At the end of 2013, I had set up three "pallet beds" just inside the entrance of my garden. I planted these with various salad greens. At the time, I thought they would be easily accessible for picking, being quite close to the kitchen, and would be partly shaded by the neighbouring building, thus increasing the chances of the lettuces not bolting in summer. But it didn't turn out to be as effective as I hoped - the pallets constantly dried out, despite almost daily watering, the lettuces kept bolting in summer, and I had mistaken the angle of the sun in summer - they weren't as shaded as I had imagined. After two seasons of repeated bolting, I decided it was time for the pallets to go. The below "before" pic I remembered to take after I had already started ripping out the spent plants and weeds, and removed the waist-high dried parsley seed heads to save for seed. I'd also pulled out the first pallet, and removed the trellis that had been at one end of it.
So, I weeded the area, harvested seed from the parsley (enough to plant several acres of parsley I reckon!), pruned the Banksia rose on the trellis fence, removed all three pallets, and then.......
I installed a 1m x 2m wooden bed box I'd removed from another part of the garden - one end of it forming the back of the half-circle brick bed, just as the pallet previously had. I used the left over soil from the pallets in the bottom, then filled it with homemade compost and topped it with aged (semi-composted) wood chip. I broadcast mixed lettuce seed saved from the previous year all over it, and ruffled then smoothed the surface with my hand, sufficient to bury the seed, and watered it in.
At the end of the bed, just barely in this pic, I placed a long, narrow metal tray I found at the dump, and in it put four English mint plants, and two pennyroyal plants. The mints had been inside my house, but had got a bad case of rust, so I cut them back hard, and moved the out here to recover. Funny story about the mint, actually - I wanted them in the house as they are reputed to be good fly deterrents, and flies here are bad in summer. They didn't seem to be having a great effect, though, and I was about to give up on them when one night a strange creature was flying around the living room as we were watching a DVD together. My son whipped out his net and captured what looked almost like a dragonfly, but not. He placed it in a jar to more closely examine and identify. Noticing it was slipping around inside the jar, I suggested a small twig or similar for it to rest on. As mint was the only indoor plant handy, we broke off a stem and put it in the jar. Shortly thereafter, it also caught an annoying moth and put it in another jar, with another sprig of mint. Ten minutes or so later, my son said "Mum, I think it's dead," referring to what we had identified as a damselfly. He tipped it out onto a cloth, and sure enough, it was completely still, with curled up legs. I watched the moth for a while. It, too, became inert. "Hmmmm.....I pondered. Death by mint??" My son tossed the moth outside, and as he came back in, the damselfly suddenly took wing! It seems the mint had anaesthetized the bugs, not killed them - once they were moved into fresh air, they recovered! Later that night, my son caught a net full of flies and tried the same treatment on them, with the same results. Hmmmm.....so perhaps the mint DOES have an effect, if there is sufficient of it in the space. Perhaps the flies the sense it's not good for them, and leave, as reputed. I have high ceilings and an open plan kitchen/dining/living/foyer. So I would need a lot more plants to do that trick. However, I have limited space to put them. Still thinking on this......
At the end of the bed, just barely in this pic, I placed a long, narrow metal tray I found at the dump, and in it put four English mint plants, and two pennyroyal plants. The mints had been inside my house, but had got a bad case of rust, so I cut them back hard, and moved the out here to recover. Funny story about the mint, actually - I wanted them in the house as they are reputed to be good fly deterrents, and flies here are bad in summer. They didn't seem to be having a great effect, though, and I was about to give up on them when one night a strange creature was flying around the living room as we were watching a DVD together. My son whipped out his net and captured what looked almost like a dragonfly, but not. He placed it in a jar to more closely examine and identify. Noticing it was slipping around inside the jar, I suggested a small twig or similar for it to rest on. As mint was the only indoor plant handy, we broke off a stem and put it in the jar. Shortly thereafter, it also caught an annoying moth and put it in another jar, with another sprig of mint. Ten minutes or so later, my son said "Mum, I think it's dead," referring to what we had identified as a damselfly. He tipped it out onto a cloth, and sure enough, it was completely still, with curled up legs. I watched the moth for a while. It, too, became inert. "Hmmmm.....I pondered. Death by mint??" My son tossed the moth outside, and as he came back in, the damselfly suddenly took wing! It seems the mint had anaesthetized the bugs, not killed them - once they were moved into fresh air, they recovered! Later that night, my son caught a net full of flies and tried the same treatment on them, with the same results. Hmmmm.....so perhaps the mint DOES have an effect, if there is sufficient of it in the space. Perhaps the flies the sense it's not good for them, and leave, as reputed. I have high ceilings and an open plan kitchen/dining/living/foyer. So I would need a lot more plants to do that trick. However, I have limited space to put them. Still thinking on this......
In the remaining space, I raked it smooth, laid a new cardboard mulch, and re-barked with fresh woodchip. I moved a glass table I picked up from an thrift shop and a chair from the dump into the space. I found a lovely green glazed pot at the thrift store for $4 and put some mini pink chrysanthemums in it. I planted out a peppermint geranium and a lemon geranium against the wall among the other geraniums, and added a lavender and several violas to the bed under the trellis. An old sickle provides some rustic ornamentation - it will be mounted on the wall one of these days.
I also removed the remaining calendula plants from the half-circle bed, which has a Damson plum seedling in it, and planted some more violas there.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this area turned out!
I also removed the remaining calendula plants from the half-circle bed, which has a Damson plum seedling in it, and planted some more violas there.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this area turned out!
RSS Feed
