Autumn Front Garden Clean Up and Preparation for Winter Crops Planting

As the weather is cooling down here in Melbourne, I thought it was a great opportunity to do a bit of clean up and preparation for my various garden beds for winter planting.

My first priority is the small section right in front of my entrance door. This section was previously occupied by Geranium plants, but I decided to utilise this small patch for an additional garden bed for vegetables. So, this is now my Garden Bed 6. I cleaned up the middle part of the section to make way for Brassicas, such as Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage and Cauliflower.

For the border, on the right we have a few Lavender plants that are doing well and have been attracting lots of local solitary bees. They are doing a great job in pollinating my crops. The Geraniums that were planted in the middle of this section had been moved to the back row. The left border has been allocated for the annual Zinnias (the ones with pink flower) and I sprinkled Marigold seeds as well. The front row has a few Chrysanthemum plants that have been doing well after I propagated them from cuttings.

The next section that I cleaned up was the half circle garden bed at the front of the house. This section was originally planned for flowers, but the vegetable plants had ever so slowly crept in. I discovered that this section has the best morning sun exposure and thought it would be an awesome spot for a few veggies. So, this is now my Garden Bed 5. In Spring 2019, I planted Zucchini, Pumpkin, Broccoli and Tomatoes here. I didn't pull them out, I just cleared some of the dead leaves to open the space. Also, a few months ago, I transplanted some of the Strawberry runners here and they have been doing quite well after the transplant.

The plan for this bed is Strawberry plants to remain at the front most, followed by Marigold and Chives (apparently great companion plants for Strawberry). I sprinkled a few Cos Lettuce seeds behind them and followed by the Borage plants at the back.

I haven't pulled out the Zucchini plants yet, as they are still flowering and fruiting at the moment. So, I wanted to extend their growing time as much as I can. So, I sprinkled the Marigold and Lettuce seeds around them.

 

The same goes with the Tomatoes and Pumpkin. Both are still looking like they can still produce, so, I left them be for the time being:

Looking forward to harvesting these tomatoes.

The next section that I really wanted to clean up (because it's so messy) is the section  under the Olive tree. I planted Poppy plants around the tree in Spring 2019 and the seed pods had spread seeds everywhere. So, Poppy seedlings had grown all over the place. I've been waiting for them to get to a manageable size for transplant. The left side of this section now has a few Lavender plants that I propagated from cuttings. 

I haven't harvested the Red Cabbage and Cauliflower yet, but I will be soon. I have also cleared up the front part of this section for a few Japanese Buxus plants that I'm still propagating from cuttings. I'm hoping they will be ready for planting in a few weeks.

The Poppy seedlings transplanted to the right spot:

The left side of this section was previously occupied by row of Calendula plants. I pulled out the old plants, collected the seedlings and moved them to the back row:

And with that done, all the work I planned to do at the front garden was accomplished. I really hope I will see lots of new seedlings popping out soon, especially the Lettuce.

Garden Bed Transformation

After a few years of gardening without raised garden beds, I finally decided to invest in them and bought 4 Birdies Garden Beds when they were on sale before Christmas 2019. Because my plants were already planted, I had to wait until the spring crops finished before installing them.

Garden Bed 1 was finally cleared last weekend and it was time to install the raised garden bed on Bed 1.

My favourite place to shop for soil is Soilworx, they are non branded, great quality and good value. 

This is the 2.5m long, 55cm wide, 38cm height raised garden bed from Birdies, in Slate Grey:

I felt super awesome when I found out the length of the bed fits nicely along the back fence and the original garden bed length.

Before placing the raised garden bed, I digged out as much existing garden soil as I can to use them in layering the inside of the raised garden bed.

This is what remained of the garden bed as we placed the raised bed in its position. I decided not to fully cover the bottom with cardboard as I don't want to block access of the existing worms and bugs. I just needed to block the grass roots, so I put cardboard on one side of the raised bed.

We used the box of the raised bed as the cardboard:

Now comes the layering. First is the red gum mulch:

Two layers of Garden Soil and Hay each. I used the garden soil that I digged out from the original garden.

And Aquamax Water Saving Mulch from Soilworx.

Another layer of soil, I used Veggie Mix from Soilworx. I originally wanted to use their Garden Soil mix, but they ran out of stock. The Veggie Mix is awesome too, especially because it has mushroom compost in it.

I added plant cuttings from clearing my garden beds yesterday and add in the Aquamax Water Saving Hay on top of it:

Finally, compost from our bin and final top up of the Veggie Mix:

I called back my seed planting master who went on bickie break to commence his job:

We planted Broad Beans, Snow Peas and Shelling Peas, with Rosemary, Chamomile and Parsley as companion plants.

Lastly, Pea Straw Mulch also from Soilworx:

Now, 3 more garden beds to go, just need to wait for the plants to finish producing before doing another Soilworx run to get supply.