Super Lazy Garden Bed

I have been wanting to transform the last overgrown areas of the side walkways into productive garden beds for ages, and when I was thinking of a project to do today, this is what came to mind.


Not putting Luka into a barrel, but doing something with this mess. Now I am guilty of making the mess, I would get cranky looking at how overgrown everything was, hack away at a few plants and then leave things... for a year or two. But not today. Today, I got my butt into gear, Luka into a barrel, gloves on and wheelbarrow out.

I started off by looking at the mess and kicking at it a bit. Taking photos took up a bit of time too. By the time I was finished with this, all the mess had been piled up onto the garden bed, and it was ready to have soil piled on top of it.

This is three wheelbarrow loads of dirt later. I just put the dirt straight on top, and this is what makes this kind of garden bed so easy... no digging into hard earth, just nice crumbly soil from the chicken coop. I figure that it's full of goodness, and the chickens love when I dig in there, I have to be careful with the shovel while they dart in and out of the hole. Also with all the garden waste under the soil, it's lovely and aerated, it will drain beautifully.

Looking at the photos, the Mondo grass really stands out. I left it in for a few reasons, number one being it is just so hard to dig out, Mondo really has super strong roots. The other reason is that I am thinking that it will act much like a border, and hold all the dirt in. We'll see I guess.

After the chicken coop dirt, I mulched it all over with some sugar cane mulch. I figure that the beds will be fabulous to grow in, good soil with excellent drainage, sheltered position, and full sun most of the day. Although there's not a lot of sun around in Brisbane so far this winter, great for working in the garden, not so great for growing there.

Here's a longer view, this is about 3/4 of the total length of the side of the house. So there's still a fair bit more of the garden bed to do, Hopefully I can finish it off and maybe even do some planting tomorrow!