Starting a veg garden

It started by wanting fresh spinach and lettuce – so I first converted a flower bed and a wash trough into a veg garden – and this is what happened.

Inspired by this, I cleared out a part of the garden that was always a bit messy and made some raised beds with paths in between and found all the large pots (and some concrete rings) in my shed – this was the result

The next task was to prepare the beds. First I gathered a pile of newspapers, 15 bags of mushroom compost, 4 bags of kraal manure, 2 blocks of compressed peat and coir, collected all the leaves and grass cuttings in the garden (mostly from my compost heap), some soil from the bottom of the garden (quite rich with compost) – and a bale of hay

With the help of my weekly gardener, I first layered the beds with newspapers and wet them down – then put down a layer of leaves and grass – and wet them down too. Then I put a layer of soil from the bottom of the garden – it has no weeds and been lying there for years – so has some compost in it – and then more water

I then put a layer of mushroom compost over that, a sprinkling of bone meal and a thin layer of kraal manure – and some more water. Then another layer of dry leaves – and more water

Then I made a mix of mushroom compost, a block of peat and coir (reconstituted by breaking it up and soaking it in a large dust bin), some soil and kraal manure and spread it as the last layer – and then more water.

Then covered it with hay and then watered it some

This is what the bed looked like finally (I have since completed the other bed and am in the process of preparing the pots. Now I will let it “cook” for a week before planting Next week – I will plant the beds and the pots. I am still deciding what to plant

I am also preparing a part of the garden for paw-paw and banana – and looking at every available spot to plant – like pumpkin under the windy dryer, more pots in sunny spots in the garden for anything I can think of!