Vege Patch Number 2
February 18th, 2008 AndrewDWell the weekend just gone was a busy one with yard cleaning and vege patch number 2
Friday was a big day for us as we took deliveries from all over the place. First thou was someone to cut down our weeds which had grown to approx a foot high (all over the one acre), anyway a few weeks ago I was talking to a neighbour and commented that I was looking for someone to cut the weeds down to size, then during the last week an old guy came over and introduced himself as the “slasher” guy and so Lee Ann booked him for Friday.
Friday came and Brian the “slashing guy” turned up nice and early at 8.30am after a few minutes of instructions he off loaded his small tractor and slasher (sorry no picture) and two hours later he was completed and the place looks so much nicer – the kids can walk to the back fence again!
While the weeds were being slashed out first delivery arrived. This is lesson #1.
We ordered some recycled rock from a place in Canberra and while the delivery price was high the price of the rocks only $22/t. When calling them we specified the rock size of approx 10-15 cm and the image on the web supported that. What turned up were massive boulders which I can use but not right now – and when I do require them I will need approx 6 – 8 tonne of them not 2. Lesson learned, visit and inspect prior.
So as they were not what I required I thought that maybe rail ballast would do instead so I paid a visit to out local landscaping yard and and they had some so I placed an order for 3 cubic metres and 2 of soil. Later that day they delivered this.
So what did I need all this for? To make my second vege patch. The idea was to create the sides not out of railway sleepers like before but rock, wrapped in wire – I got the idea from the RTA. So getting a length of chicken wire (60cm x 90cm) wrap in into a tube overlapping. Then with some short pieces of wire lock tie the tube together.
Push one end together and fill with rocks, at approx 45 cm push the other end together.
Completed rock log
The reason for creating a rock log is that I can control how long the vege patch is and hopefully it won’t rot. The downside being you are moving a lot of rock and it is hard work (that is hard work for me and Lee-Ann), but towards the end we had a good process down pat. Anyway we created 28 rock logs.
So by the end of the weekend we had a new vege patch – Next weekend we start planting with, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, broad beans.
