The Making of a New Garden Bed

The beginning of a sheet mulch was in this bed for about 6 months, a layer of manure and pea hay. A Green Manure was then planted  to break up the soil, add some goodness to the ground and use the greens as chook food. ALOT of seed went in, I had trouble germinating it, little did I know I was feeding the Ellenbrook Pigeon population!




Seeds of Vetch, Lupin, Broad Beans, Red Mustard, Peas, Sunflowers, Wheat, Safflower, Alfalfa.
Wheat had sprouted from the chook food, there were a couple of unidentified plants, plus some winter weeds

After a little while, once it started to rain and the pigeons got some harsh words, it grew fantastic. Lush, green and about knee high. I could hear the sand give a sigh of relief.
The greens were cut regularly for the chooks.





I had a half bale of Lupin mulch, this went over the Green Manure. Then chooks then went in. Over the course of 6 days, they were put to work in an old dog play type pen. They loved it in there, even though it was a small space, those girls had the time of their lives!! I moved the pen every morning, so they had a fresh bit of ground to get at.

Thank you to Butter, Princess, Cookie and Rosie.
 I made sure it was very safe for them at night. The pen was held to the ground with pegs, and they had shade-cloth and a tarp for shade in the day,
plus a sheet of laserlite over the top at the night
time. I don't feel its safe here to let the chook free range, to close to a main road, stray dogs, foxes, upsetting the neighbors etc.

The girls quickly went to work, pooping, eating the greens and insects and scratching in the sand underneath.







Once the chooks had been over  the whole area, 30kg of Bentonite Clay got sprinkled over the top. 2-3cm of Vege Mix Concentrate went over the top of all that.

Home made compost went over the top, about 10cm thick.
Walking planks supported buy some pavers are placed in the middle

for easy assess from both sides. The bed is 2.m x 6.5m

Super happy with the results! I made a trellis as a support, and I'm 

hoping it's in the right spot (facing westish) as to also provide some

summer shade in the afternoon. This bed will be used (for now) as a kitchen 

garden bed, I look forward to planting some summer fruit and veg