Veggie Patch with a View
The house I am currently staying at is near Bright, in NE Victoria. It is on the end of a ridge jutting out into the Ovens Valley. One side of the house looks up the valley to Mt Feathertop, the other side looks down the valley to Mt Buffalo. The veggie patch has the view down the valley. It’s the most scenic veggie patch I’ve ever visited!
As they are on the top of a hill the soil is thin and rocky, as over the years top soil erodes down into the more fertile valleys. Some top soil initially was brought up from further down the hill for the veggie plots. The two main sources of nutrients for the veggie plots here now are a worm farm, and cow manure from cattle agisted on the property. Compost and mulch from garden prunings are also used.
The worm farm was built after seeing Josh Byrne on Gardening Australia talk about a worm farm built from an old fridge. They found an old freezer at an op shop that was going free to a good home. Then they used Josh’s instructions to build the farm.
They’ve taken the shelves out. They then drilled a hole in either end and joined sections of old pipe into the drainage holes, so the water doesn’t seep into the insulation and also to block the worm castings from filling the holes. As it’s an old freezer it is insulated, keeping the worms from overheating on hot days.
Josh’s description of the worm farm are in the transcript here: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2058164.htm
The worm farm is very successful. They put all their chopped up kitchen scraps in the farm, the worms are very prolific and eat it all up. It produces large quantities of worm juice, which can be diluted and put on the veggies, as well as worm castings.
The cow pats also make a great source of nutrients for building up the soil. I collected some from the paddock the cows had just been moved out of, so the grass was lower making it easier to scoop them up, and they had a chance to dry a bit. All you do is shovel them up. There are numerous ways of using it – one is to make a compost tea. Jerry Coleby-Williams descibes a method here: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2002063.htm
The difference extra nutrients makes to the growth and yield of veggies is dramatic. It took me a while to realise that soil is not just to hold plants up, the plants take up nutrients from the soil to grow. And in turn we get the benefit of them when we eat them. This is one of the reasons for choosing organic food over non-organic. Crops grown in non-organic monocultures receive minimum fertility from NPK fertilisers. Whereas there are a much wider range of minerals and nutrients in compost and organic inputs used to grow organic food.
The house I am currently staying at is near Bright, in NW Victoria. It is on in the end of a ridge jutting out into the Ovens Valley. One side of the house looks up the valley to Mt Feathertop, the other side looks down the valley to Mt Buffalo. The veggie patch has the view down the valley. It’s the most scenic veggie patch I’ve ever visited!
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As they are on the top of a hill the soil is thin and rocky, as over the years top soil erodes down into the more fertile valleys. Some top soil initially was brought up from further down the hill for the veggie plots. The two main sources of nutrients for the veggie plots here now are a worm farm, and cow manure from cattle agisted on the property. Compost and mulch from garden prunings are also used.
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The worm farm was built after seeing Josh Byrne’s on Gardening Australia talk about a worm farm built from an old fridge. They found an old freezer at an op shop that was going free to a good home. Then they used Josh’s instructions to build the farm.
<942 worm farm>
They’ve taken the shelves out. They then drilled a hole in either end and joined sections of old pipe into the drainage holes, so the water doesn’t seep into the insulation and also to block the worm castings from filling the holes. As it’s an old freezer it is insulated, keeping the worms from overheating on hot days.
<905 pipe>
Josh’s description of the worm farm are in the transcript here: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2058164.htm
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The worm farm is very successful. They put all their chopped up kitchen scraps in the farm, the worms are very prolific and eat it all up. It produces large quantities of worm juice, which can be diluted and put on the veggies, as well as worm castings.
<927 worm castings>
The cow pats also make a great source of nutrients for building up the soil. I collected some from the paddock the cows had just been moved out of, so the grass was lower making it easier to scoop them up, and they had a chance to dry a bit. All you do is shovel them up. There are numerous ways of using it – one is to make a compost tea. Jerry Coleby-Williams descibes a method in the episode transcript here: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1805268.htm
<1023 cow pats>
The difference extra nutrients makes to the growth and yield of veggies is dramatic. It took me a while to realise that soil is not just to hold plants up, the plants take up nutrients from the soil to grow. And in turn we get the benefit of them when we eat them. This is one of the reasons for choosing organic food over non-organic. Crops grown in non-organic monocultures receive minimum fertility from NPK fertilisers. Whereas there are a much wider range of minerals and nutrients in compost and organic inputs used to grow organic food.
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Heather Gaunt says:
Great Blog!: this is my parent’s place, and your description shows what a fabulous job they do in using all the local natural resources, plus buckets of natural resourcefulness, to create a truly lovely and productive environment. Keep up the great work!!