Starting a garden from scratch on a sandstone slope

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Wobbegong, Oct 25, 2007.

  1. Wobbegong

    Wobbegong Junior Member

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    :wave: Hi everyone, hope you're all well, my first post here. Yay :toothy10:

    We just bought our first house on the central coast of NSW (next to Brisbane Waters national park - lots of native wildlife :mrgreen: ) and I'm looking to grow as much of our food as I possibly can.

    The land is about 700 square metres, the sunniest area being the sandstone slope pictured below. The slope is north facing and gets sun pretty much all day. The weather conditions here are good. It will get hot as summer progresses - about 25-38 degrees celsius (77 - 100 fahreneit), no frost in winter, the rainfall is reasonable for NSW, averaging about 1300mm per year.

    The sunny sandstone slope area is about twice as big as pictured, it is quite steep - the trees & the neighbour's wooden house don't shade it out, and the sandstone forms natural flat terraces 8)

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    There's no soil in this area, it's basically all sandstone, but surely I can do something here? I'll need build some kind of retaining walls to curb erosion and build up some soil, the eucalypts drop leaves for mulch and I have another shady area in which I can compost and build a worm farm which should help.

    I would love to hear any advice and ideas as to how I might begin to build garden beds on this area and start the process of turning it into a productive garden.
     
  2. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    wobblgong,

    all i can suggest is raised gardens, look at our pics etc on our site might be some ideas there for you?

    len
     
  3. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Welcome Wobbgong!

    As an alternative to "building-up", would it be possible to excavate depressions in the sandstone terraces as catchments for water and as contained garden beds? The sandstone I've seen around here is quite soft.

    Excavating into the sandstone would require less materials to be imported to create the beds, but could entail more work. Either way you'll need to begin mulching/composting activities to create a living humus soil within which to grow your gardens. With basically nothing but sandstone to work with, creating some piles of manure/greenery/food wastes to get the process going will benefit you no matter which course of action you choose (building-up or digging-down).

    Just a thought.

    9anda1f
     
  4. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Wellcome to our board..........

    Yeah I agree go look at Lens web page..

    And the adding of mulch into the depressions ..

    Sorry to put you off....But i hope you realise that those lovely trees are highly inflamable,and with dropping the huge amounts of leaf fall everywhere
    its probly not a great idea,especially if all your neighbours are simulerly situated.....

    When i think of Houses and trees i think of the fires in california...
    even multimilionairs cant save your house from a flaming big flame....

    Dont moove just rethink your trees An Ecellent book to read about the flamabilities of various trees was written by a semi reguler poster in here
    Permaculture plants a selction is the books name and his post name is Permaculture plants....

    The Eucalypts are very volatile and burn real easy,other trees dont burn the, just smoulder.

    Decidious trees apparently are the most fire retardent, Tagasaties virtually melt over a flame,but dont catch fire..

    The aussie bush can be a very retty place but also very dangerous

    Tezza
     
  5. nsainsbury

    nsainsbury Junior Member

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    If that is where I think it is, top of mountain ash way, or any of the ridges around Umina for that matter, I definately recomend some form of fire protection.
    A for the garden check out lens straw bale garden looks awesome and would be quite suitable.

    Nathan
     
  6. Wobbegong

    Wobbegong Junior Member

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    Sorry I took so long to get back to you guys - I do really appreciate all your responses.

    Exactly what I'm doing to begin with, there's a flat area that gets sun next to the garden shed pictured, and I've built up a small area there with some compost, leaf mulch, and old soil I'd saved from when I grew tomatoes in pots in my sydney apartment (not great house plants by the way, they produce beautiful fruit in a north facing window, but tend to sprawl all over the sofa like drunken party guests who are to drunk to leave the morning after :D). It's shallow as yet, but the plants I've put in seem to be doing OK. I don't want to buy soil, so it will be a slow process, but no hurry - I really need to live here longer and get to know the land better before I tackle the slopes.
     
  7. Wobbegong

    Wobbegong Junior Member

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    Thanks for the welcome 9anda1f :wave: :D

    It does seem as though the sandstone is soft enough to excavate for water catchment, excellent idea and one I will probably use in future - for the moment I am starting off slow and doing as you've suggested using whatever I can to build up the soil, the trees are conspiring with me by shedding their leaves like maniacs, between that our food waste and hopefully some chooks in the very near future, I'm starting to build up some soil.
     
  8. Wobbegong

    Wobbegong Junior Member

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    Hi Tezza, thanks for the welcome :D

    The prospect of fire scares the hell out of me, we're right over the road from Brisbane Waters Nat Park, and parts of it do go up regularly enough. The house in front (not the one pictured) is 14 yrs old, this area is somewhat protected by a fire break in the national park and the road, still it's dry schlerophyll and so a high fire risk area, as the insurance premiums reflect. It is a trade off - beautiful place but not without it's risks. :eek:

    There's not a lot I can do about the trees, the area is koala protected habitat, which we are sorely in need of around here, no trees over 3m can be removed. I've been meaning to call council to find out exactly what the guidelines are for savage pruning of the trees closest to the house, I will do that today. It's important - thanks for the prod.

    At the moment I am using the leaves as mulch, everything's pretty wet from recent continual rain (yay) but I will definitely have to start making serious moves to bring the situation under control.
     
  9. Wobbegong

    Wobbegong Junior Member

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    Wow Nathan, well spotted - that's exactly where it is - midway up Mtn Ash. We're on the lower side of the road, the big drop and the road between us and the park may offer some protection, but not enough to be complacent. OK I'm definitely on the fire protection issue in a big way now - Today. Gutter clearing and calling council to find out what my options are as far as cutting back the trees closest to the house to begin with.

    Thanks for all you inputs guys, I really appreciate it. Especially the fire warnings - I might otherwise have let it slide.

    Will most definitely check your garden Len :D
     
  10. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Wobbegong, you're right to take your time and get to know the land over the course of a year. It's so crucial to see where the water comes off your house and how it travels down the slopes, possible erosion. Check where the sun rises and sets in all seasons. You might want to consider ways to make swayles that catch the water so it can soak down in, rather than run off and away.

    I have switched over to cement block raised beds because my wooden ones, after many years, got termites and that was a real struggle. The large cement blocks can be fire retardant as well. I fill them up with 3/4 inch gravel for some passive heating, which warms the soil, and helps keep it warm going into winter.

    I, too, have sandstone. It's important to break it up with a shovel several inches deep before putting topsoil over it, so the water won't puddle on it and waterlog roots. Then grow vertically with trellises and arbors.

    Sandstone is mostly made of quartz cemented together with calcite or hematite. You'll probably need to add some minerals to whatever topsoil you bring in. I really like granite powder, it is a long-term source of minerals. Not sure if you can get that, but you should be able to get mineral rock powders. Find out what minerals are in your sandstone, you can crush it up, if you remove some, and it could be a good addition to topsoil you bring in.

    A lot of native trees are capable of surviving fire, but it helps to cut off lower limbs up to 8-10 feet and thin out upper branches.
     
  11. TropicalRose

    TropicalRose Junior Member

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    Another thing to consider is eucalypts and other natives can be strongly allelopathic, which is they exude chemicals to stop anything growing near them. This is why the ground is often fairly bare near them. So if your veggies fail to thrive, this might be a problem to look into. Good luck with it all.
     

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