In the beginning - the plot

This is my food garden - before I started to dig on 14th May - end of Autumn here. It is a small section of ground where lavender used to grow, and a year or so ago Steve dug out the lavender and the erigeron which had taken it over, leaving this plot, flat, and now covered with weeds.

This is what it looked like after some vigorous digging and weeding. It's not actually a square metre, wider in one direction and narrower in another, but it will do for now, because it is bounded on 3 sides already, and doesn't involve cutting up the so-called lawn. Some compost has been added, and next I bought some manure a few days later.

But while I was enthused I build a birdbath nearby, using recycled bricks and a pretty bowl waiting for a use since 1999. (sad but true)

And now, at the end of May, I have made some more progress.

At a nursery I bought:
cow manure
dolomite
bamboo stakes
blood & bone
sugar cane mulch

At a hardware I bought garden twine

and at Greenpatch Organic Seeds I ordered seeds (more info on seeds in the next post)

On the weekend we worked on our compost and in the bed, now the soil looks beautiful and dark. We have also had lots of rain. Yesterday I built this structure which is the foundation of the garden I am planning.

The garden is ready, and now I'm just waiting on seedlings!