Fencing out the Deer

One of the big changes around here is that the wood to build our deer fence finally arrived.

So we have been busy building a lovely cedar fence along the 2 road frontages. The building is on the 3rd side. On the remaining open side we have put up bird netting supported by T bar posts. Hopefully that will do the trick until we finish fencing in the remainder of the property.

The raised beds continue to be built and I am slowly planting them with seedlings I started a month ago when we arrived here.
The raised beds are 12" high and built on the lawn. Then I put down a layer of cardboard and fill the beds 1/2 full of some local screened top soil. In the near future I'll get in a load of compost and top the beds up with that.
The climate here is a bit of an unknown to me. On one hand there is no danger of frosts, but it does stay cool with the odd very chilly windy day. So I will be learning what will survive at this time of the year and what should wait.
Always fun to learn.

Beds filled and planted

I now have 3 raised beds.
They have been filled with what looks like great top soil from down the road.

Lettuce seedlings, garlic, mache, broad beans and chives have been planted in the first bed along with some field peas for a green manure.

The other 2 beds have been planted in field peas as a green manure crop. The beds have been covered in netting to keep the deer away until we get some fences up.
The garden is being abandoned til Nov., so I'll see then how it all survived.

Building the new garden

We are making progress with the new garden here on Malcolm Island.

This is the area for the future garden. It is one of the sunnier corners. We are dealing with tall cedars along the south boundary and then the buildings. I think there will be little sun here mid winter, but now in Sept it gets sun almost all day. The first thing that needs to go is the sign!

I've been playing around with plans on paper. It'll all take a while but as you can see below we've made a start, and the sign has gone-yeah.

The tall posts at the north end of the bed will have wire attached for future vines.
The beds are 16' long and 4' wide and are made of 2" x 6" lumber two high to give 12" high beds.
The ground is sloping slightly to the west so we've had to dig in the top edge.

To avoid digging I am going to fork through the sod to loosen it then lay down cardboard then these beds will be 2/3rds filled with some screened top soil sourced on the island, and in the spring top dressed with 'sea soil'- a compost made locally from fines(leftovers) from the logging industry that are mixed with leftovers from the fishing industry. This mix is composted for 2 years and hopefully will grow wonderful veges.

New beds to play with

In spite of my usual delayed planting this summer I am harvesting veg from the garden. Not a lot but enough. The lettuce, pak choi and arugala are great additions to the table and shortly there will be the peas and beans.

The big change this summer is I finally put in a permanent back fence on the vege garden. Every year it has been expanding by about the size of the compost bins as I moved them further back each year. Finally this year I said enough.
Three 4 x 4 posts and a bag of sacrete later I had the supports in. A few hours with some chicken wire and staples and it was done. The paths and the new beds were lined with cardboard. The raised beds were formed from some old lumber that I had around and filled with the compost from last winters bins. The paths were then covered with saw dust. A heavy rain a few days later settled it all in.
Now I am dividing some of the perennials and putting the transplants in these new 'nursery' beds ready to take out to my new garden on the west coast later in the fall.

Raised beds

The other day someone asked me why I had raised beds with solid sides. I hadn't thought about it too much, but after I did I came up with a few reasons.

 

The first most obvious reason is that it is a way to assert a bit of order to what is usually a chaotic gardening space.

Then there is the fact that in the spring the beds warm up and dry out much earlier than they would otherwise.

In New Zealand in my garden where there is no snow but lots of winter rain, the raised beds keep the plants and their roots drier and the paths channel the rainwater away.

The permanent paths mean that I never stand on the planting bed, so there is no compaction of the soil. The beds are 4' wide so that means I can reach all parts of the bed without stepping on them.

Water and fertiliser can be confined to the growing beds where they will do some good, and not on the paths where they could encourage weed growth.

Also it means that if the soil deeper down isn't great for gardening whether it is clay or sand, the raised beds allow another 6" of great top soil for good root development. In my case here in Canada I have pure sand about 6" below the natural surface of the soil. Great for drainage, but not great for growing veges in.

 

I think the garden is ready for winter.

The garlic has been planted, and the perennials that I wanted moved have been moved around to their new homes. The summer growth on the perennials has been cut back and the annuals composted.

The green manure that I sowed a month ago is growing, and hopefully will grow a little more before getting frozen back. This year I used peas as my green manure. I had a lot of dried peas from several years ago, so it was a good way to use them.

I'm not ready for winter, so I am out of here until I hear that the snow has gone next spring. Nice to know that once again the garden here will be waiting for me when I return.