beksbackyard.com
Bek's Backyard: The Back Yard
http://www.beksbackyard.com/p/the-backyard.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. It all started back in 2009 when I started living in this house. This is the backyard which I had to look at every day through the kitchen window every time I washed the dishes or made a cup of coffee. To given an additional idea on how the house is situated, this is a rough plan of the block. This is pretty much what the block existed of when I moved in. Something had to be done. This was the original plan. I wor...
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Bek's Backyard: The Front Yard
http://www.beksbackyard.com/p/the-front-yard.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. The front yard is probably the area which has evolved the most to tell the truth. In 2009 when I first moved in the front yard area was inhabited by a big ugly cyprus tree, a lillipilli and a big overgrown ugly bush and a few straggly smaller other bushes. This is the view from the corner of the block towards the house. Here is the big overgrown ugly bush. Just to make things clear, here is the outline. I started ...
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Bek's Backyard: October 2014
http://www.beksbackyard.com/2014_10_01_archive.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. How to store asparagus. 30 October, 2014. I had to share this tip, as it's been revolutionary to my asparagus eating experience. I may well be the only person out there so behind the times as to not already doing this with asparagus, but anyhoo. Unless you grow fifty gazillion asparagus plants (slight exaggeration), you will have days when you harvest just a few stalks from your asparagus crowns. Do you have any g...
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Bek's Backyard: Blueberries in wicking buckets...
http://www.beksbackyard.com/2014/04/blueberries-in-wicking-buckets.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. Blueberries in wicking buckets. 16 April, 2014. My blueberries have been variable performers. I've had them since the early days of around 2009, when I first bought three blueberry plants from a pick-your-own blueberry farm. As I was still in the process of working out the backyard. This year was about the same. Things are not looking good. I've been reading a lot about wicking beds from foodnstuff. I have decided...
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Bek's Backyard: Morning meander...
http://www.beksbackyard.com/2015/04/morning-meander.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. 26 April, 2015. Yay for the gentle rain we've been having lately in Melbourne town. I'm not at all sad that I'm missing gardening time to snuggle inside, cook hearty food (pea and ham soup anyone.), catch up on my reading and potter about the house, all the while listening to the pitter patter of rain. That said I did head out to check on how the garden is liking all this water. It turns out, quite a lot. The orch...
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Bek's Backyard: Wicking buckets are the best...
http://www.beksbackyard.com/2015/05/wicking-buckets-are-best.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. Wicking buckets are the best. 19 May, 2015. I love wicking buckets! Having started experimenting with these last year with some underperforming blueberries. I have since found that pretty much anything can be grown in a wicking container of some kind. I am currently growing the following in wicking buckets:. Oranges, lime and mandarin espaliered along the back fence. Raspberries also seem to like wicking buckets.
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Bek's Backyard: December 2014
http://www.beksbackyard.com/2014_12_01_archive.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. 18 December, 2014. Apple (espaliered) 'Caville Blanc D'Hiver'. Pear (Belgian fence espalier) 'Williams Bon Chretien'. Apple (step-over espalier) 'Pink Lady'. Banana Passionfruit (flowering for the first time - yay! Tomato strategy: to pinch out or not to pinch out. 16 December, 2014. I have tomatoes in two areas. Both areas have the same varieties growing, which were planted out at roughly the same time. These tom...
beksbackyard.com
Bek's Backyard: The Raised Bed Veg Patch
http://www.beksbackyard.com/p/the-raised-veg-patch.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. Way back in 2009 starting fruit and veg growing was a priority. The area which got the most sun, and therefore was (as the gardening books told me) the best area for a veg patch, was to the side of the house. So I bought wood sleepers at the local big warehouse hardware store to build 8 beds. Each bed was 2.4m long (as that was the longest I could get home in my car, but putting a...In ea...
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Bek's Backyard: March 2015
http://www.beksbackyard.com/2015_03_01_archive.html
Adventures in almost food self-sufficiency in suburban Melbourne. The Raised Bed Veg Patch. Tomatoes rocking it in March. 31 March, 2015. Well, there aren't many. I have picked precisely three tomatoes in the last week. They were so disappointing I couldn't even bring myself to photograph them. This time last year I had lots of green fruit. Still to ripen in March. This year the plants are pretty much done for now. This is the main tomato patch in the front yard. My assessment is that pinching out tomato...
