How To Build A Kitchen Garden

I was lucky, I had a blank canvas to paint as I wished, but, even that still begged the question:

Where To Start?

For a kitchen garden, as I call it because I feel vegetable garden, does not, do the plot of ground where you are going to produce all that you eat, justice.

I think, Kitchen Garden fits, to me it means, everything I am going to use in my kitchen is grown here: vegetables, herbs, fruits, nuts and even my coffee beans... Oh yes, I have three coffee bean bushes!!

I had 2 acres of paddocks to choose a location from, so in the first year, I walked around the farm everyday and I looked.

I noted where the rain made puddles, small lakes or boggy areas.

I noted where the rivers of water ran.

I noted which areas were sloping and which way they sloped.

I noted which areas were prone to drying out.

I noted the state of the soil, was it clay, sand or top soil.

I noted what kind of weeds were growing and where.

I noted where the sun tracked and where was shady.

I noted which way the wind blew.

I noted which way was North.

So, for a whole year, I really didn't touch my land, but I learnt heaps. I got a feel for how Mother nature treated my 2 acres of land.

Then, I chose where to build my kitchen garden...

I had chosen my spot, now all I had to do was design and build my dream garden. The paddock I was going to create my kitchen garden from had not been cultivated for at least twenty years!!

First thing I did, was secrured the area, I didn't really want the chickens or goats being able to wander in and eat everything, so I had to devise a systme that I could have the chickens do the hard work and dig over the paddock and reveal the earth beneath.

Some people use movable chicken coops, me, I have taught our chickens to work with me. When I go into the kitchen garden, so do they.

And over time, they stick by my side as I tend to the beds. They never peck at my hands, and they never fight over who gets the worm first, its as if they know just what to do. And I never, ever have any complaints, they just go to work, scratching, pecking and literally tilling the soil with their feet. I tlooks like it has been sieved!!

What I do is build a bamboo edging, (see above photo) then for a week I put chicken scraps in the bed and let them do their thing, after a week I cannot see a blade of grass, weed or clod of earth.

I, then, put a huge layer of sheep shit ontop of the bed, I am talking at least 10 inches, then I let the chickens do their thing and eat all the weed seeds and till the manure into the top layer of soil.

This done, I move the chickens out of the area, cover the bed in leaf mulch and rotted hay and leave it for the winter, untouched, fallow.

I cut down bamboo for free, from the nextdoor neighbours farm, he doesn't want it an d was going to burn the lot, until I pursuaded him, that I would clear it all for him.

Oh, yes, they all laughed VERY hard at that one, and even louder when I asked to clear out the sheep manure from their woolsheds for free!!

But, two years later, and I have definately had the last laugh!! I have beautiful kitchen gardenbed, teaming with micro-life, humus and THE biggest worms.

The earth LOOKS good, a deep rich brown, and SMELLS good, so I know now it is ready to start producing for me.

I have been really patient, I have learnt to work with Mother nature, and she, in return has allowed me to return my piece of paradise back to its full potential in a very short time.