First steps

Today is New Moon, 6 November 2011. My tomato seedlings were crying out to be put into the ground and a Saturday morning busy bee got the first garden bed  organised. We first removed the weeds, then turned the soil over, dug in sheep manure, compost, chicken manure, other soil and worm farm castings. The patch is about 3m by 5 m, semi shade on the north side of the garden, next to the shed, partly under an old olive tree.

Lots of work for about four hours, but it was fun too. We watered the earth before digging more chicken manure into it, then repeated the process about three times, raked the top and the ground was ready for planting. We put in about 30 plants in total, mostly tomatoes, one zuccini, a strawberry and some other unidentifyable plants that look edible. Straw mulch around the plants should prevent them from drying out too quickly.

Basil is a good companion plant for the tomatoes, Jul brought some seeds and at the end of our morning we put the seeds into a pot with good wishes and lots of worms too. The worms in my worm farm seem to multiply at an incredible speed since I have put cardboard on top of the layered boxes. Otherwise the worms love shredded paper, newpaper works best.

I noticed that I have to learn a lot more about plants, weeds and how to do it. Bio-dynamic gardening is the method and goal. Where can I get such information? From the web? Yes, not bad, but better talk to people, make new friends and even swap plants. Lots of locals in my area have started growing vegies and more and more verges show raised garden beds. There is room for growth and room for sharing experience, seeds, seedlings and stories at a very local level. I might drop them a little note in their letterbox and invite them to a gardening chat at our place. Lots of room to grow.. .

But at a bigger level, the Perth Permaculture Association would be a good place to start. I will probably become a member. We are looking forward to the learning.

Can't wait for the next steps!