Logo primary
Logo secondary
Tom Kendall 's Profile
Tom Kendall
Details
Joined:
30/01/2011
Last Updated:
30/01/2011
Location:
Kin Kin, Queensland, Australia
Climate Zone:
Sub tropical
Gender:
Male
Web site:
permaculturesunshinecoast.org





My Projects

(projects i'm involved in)

PermEco Inc.

PermEco Inc.

Kin Kin, AU


Projects

(projects i'm following)

Zaytuna Farm, The home of the permaculture Research Institute   No Small Dreams Bellbunya Sustainable Community Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge Mudlark Permaculture PRI New Zealand (Koanga Institute) Milkwood Permaculture Research Institute Chile The Permaculture Research Institute of Hellas (Greece) Quail Springs Permaculture Permacultura Aralar Permaculture Research Institute-Kenya Quinta do Vale da Lama Earthway Experience Permaculture Center Reinventing Roots Urban Permaculture Research Center in Mexico tomato eco PRI Tap o' Noth Farm, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Sustainable Environmental Livelihoods Farm, Fiji
Followers
Following
Alex McCausland Alex  Metcalfe Bob Corker Bronwyn White Bruce Molloy Carolyn Payne-Gemmell Chris McLeod Christian Shearer Clea Chandmal Darren J.  Doherty Fabian  Torres Gaina Dunsire Geoff Lawton Grifen Hope Henry Mauricio Neira Jesse Lemieux Julie Pagliaro Jyoti Deshpande Lesley White Nadia  Lawton Nick Huggins Nicola Chatham Pat Savage Paul Taylor Penny Pyett Rhamis Kent Richard Perkins Roman Eisenkoelbl Shariyf Abdul Qabid Silvia Floresta Steve Read Tamara Griffiths Theron Beaudreau Tim Auld Vanessa Monge Augusto Fernandes Warren Brush Zaia Kendall

Back to Tom Kendall's profile

Creating a garden bed with compost and mulch

Posted by Tom Kendall almost 13 years ago

Step by step process describes the creation of a garden bed with compost, mulching and adding seedlings.

Today we needed to get some broccoli seedlings into the ground. Normally we plant them in various existing beds to have variety in each bed, but today we had to tidy up and plant out a new bed. The bed housed a chilli bush that was taking over, so we moved the bush, tidied the bed and added compost.


The wheelbarrow was dirty and sticky from the compost, so it was washed with water. The resulting nutrient rich water was poured onto the bed.


Then we used 2 1/2 wheelbarrow loads of mulch to put on top. Thick, wet mulch, to stop weeds from coming through and taking over the bed.

The mulch also keeps the moisture in the soil by slowing down evaporation, adds fertility and carbon to the soil when it breaks down, retains bio-activity in the compost by not exposing it to the elements and, if applied appropriately, separates the bed from the garden paths.
Our mulch comes from our own property, as does our compost. The compost used in this case came from our worm farm and one of our composting bins. The mulch is grass that we cut on our property..


After mulching it is time for some planting. First we got a bucket with some more compost, a small hand shovel and our seedlings.

 

 

 

 

We created a hole in the mulch that went all the way down to where the compost started. We had to make a fairly deep hole, since we added a lot of mulch!

 

 

 

 

We added more compost in the hole to get the soil level higher, so we could plant our seedlings.Note that there is a small hole in the middle of the compost to add the seedling. We gently removed a seedling from its punnet and softly massaged its roots to loosen them up a little after being confined in the small space.

The seedling was then added to the hole, some more compost added and then we pulled some mulch as close as possible to the seedling, so there is as little earth exposed as possible (again to prevent weeds from crowding the seedling and to hold moisture in the soil). We ensured the mulch around the seedling was nice and flat so it would not shade the little one.









Since we like variety in our garden beds, we dug up some chinese greens and a salad mallow that had decided to grow in our garden paths. They self sow readily and tend to appear this time of year in inconvenient locations. We planted them into our new bed as well, gave the new bed with seedlings a bit of a soaking, and there it is, ready to grow!

Comments (1)

You must be logged in to comment.

Bee Winfield
Bee Winfield : Lovely. Hope to see some photos down the track
Posted almost 13 years ago

Report Bee Winfield on Creating a garden bed with compost and mulch

Reason:

or cancel

My Badges
Consultant Aid worker Pdc teacher
My Permaculture Qualifications
Pri verified
Permaculture Design Course
Type: Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course
Verifying teacher: Geoff Lawton
Other Teachers: Bill Mollison
Location: Melbourne
Date: Sep 2008
Other course verified
Permaculture Design Teacher Training Course
Type: Teacher Training
Teacher: Geoff Lawton
Location: Zaytuna
Date: Mar 2010
4 PDC Graduates (list)
21 PRI PDC Graduates (list)
17 Other Course Graduates (list)
have acknowledged being taught by Tom Kendall
0 have not yet been verified (list)
Climate Zones
Tom Kendall has permaculture experience in:
Warm Temperate
Island
Sub tropical
Wet/Dry Tropical

Report Tom Kendall

Reason:

or cancel

Hide Tom Kendall

Reason:

or cancel

Hide Creating a garden bed with compost and mulch

Reason:

or cancel

Report Creating a garden bed with compost and mulch

Reason:

or cancel