Hi everyone,
This is my first blog post so I thought I'd introduce myself and share a little bit about where I'm at. I've participated in the Spring Challenge a couple of times before, but not since 2018 now.
Previously I lived on a three acre block of land with my husband and little boy. We've since separated and a couple of months ago I bought a small two bedroom place in town. Our section is also very small - just over 300 square metres.
An elderly man previously owned the property so although we are lucky to have some established fruit trees (feijoa, guava, plum, and a big grape vine) there are no gardens as such. There was also no lawn! The family had filled the entire backyard with bark. Bark over anything that could resemble a garden and bark over what was once possibly lawn.
The very first thing I did when I moved here was plant a few extra fruit trees - two apple trees, a nectarine, a peach, mandarin, lemon, and lime. Excluding a couple of the citrus trees, these are all dwarf varieties due to lack of space.
The next job on the list was to remove all of the bark from our small backyard to allow for raised vegetable gardens. We've decided to not put any lawn in and instead go for a petit potager style garden.
My brother has kindly helped to build us four raised vegetable gardens. We're on a tight budget so I have unfortunately used treated timber to ensure they last well. I'm not a fan so I've lined the inside of all gardens with a heavy duty plastic. I'm currently in the process of filling these up. I aim to follow the no dig method so they've been filled with layers of cardboard (base only), quality top soil, pea straw, sheep pellets etc.
My five year old boy has developed a genuine love for the garden so I hope to continue to inspire him this year. My overall goal is to grow as much food as possible in our small backyard.
I'm really excited to be back and can't wait to follow everyone's journeys.
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