The potager takes form

We have been working on the food growing part of the garden in front of the house - creating a mixture of hugulbeds, sheet mulches, wood chip and broken slate paths:

Three layers of cardboard are put down after cutting
the vegetation in preparation for creating
a bed for planting
 

The bed after adding layers of manure,
hay, leaves and finally straw
 

A finished hugulbed (a trench
is dug and filled with rotting logs
followed by soil and any
compostable material like grass
cuttings, leaves, manure, hay
and straw)
 

Curved hugulbeds with woodchip paths

 

Litte stone steps where there
are changes in levels
 

Round paths dug out

 

Sheet Mulching the Jardin rond (the round garden)

A few weeks back I made a start on the round garden on a piece of land next to the house.  The idea has been to sheet mulch the whole area which meant brushcutting the exising vegetation to ground level and leaving it in place to rot down with a sprinkling of manure under three layers of cardboard.  Another thin layer of manure is then put down on top of the cardboard followed by layers of hay and leaves and finally a layer of straw.  Left to compost over the winter, it will be ready for planting in the Spring.  The paths have around 3 inches of woodchip added on top of the cardboard.  All the materials were found in the local area: The sheets of cardboard came from a local furniture company, the leaves from the surrounding land, the manure from a local horse riding centre, the hay from a barn on the land here and the woodchip from a nearby saw mill.  Some images showing the progress:


A thin layer of manure is spread on the
 brushcut land followed by three layers
of cardboard (all the sellotape and staples
were removed)




Another thin layer of manure is spread on the beds
for planting and woodchip on the paths
 




Kevin shovelling the woodchip to take to the garden



My nephew Timmy depositing
woodchip on the path areas
with an enthusiastic smile







Adding a layer of leaves on top of
the hay




Adding a final layer of straw