Matt Dunne

Hey guys,

There's been some rain, so I started small.

I broke up the ground (highly compacted) and built two small beds, and put some grass on top to hold the water in better.

This weekend I will go buy manure, seedlings, broad bean seeds and some green manure seeds. My plan is to put Green Manure between the beds, and use it as a mulch, and maybe in 6-10 months start planting in where the green manure was.

George Lee wrote:I would absolutely use/re-use food scraps. Here's what I've done on a few projects for some of my clients...
I sheetmulch in segments.. I'll drop the cardstock down, foodscraps/coffee grounds and consult the local municipality and get compost (roadkill, community food scraps) and top sections with it...I've found this will keep pests out. If the soil is barren, I'd sheetmulch the hell out of the area bro...

http://youtu.be/Zkep02089NY

Here's a clip I shot a few weeks ago. I've covered areas gradually. I live out a ways and have to haul in incrementally.

Hope this helps -

Definitely will sheet mulch the hell out of it, just was considering the best approach to getting the soil started. I don't think Ill be planting plants for food for awhile (hence the green manure idea to hold some moisture in and provide some nitrogen and organic mass).

Mice are endemic here, and can get quite bad - even though I live in a town. I'm really hesitant (even though that's basically my only source of organic waste right now) just because I can't stand mice and don't want to have to deal with them at all!!

Cj Verde wrote:I think Gai's Garden has a makeover just like your situation. Check it out.

Gai's Garden? Gaia's Garden?

Hey guys, posted this on PRI for those of you on both. Apologies!

Hey guys,

Recently moved to a new town (Mildura - similar climate to Tuscon AZ, dry, hot, not much frost, lots of sun) and am in the process of trying to fix the backyard. Currently just dry earth with some weeds, so we'll see how we go.

Basically, before I can start growing vegetables, the soil needs some much needed TLC. Quite dry, quite nutrient poor, quite compacted. I don't have a lot laying around to use (grass clippings), so I thought about using some green manure to get things started.

I was thinking of doing this:
mowing the few weeds down, covering with a few layers of wet newspaper.
Over that put a layer of manure (cows/chicken mix probably), then mushroom compost.
Sow in a mixture of green manure (I was thinking millet and soya bean because of the heat here).
A layer of lucrene over that, nothing too thick, but otherwise things will just dry out here!

My purpose here is to start some stuff decomposing, while providing the green manure some nutrients to get started, and after a few months add the green manure and some other soil building stuff (cow's manure) and sow in some broadbeans, few different herbs and plants, and flowers.

I'm not in a rush, but it's important that I get started sooner rather than later.

Water is of key concern to me here. I don't want to waste it (a lot of people do here), hence the mulch on top of a seeded area! I have the option of using grey water from my washing machine later, once things are established, but for the moment trying to keep things relatively simple.

So, what am I thinking about that's wrong? What have I overlooked? What might be a better way of achieving injecting some life back into the soil, and getting some garden going?

I don't want to compost food scraps because of mice!
There are a lot of ants in the back yard.
I haven't tried planting anything yet (it might grow really well!?)

At the moment my priority is building the soil so I can start to plant more things. My old garden at my previous place had great rich soil, and as long as there was some mulch on top, and I added the occasional bag of manure, it was pretty happy and productive and moist. Don't think that'll work here!
Let me have it!