“. . . how we eat is a reflection of how we live.” – from: Bread, Wine, Chocolate – The slow loss of foods we love by Simran Sethi
One of the things I’ve dreamed of since we’ve bought the land was a vegetable garden. I’ve dabbled with growing vegetables before, but there was either not quite enough space or sun, or it was in the desert. In all instances I had a lot of fun, even if there wasn’t exactly an abundant crop to show for all the work. As we still have various logistics to deal with before we can create our permanent vegetable garden, Michael, in the meantime, installed a tap and hosepipe for me at the barn so that I could at least make a temporary vegetable garden close to the house.
As I had to allow enough space for tractors and diggers to access the olive grove, the only flat area close to the house became unusable, and I had to build my veggie patch against a slope, which meant I had to find a way of leveling it first, which meant a lot of added work.
Here are some pictures of the process and the result.
Old bricks were utilised to provide structure and some strength, before I filled in the space with bits of wood against the edge, and soil.Lily acted as project manager and regularly came to inspect my progress.Wood and stone from the land help to contain the soil, while giving the garden a rustic look.Once I was happy with a more or less level area, I covered the soil with cardboard (as part of the no-dig approach I’m trying out), and marked out some beds and paths. Bits of brick prevented the cardboard from blowing away, while I added another path on the left. Further to the left is the beginning of another bed.More soil was brought in two buckets at a time from a pile (visible on the middle left of the photo) that was left over from trenches and leveling work that were done years ago. The pipe channeling the run-off water from the roof is located here, and at the top I cleared an area where left-over building sand was overgrown so that the cats can have a sandpit.A friend delivered a trailer load of horse manure that has turned into beautiful compost and a strawbale. With the compost I built beds of about 10cm high when compacted. From this angle one gets a better view of how much I had to fill in for the beds to be level. Lily acted as project manager, while Midnight was in charge of quality control. Finally I received some wood chips for the paths. With the wood chips and straw spread out, all that remains for me to do is bring another couple of logs to hide the bricks.
With the vegetable beds built and ready, I’ve started sowing seeds in seed trays in the house, so that I will be ready to transplant and direct sow hopefully somewhere between mid-April and the beginning of May.
Written by: Jolandi
Portuguese Words: horta(s) – vegetable garden(s) a palha – straw lascas de madeira – wood chips
16 comments on “Building A Vegetable Garden”
Hi Jolandi. What a huge effort and task you set yourself. Well done! You will be able to feed a village with the size of that plot 😄. I’ll be keen to see how how the horse poo manure goes. If you can get chicken poo it has a lot of nutrients and you may find less grass seed to weed. Are you having a compost bin next to the veg garden? Handy for recycling trimmings off the veg as you harvest. Looking forward to seeing your produce. 😁
Thank you, Christina. You clearly have some good veg gardening experience. It was such a fun project, and I’m rather pleased at how it turned out. I find it deeply satisfying to be engaged in a physical task I enjoy outdoors. Especially after living through all those years of too hot weather in the UAE that kept me indoors. Aged horse manure is supposed to be the best manure to use, I’m told, but eventually we will have chickens too, so will definitely make use of their poo as well. I currently have a very basic compost heap a short distance from the veg garden, where I dump the household veg scraps, cut grass and cuttings for now. I don’t have the ratios between green and brown nearly right, but it is better than nothing, and will just take longer to decompose. One of our projects for when Michael’s next visit is to build three permanent compost bins and some raised beds close to the house. There is so much to learn! I’m also looking forward to that produce. 🙂 – Jolandi
The no-dig concept is extremely interesting, Manja. It is a lot less work, as instead of digging over beds and mixing in compost, one simply, each year, places a new layer of compost on top of the beds. It builds the soil without disturbing it, which, as I understand it,is actually also better for the environment, but I won’t be able to argue that point very well at the moment, as I still have a lot to learn.
Charles Dowding gardens this way and has a very good YouTube channel if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg
– Jolandi
It was indeed a lot of hard work, Clare, but also immensely satisfying, which makes it all worth it. My real challenge is still waiting for me . . . to get the veggies to actually grow! 😉 – Jolandi
I’m sure all the hard work you have put in will be of great reward in the future. We look forward to tasting some of your delicious home grown delights.
Loving the blog and I’m impressed with all the progress you both are making. Keep living the dream.
Thanks, Mike! Glad to hear that.
I highly recommend this “living the dream”-thing. Very satisfying. You guys are going to love your adventures. We looking forward to sharing some homegrown food and good Portuguese wine with you and Debs. Fingers crossed I’ll get the veg to grow.
I love spending time outside (perhaps because of all the time I spent indoors in the UAE), and the upside is that I like to be busy so a lot is getting done in the process. – Jolandi
My back hurts thinking about all that earth moving and edge building! But I do know the wonderful feeling of a hard outdoor job well done. This one will have such delicious and attractive rewards!
I hope so, Lexie. Growing stuff is another challenge waiting for me.
Yes, that feeling of a job well done is so satisfying. Plus I had a lot of fun with it, despite the hard work. And thanks to a regular yoga practice my back held up fine, which I’m very grateful for. – Jolandi
Good thing you did all the heavy lifting now before the summer heat. Quite an adventure you’ve set for yourself, and lovely to see the cats settling in.
We have a funny little project on the go in our apartment. Our supermarket has been running a promotion that is really aimed at the little kiddies, but I put in an online order recently, and when I went to pick it up there were five plant kits included. Each little cardboard pot comes with a dried pat of soil which reconstitutes when water is added, and then you plant the few included seeds, give them water and sunlight, and wait for your seedlings to develop. How cute is that! It reminds me of infant school where we were taught about germination by growing a wheat seedling in a petrie dish 🙂 https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/garden?icmpid=sm-fresh-ideas
How wonderful, Gwen. And isn’t germination magical – even when one isn’t in infant school anymore? I think it is a miracle to watch nature do her thing. I’ve started planting some seeds in seed trays right in the house where it is nice and warm, and every day (actually countless times every day) I stare at the soil for signs of growth. I find it very exciting to see little bits of green pushing through the soil. I hope you have as much fun with your seeds germinating, as I’m having with mine. Michael is encouraging me to keep a gardening journal, as like he says, it will turn me into an excellent gardener. 😉 I hope he’s right. – Jolandi
How rewarding and wonderful to dig in and get your hands dirty. I love that. I also love the idea of a garden, flowers, veggies, you name it. Did you ever consider just building boxes and throwing dirt in them? 😛
So envious, but I know it’s hard work and will be a learning journey 🙂 (Don’t you just hate that sometimes?)
What are you going to grow? Do you plan on canning the fruits of your labor? I’m very glad to see that the cats are helping out and inspecting your work because, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that other paws need to be part of the process.
Yes, the journey to learn anything can be a long one, which I do sometimes wish could be instant. 😉 Although I love learning new things, I often wonder where I am to find the time for it all.
I’m planning to only plant edibles, so for now flowers as companion plants, which are also edible, and then mostly tomatoes (I think about 7 or 8 different varieties), peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, lettuce, rocket, some herbs . . . and who knows what else I can fit in. Oh, yes, and melons and watermelons . . . 🙂
As this is a temporary spot, it was the easiest to do what I did, as apart from time spent I only spent money on the wood chips. The rest was all free. Close to the house I’m planning to build raised beds from brick and stone, but that is something Michael and I will most probably do together or get someone to do it, as it is not within my current skillset and will cost money.
Yip, when other paws are involved, it is always more fun. – Jolandi
Awesome! Looks like you’ll have plenty of space to grow veggies. What are you planning? Last summer was my first attempt at a small veggie patch (a very popular covid activity in my neighbourhood). I’m glad I started out small otherwise I would have been overwhelmed. We had an endless spring so we were eating lettuce and kale for months. I also had tons of different herbs, some that I’m still harvesting like thyme and sage. I didn’t have much luck with tomatoes but will attempt them again in a hotter spot and only the mini-size. Good luck! I’ll look forward to reading about your harvest.
Thanks, Caroline. I do need quite a bit of luck on this venture. Smaller is always better than bigger as a start. The problem is just that I cannot resist buying seeds, which means I have a total of 9 different varieties of tomatoes that I’ve already planted into seed trays, some of which have started sprouting. I plan lettuce, rocket, kale, basil, cucumber, zucchini, eggplant, melons, watermelons, beets, and some edilble flowers. So I hope I have enough space. 🙂 It will be interesting to see what will grow, and I’m sure I’ll make a lot of mistakes. I’ve started a gardening diary noting sowing dates, etc., so that I will know what works and what doesn’t for future ventures in the vegetable garden. I am a complete novice, so have a lot to learn. May you also have fun in your veg garden this year! – Jolandi
Hi Jolandi. What a huge effort and task you set yourself. Well done! You will be able to feed a village with the size of that plot 😄. I’ll be keen to see how how the horse poo manure goes. If you can get chicken poo it has a lot of nutrients and you may find less grass seed to weed. Are you having a compost bin next to the veg garden? Handy for recycling trimmings off the veg as you harvest. Looking forward to seeing your produce. 😁
Thank you, Christina. You clearly have some good veg gardening experience. It was such a fun project, and I’m rather pleased at how it turned out. I find it deeply satisfying to be engaged in a physical task I enjoy outdoors. Especially after living through all those years of too hot weather in the UAE that kept me indoors. Aged horse manure is supposed to be the best manure to use, I’m told, but eventually we will have chickens too, so will definitely make use of their poo as well. I currently have a very basic compost heap a short distance from the veg garden, where I dump the household veg scraps, cut grass and cuttings for now. I don’t have the ratios between green and brown nearly right, but it is better than nothing, and will just take longer to decompose. One of our projects for when Michael’s next visit is to build three permanent compost bins and some raised beds close to the house. There is so much to learn! I’m also looking forward to that produce. 🙂 – Jolandi
Most excellent and an interesting no-dig concept. Is it better for the environment or just less work?
The no-dig concept is extremely interesting, Manja. It is a lot less work, as instead of digging over beds and mixing in compost, one simply, each year, places a new layer of compost on top of the beds. It builds the soil without disturbing it, which, as I understand it,is actually also better for the environment, but I won’t be able to argue that point very well at the moment, as I still have a lot to learn.
Charles Dowding gardens this way and has a very good YouTube channel if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg
– Jolandi
My goodness! What hard work that must have been! It looks really good, Jolandi and in a prime position too.
It was indeed a lot of hard work, Clare, but also immensely satisfying, which makes it all worth it. My real challenge is still waiting for me . . . to get the veggies to actually grow! 😉 – Jolandi
I’m sure all the hard work you have put in will be of great reward in the future. We look forward to tasting some of your delicious home grown delights.
Loving the blog and I’m impressed with all the progress you both are making. Keep living the dream.
Thanks, Mike! Glad to hear that.
I highly recommend this “living the dream”-thing. Very satisfying. You guys are going to love your adventures. We looking forward to sharing some homegrown food and good Portuguese wine with you and Debs. Fingers crossed I’ll get the veg to grow.
I love spending time outside (perhaps because of all the time I spent indoors in the UAE), and the upside is that I like to be busy so a lot is getting done in the process. – Jolandi
My back hurts thinking about all that earth moving and edge building! But I do know the wonderful feeling of a hard outdoor job well done. This one will have such delicious and attractive rewards!
I hope so, Lexie. Growing stuff is another challenge waiting for me.
Yes, that feeling of a job well done is so satisfying. Plus I had a lot of fun with it, despite the hard work. And thanks to a regular yoga practice my back held up fine, which I’m very grateful for. – Jolandi
Good thing you did all the heavy lifting now before the summer heat. Quite an adventure you’ve set for yourself, and lovely to see the cats settling in.
We have a funny little project on the go in our apartment. Our supermarket has been running a promotion that is really aimed at the little kiddies, but I put in an online order recently, and when I went to pick it up there were five plant kits included. Each little cardboard pot comes with a dried pat of soil which reconstitutes when water is added, and then you plant the few included seeds, give them water and sunlight, and wait for your seedlings to develop. How cute is that! It reminds me of infant school where we were taught about germination by growing a wheat seedling in a petrie dish 🙂
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/garden?icmpid=sm-fresh-ideas
How wonderful, Gwen. And isn’t germination magical – even when one isn’t in infant school anymore? I think it is a miracle to watch nature do her thing. I’ve started planting some seeds in seed trays right in the house where it is nice and warm, and every day (actually countless times every day) I stare at the soil for signs of growth. I find it very exciting to see little bits of green pushing through the soil. I hope you have as much fun with your seeds germinating, as I’m having with mine. Michael is encouraging me to keep a gardening journal, as like he says, it will turn me into an excellent gardener. 😉 I hope he’s right. – Jolandi
How rewarding and wonderful to dig in and get your hands dirty. I love that. I also love the idea of a garden, flowers, veggies, you name it. Did you ever consider just building boxes and throwing dirt in them? 😛
So envious, but I know it’s hard work and will be a learning journey 🙂 (Don’t you just hate that sometimes?)
What are you going to grow? Do you plan on canning the fruits of your labor? I’m very glad to see that the cats are helping out and inspecting your work because, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that other paws need to be part of the process.
Yes, the journey to learn anything can be a long one, which I do sometimes wish could be instant. 😉 Although I love learning new things, I often wonder where I am to find the time for it all.
I’m planning to only plant edibles, so for now flowers as companion plants, which are also edible, and then mostly tomatoes (I think about 7 or 8 different varieties), peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, lettuce, rocket, some herbs . . . and who knows what else I can fit in. Oh, yes, and melons and watermelons . . . 🙂
As this is a temporary spot, it was the easiest to do what I did, as apart from time spent I only spent money on the wood chips. The rest was all free. Close to the house I’m planning to build raised beds from brick and stone, but that is something Michael and I will most probably do together or get someone to do it, as it is not within my current skillset and will cost money.
Yip, when other paws are involved, it is always more fun. – Jolandi
Awesome! Looks like you’ll have plenty of space to grow veggies. What are you planning? Last summer was my first attempt at a small veggie patch (a very popular covid activity in my neighbourhood). I’m glad I started out small otherwise I would have been overwhelmed. We had an endless spring so we were eating lettuce and kale for months. I also had tons of different herbs, some that I’m still harvesting like thyme and sage. I didn’t have much luck with tomatoes but will attempt them again in a hotter spot and only the mini-size. Good luck! I’ll look forward to reading about your harvest.
Thanks, Caroline. I do need quite a bit of luck on this venture. Smaller is always better than bigger as a start. The problem is just that I cannot resist buying seeds, which means I have a total of 9 different varieties of tomatoes that I’ve already planted into seed trays, some of which have started sprouting. I plan lettuce, rocket, kale, basil, cucumber, zucchini, eggplant, melons, watermelons, beets, and some edilble flowers. So I hope I have enough space. 🙂 It will be interesting to see what will grow, and I’m sure I’ll make a lot of mistakes. I’ve started a gardening diary noting sowing dates, etc., so that I will know what works and what doesn’t for future ventures in the vegetable garden. I am a complete novice, so have a lot to learn. May you also have fun in your veg garden this year! – Jolandi