Just looking for a cheap and close place to get some from. I saw one place on gumtree in Sheldon that was selling compost for $30 per (normal 6x4)trailer, so far thats the cheapest Ive found. Sounds like you've found the same deal already and close by!
Finally came up with a solution to make the doors of the garden. Ive been storing some rio mesh and I was going to use it for making frames for tomatoes or climbing beans etc but then realised it would be perfect to make the doors i need. I just used some bolt cutters to cut it to size and then cleaned up the sharp edges with an angle grinder. View attachment 2825 Then wrapped it up in chicken wire. Will only need a basic hinge and latch to finish it off. Zero cost so far, easy to make and have enough to make up the 5-6 doors needed, so i'm over the moon Its very rigid so should last a while. View attachment 2826
I love it when ingenuity comes into play. What a great idea Chookie, simple solution and free or almost no cost is always tops in my book. Good looking doors too.
Getting some rain at last! Place is looking green again and glad I don't have to do any spot watering for awhile. Not that I have much to water yet... Getting somewhere on the garden at last...It's finally fully enclosed. The animals have already tried to get in a few times but with little success except small water dragons who come and go and they please. Took a lot of time to put up the wire and its such a fiddly job, so I am over the moon it's done and I finally feel Ive got my garden space back after all these years. View attachment 2895 View attachment 2894 One section has been completed for the chooks to continue working on just for the time being, the rest will be soil prepped as soon as possible. As suggested earlier I'll be cracking the soil, laying out some compost, then planting green manure crops. So next job will be finding cheap local compost. View attachment 2896 I have found a cheap fix for the 'door hinges' and just used some eye straps. Really simple and works a treat. I still have to attach latches to the doors but can work around this for now. View attachment 2897 Cheers Chookie
Thanks AB Yes you are right, the pathway is for access to each garden bed, for me and the chooks. I did not want to move chickens into another section every few months. This way they can move freely from the main chicken coop onto which ever garden bed you desire, simply by leaving a gate open. Its the ultimate lazy chook tractor Ive noticed in QLD that almost every nasty poultry disease loves the warm wet conditions and they thrive here. Rotating the gardens like this has the added advantage of disrupting the life cycles of common nasty organisms, like worms and cocci, so you end up with a much healthier flock. This is also why the main path is pavers and not soil or mulch, its specifically in place to lessen the risk of poultry disease as this area will not be rotated and will also reduce erosion and pathway maintenance. Will need a sweep and a hose down now and again but nothing major.
