The Retrofit - Part 3; A Year In Review

2019 has come to a close and this October marked the end of the first year of our retrofit project at Alex's house. The gardens are struggling in the heat and drought at the moment but we're persevering. I say gardens because inheriting Alex's backyard never meant I was going to give up my original home garden. Being across two sites in spring with university was full on. There was hardly a second left for me to breathe but the alternative - slowing down and focussing on uni just to be less stressed - would have meant missing out on the important time of the gardening season, Spring. If you know me well enough, a fast paced life filled with "jobs" is what I love, but holy moly I am grateful for the time off uni this summer so I can focus on all my projects (and there are a lot of them!). Here is a look at all we did at "the retrofit" this year...

WHAT DID WE ACHIEVE THIS YEAR? 

Complete overhaul 

This year we turned a neglected space that had previously been a veggie garden (decades ago!) back into a thriving food producing space in the Australian suburbs. Most of the residential land around us has been converted into claustrophobic housing units, so we are very fortunate that Alex's family have kept this one with its generous backyard!

Here are some before and after photos over the last 12 months... 

THE FRONT GARDEN

This space was all dead weeds and heavily compacted soil - not much of a front lawn and a colossal waste of space! The glorified Australian lawn must go - both here, and I would say on every nature strip and front garden across the country! Imagine what could be created in all those spaces instead of boring grass that needs to be sprayed with herbicide to keep it a monoculture (completely against nature's preference for biodiversity!!). In fact, you could almost feed all Melbourne if we just swapped all the nature strips to veggie plots instead. Yes, there are barriers to this idea, yes we need some negative space like this for movement through the spaces we occupy but just imagine for a second the amount of food we could grow instead and just don't...

Here is my love breaking the soil and turning our vision into reality - goodbye lawn, goodbye dead soil and hello to life! Suddenly the space felt so much bigger. The neglected soil needed some new composted matter and digging to bring it back to life. Many trailer loads of compost soil from Bulleen Art and Garden and then many wheelbarrow loads later it looked incredible...

How healthy does this look! We also removed all the old plants by the right window and along the fence because they served no purpose - to us, or to wildlife either. On small blocks you have to think about maximising every corner you have and these prime sunny spots were being completely wasted! 

 Sunflowers went in under the window and a wildflower meadow for the bees and insects quickly covered our fresh soil! This space is now an ever-changing flood of colour. I bought as many packets of different flower seed as I could from the Diggers Club (my go-to for seeds). We then mixed them in a big bucket with sand which helps to spread the seeds evenly, especially the really small ones. If you would like to know specifically what flowers varieties we put in, feel free to ask me.
It is such a joy to see all the bees, butterflies, spiders, insects and birds that are now calling this flower garden home. We also love watching people walk past slowly or stop to take photos. When every other house has a dead lawn, this sea of flowers is hard to miss! 

THE TOMATO/PEA PLOT

Killing the weeds using cardboard and old building boards.

Freshly rotary hoed...

Horse manure went down to feed the soil. If you want to do this, make sure the manure has been hot composted to kill the seeds that are left in the manure because otherwise they all sprout and you are left forever pulling weeds (we learnt the hard way!). 

The peas and tomatoes went in, the trellis went up and the pea straw was spread to stop weeds and water loss via evaporation. 

 Lots of changes in this photo compared to the last! The trellis fell down in heavy winds multiple times so we fixed it by reinforcing it with larger, stronger bamboo - all a bit of a disaster. 
All 23 tomatoes have grown and been staked, the berries have been netted up the back, the peas have come and gone and the fig tree has got all its leaves back in time for the chickens and ducks to hide under it to escape this disgustingly hot weather. 

 THE BERRIES

April - all the same processes again. Weed killing, digging and horse manure down.

July. Finally in! Seven different berry plants cost us $70. $10 each for plant - a bargain considering how much fruit each bush will produce over the years and how much berries cost at the supermarket! 

October. The best place to find your man? Topless in the berry patch weeding!

Berries are a favourite treat for birds so up went a netting system using frames from some old clothes horses. Glenys and I spent an afternoon setting this up using thick metal cables and so far we have enjoyed eating fresh raspberries and blackberries! We still have loganberries, marionberries and blueberries yet to come.

December - Five months of growth! Pictured left to right: raspberry, marionberry & loganberry.

 BACKYARD VIEW

1 -February. Alex's initial trial patch from 2018.

2 - April. Chickens foraging through the horse manure and Alex inspecting our work - a very busy day for all. 

3 - October. Back cardboard removed, potatoes planted in the top left bed and corn, capsicums, eggplants, carrots and beetroots in the middle left bed.

4 - early November 

5 - late December. Starting to get hard to see to the back with all the new growth! The corn in that middle bed really blocking the view! Amazing for two months of growth (compare this photo to the last!). You can also see the difference in the trellis that we had to fix - oops.

POTATOES AND PUMPKINS 

 Freshly mown future potato and pumpkin patch

The cardboard etc goes down (all free from Glenys).

Nice deep trenches and five different varieties of potatoes to try! Between this photo and the last we had taken off the cardboard, added horse manure (also free) then of course rotary hoed the ground before planting.

 The potatoes popping up, waiting for more soil to "hill them up" (this makes the plants produce more potatoes). Lots of weeds from the horse manure - oh dear. 

We planted the potatoes in August and just four months later we harvested the biggest, tastiest potatoes I have ever grown - see how tall the plants are! This is a crop that you just stick in the ground, make sure it has enough water and them boom: an incredible harvest - so damn easy! 

Harvesting coming along nicely- potatoes the size of my palm, full of flavour baby zucchinis, and the garlic finally plaited and ready to be hung and used inside.

EGG PRODUCTION

By the middle of the year I was ready to conclude that our hens were baron. The ducks had laid consistently from the day we got them, whereas the chickens had just laid for one week and then that seemed to be it? I contacted the woman we bought them from and she told us to wait a few more weeks for Spring and that they would eventually start. She was right. We have been collecting about 3-5 eggs a day for the last three and a half months. This has meant many omelettes, frittatas, quiches and give aways to friends and family! My advice would be if eggs are your main reason for keeping birds that ducks are by far the better choice. They don't have a winter dormancy period, their eggs are double the size of chicken eggs and their personalities are much more outgoing and interesting to watch. Ducks are also a more robust bird. They don't get sick or need careful care and medicine like the chickens do. 

Not even a week's worth of eggs in October!  

DUCKLINGS

Ducklings were a massive achievement on Duck's part rather than our own. The process was exciting and anxiety producing (for me at least, because I constantly wanted to know what was happening and wanted to be in control of the whole process...which you can't be when you have never hatched ducklings and when you're not actually the mother hatching them!!). It was also deeply sad when some of the early ducklings died, TERRIFYING when Duck would attack us if we tried to help her babies out of the water tubs and generally one of the most wonderful experiences I've had this year. 

We managed to raise 8 beautiful ducklings. 

The first duckling with a bill the size of my pinky finger nail!

The random bigger duck was born two weeks before the others for some reason?

All grown up at 3 months old- six boys and two girls! 

We have loved watching the ducklings grow (like little monsters on steroids?!) swim, grow their adult feathers, learn to forage and follow their mum everywhere and later become more and more independent. What we are going to do with them better suits a discussion on a separate blog post so I will keep you updated there. 

WHAT WE'VE GROWN SO FAR...

LEAFY GREENS 
We have had an almost constant supply of green leafy vegetables over the last 12 months. There is nothing worse than buying spinach, lettuce etc at the supermarket in plastic bags when they are so easy to grow at home! Kale and silverbeet have always been my go-to for greens because they seem to be the easiest and longest lasting green to grow. They are both incredibly reliable crops for the entire year if you just remember to plant follow up crops about every 6 months.    

GARLIC
I planted garlic at both my house and Alex's. Most of the garlic this year didn't grow very big. For whatever reason, or a multitude of reasons, it just wasn't a good season. Thankfully I've grown so much of it that it should get us through until next year when we can try again! Ah, the nature of gardening (or more likely climate change!). Garlic is a great winter crop for when nothing much else is growing so always make sure you get some in.

Some of the garlic harvest (I sent Glenys home with some).

PEAS
We had about 10m worth of pea plants which would have done amazingly had it not been for these persisting 40 degree days. The peas, being such delicate plants, don't handle heat very well, let alone this repeated heat. We planted both snow peas and shelling peas and they tasted incredible. They were sweet, juicy, far superior to any store bought pea and so damn easy to grow!

A great way to get stuff done and catch up with friends? Sit down together and shell homegrown peas!

PUMPKINS
As you probably saw in my last post, we grew five big beautiful pumpkins off the one plant in a tiny patch with essentially no love but water. We have now got eight heirloom pumpkin plants in a huge plot so my fingers are crossed for a bumper harvest this autumn!

WHAT IS CURRENTLY GROWING?

At the moment we are waiting for the following plants to fruit:
Tomatoes, potatoes, more pumpkins, zucchini, capsicum, eggplant, carrots, corn, beetroots, kale, silverbeet, beans, cucumber, spring onions, basil, thai basil, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, loganberries, marionberries, and passionfruit! Phew!

DRIVEWAY HERBS

The small 50cm wide patch of dirt running up the driveway was a space that I knew had to have something productive in it. Something hardy, that you could walk on, that was fast growing and edible. In went herbs. Lots of them. All different types of mint, thyme, lemon balm and oregano, all contained by the surrounding concrete so we could free plant and not worry about them taking over the garden! They're in a high traffic area which increases the chance and the need for us to actually use them! If we let them grow too wide they get in the way which forces us to cut them. I love that. Herbs are often neglected and forgotten but these ones won't be. Our plan is to harvest and dry big bunches of them and hang them in the house... although probably not in the kitchen because it doesn't have an exhaust fan (?!) so that room holds a lot of fluctuating moisture and would probably cause the herbs to grow mould.

The perfect spot for herbs, especially mint!  

PERMANENT FENCING

After about a year living with the birds, spending time in the garden and learning the way this particular plot "works", we knew that the temporary fencing that we had put up to allow the birds shade under the fig in summer had to be swapped to permanent fencing. Doing so allowed us to create a rotation system so that their run doesn't get degraded. This also, (without us realising we needed to when we first put the new fencing in), allowed us to seperate Alfred from the ducklings when we learnt that he was going to become an asshole and spend the day chasing them back into the coop we raised them in - a behaviour we still are yet to figure out so we can combine our current two separate flocks!
Gates went in which meant we no longer had to climb over the temporary fencing - YAY! Access to the garden spaces is now much easier, especially since the gates are spring loaded, not latched.

The orange fencing fell down after a few months, had no gate but served a purpose for last summer and in teaching us that yes, we did need fencing here.

So it was Glenys to the rescue again with salvaged fencing and weekend labour!

November.

December. 

And suddenly the space looked beautiful and accessing the back garden is no longer a hassle!

PHOTO OF GATES AND TREE IN LEAF

Eileen

We lost our beloved Eileen, who was the friendlies of our chickens, to a respiratory disease a few months ago. This was devastating because she was our favourite and because we didn't, and still don't fully understand the illnesses that can affect our flock. It highlighted to us the amount of learning we need to do if we are to continue to properly care for our birds.

I also lost my big beautiful horse Amy early in the year and then my soul mate Angel just over a month ago. The deaths of the strong females in my life, albeit animals, has completely broken my heart this year.

BEES

As if my plate wasn't full enough already, my next endeavour was bee keeping. I registered as a bee keeper and on swarm patrol and bought my beekeeping equipment...with a pink suit of course! Glenys introduced me to her wonderful friends Owen and Heather, who we spent the whole afternoon with. They showed us their set up, the hives, the processes and even honey harvesting! Owen has very, very kindly been helping me get started and has given me one of his hives for me to "babysit" over winter so I can get myself started. He has taken me out to see his hives, made me bring up the frames, open boxes, light the smoker - the works! I am so incredibly grateful for his guidance and enthusiasm in my bee keeping journey.

Monkey see...(My incredible mentor and now friend, Owen without gloves on (?!))

...Monkey do! (Me in the early weeks wondering what on earth I am looking at!)

Happy bees in their new home - the suburbs are a flower paradise and for that reason, the best place to keep bees!

BACKYARD DINNER PARTIES 

Late last year I was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Over the last year I have realised that eating out and avoiding gluten is near impossible. Rather than being knocked down by this, our garden has become the solution. We have held 5 or 6 dinner parties this year and most recently for my birthday, we were able to have it outside! By inviting everyone to our house, I am in control of the cooking and avoiding gluten, we are able to share the bounty of our garden with friends and we can celebrate the incredible garden and home we have created together.

Making sushi! 

 My love with a hard earned (gluten free!) beer! 

SO...WHAT'S NEXT?

BBQ area

Next on our to do this is to turn this heavily shaded space into a BBQ area. We found a double sink on the side of the road earlier this year which will be perfect for washing veggies before they come into the house and for outdoor cooking. We also got lots free pavers from a woman who wanted to get rid of them so our plan is to pave the area, put up a spare garage roof we had lying around and buy a BBQ. I can't wait to be able to cook outside! It will mean more parties, being able to keep mess outside and keeping the house cool when we need to cook on hot summer days. 

Improving systems...

Tomato staking next year needs to be planned better because we did this far too late this year with stakes that are too short for the plants we put in. I am still yet to see how this goes but I'm anticipating a smaller harvest than I first thought we would get because of this. 

The pea trellis fell apart too many times to count and damaged our pea and bean plants. Next year we need one that is stronger and more supportive and we need to get the climbing strings up much earlier so the beans and peas have time to grow up them rather than up each other. 

Next year we will have the foundation work like digging and the watering system already done so we can focus on the actual growing rather than optimising the space. I know this will mean we can grow more, mulch before the weeds come and therefore get better harvests. We're always learning and thinking about how we can better the systems we currently have in place so we know things will just get better and better the more time passes. 

Water
Over the last month the threat of climate change via increased heat waves and drought has become the lived obvious.  A drip watering system to save as much water as possible has just started to go down. A little late for this season, but better late than never.

Preserving
Mid-late summer is all about preserving the harvest. Think dried herbs, dill pickles, tomato sauces, bottled fruit, garlic plaits - the lot! The garlic has already been plaited so that's a start! We need to get some shelves together as we start to bottle tomatoes and fruit so we have somewhere to store it all. I got a Fowlers Vacola (bottling machine) for my birthday last year so I am very keen to make the most of it again this summer. 

Energy
Solar at my house is a big goal for me for 2020. I am excited to write about the whole process and how we decide what is the right set up for us. Alex's house is too old and falling down to put big money like this into it. We need to decide what we will do with it over the next few years before we decide on long term things like solar or water tanks.

A bike trailer 
Of course, if we thought I couldn't get anymore daggy, I've decided to really jump all in and get myself a bike trailer. I inherited a great mountain bike from my dad. Its a bit too big and generally the wrong set up for commuting but its very light and gets me from A to B perfectly. The problem is, despite buying the largest bike riding backpack I could find, I can't carry enough stuff with me on some of my rides which forces me to use my car. I've been trying to build up my ability to ride my bike as much as possible but the reliance on stuffing my work clothes, uni stuff etc onto my back is holding me back. A lockable bike trailer would be a perfect solution. That way I can do food shopping (...or plant shopping!) and generally just be able to carry more stuff and move even further away from my reliance on my car.

Human waste
A composting toilet and a "P" bucket are also big goals for 2020. I'll keep you updated on how these projects go. I think this a fascinating topic that also deserves a whole blog post of its own - so again, stay tuned!

Youtube? 
This at the moment is just a plan in my head, but I would love to be able to film all that we do and put it on a YouTube channel. If you would watch this, please let me know because I'd love enough voices telling me to do it so I get a move on to make this happen! (Balancing this with uni could be very interesting...).

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading about the adventures we have had this year. I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog post and if you have any questions, comments etc, just let me know - I am always here for a chat. 

Love, 

Liza