no-dig garden bed tutorial

this morning i set up another no dig garden bed. it was realy quick and easy (probably took around 1/2 hour)


these garden beds are said to be fantastic for veggies, producing much more produce than regular garden beds. mine are varied from esther deans gardening book-growwing with digging (i think i blogged about it like a year ago-yes its taken me that long to get arround to having a go!!)


for a garden bed you need-
old newspapers, pea straw, lucern hay (i didnt have any so for now ive used regular hay) some well aged manure or blood and bone, compost (i used dirt from my old veggie patch at mums garden)

soak the old newspaper thoroughly in water. we had lots of rain yesterday so our rainwater tanks run off was full. perfect, even less wastage for my project!

layer newspaper over the area you want the garden bed. it can be over weeds, dont worry about getting rid of them. the thicker your layer of newspaper the better. this will keep weeds from growing through. overlap edges by around 15cm to avoid weed growth at the joins.


you can stomp down the newspaper if the weeds are keeping it high off the ground, little helpers enjoy this job. sprinkle with your ferteliser of choice (manure or blood and bone)

cover the newspaper with chunks of pea straw or lucern hay(as it comes off the bale)


sprinkle with more ferteliser (if you have more than one type its good to use something different for this second layer to vary nutrients)


add a thick layer of loose straw or hay and water down well.

pull apart the straw where you want to put a plant or seeds

fill with compost or organic matter rich dirt.

plant seedling or seeds.

i put 4 or 5 hand spades full of dirt in each hole as the dirt sinks in a bit

water in well

it would look great to have edging for the garden beds but ive found they stay in place just fine as long as theyve been watered in well. unless chickens get into them, thats another story and its not pretty!

if anyone else has a go at this or already has, please do let me know how you go!

ducks, no dig gardening and a whole lota rain

on the weekend we got 3 ducks, the little white girl is called jemima puddle duck (and ironicly shes the only one who loves the pond so far) the male is bennys and he called it ajax. our last girl were still deciding on a name for

we whipped up their home out of an old cupboard. a few cuts, a whole lot of staples later its a cozy little bed for them to sleep at night. they are so adorable and very cudly (they arent easy to catch yet but as soon as youve picked them up their quite happy

heres dad with all the chookies.

my garden project at the moment has been setting up no-dig garden beds (as ive mentioned before our soil is very clay so no-dig gardens are a great solution for this).

the most fun one has been potatoes, i love being able to shift away the straw and see whats happening "under ground", very cool to see tiny potatoes forming and shoots reaching for the light.

ill take some photos of them to share. in fact im adding on to a garden bed tomorrow, if i remember ill do a little tutorial on how ive been doing mine

this is what i got benny for his birthday, a dart board. hes very happy with it

birthdays and new gals

weve been having fun birthdaying around here. bennys was last wednesday, i got him a dartboard and made him a computer chair cushion and ice cream cake.
levins 40th was saturday night, there were so many soups to choose from (i LOVE soup!) and it was so nice to spend the night outdoors lit by fires and lanterns! Mums birthday was today, we had pancakes for brekkie and oma and opa came to visit. for all three birthdays i took just two photos at levins. note to self, must take more photos!



lil and dale keeping warm.

yesterday we went and visited mums neighbour loretta to buy some chickens. there were no red hens (orange) but some beautiful brown ones

first i chose hawkie (called hawkie because she reminds me of a hawk) and fell in love

then i chose a white girl for bennys cousin and a light brown one for us. i gave them a bath and suddenly had two white ones:)

i already have two white chooks so i swapped her and came home with hilda. shes got a bent up beak but she eats fine and we love her. there settling in beautifully, hilda seems like shes been part of their gang forever, hawkies a little shy and prefers to keep to herself but she seems happy with her new home. loretta also has some beautiful ducks which benny realy loved, hes thinking of building a cage so he can get some which would be realy great