The art of exterior decorating or better known as ‘losing the lawnscape’ – new beginnings

Here it is, our spacious backyard – looks deceptively large in the photo for some reason but in reality it isn’t. Though, when I first decided on going ahead with this whole project experimentation I did feel a bit overwhelmed. Where to start?

So I focussed on a small area nearest the house and of course nearest to the tap. I was at that stage reading an Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison and decided to start putting a few things into practice. I’d also picked up a bit on forest gardening as well and used a mix of both methods.

One thing I’m sure you know is that I’m not really for uniformity – so no squareness at all in this garden. I picked a wall corner and marked the bed border as going from one wall to the next ie. A round bed.

I sketched out a small drawing of where things were to go and what layers they had to be in. Now I was going mostly by the Intro to Permaculture book, particularly the section called, ‘The instant garden’. No digging involved at all (my kind of garden); the grass does not get removed, just covered up.

The only small dig I had to do was to plant the lime tree (easier to do in the beginning rather than afterwards with all that mulch on top). Then a sprinkle of bonemeal over the whole bed area and putting down the sheet mulch – I used cardboard and newspaper, dampened a bit so it didn’t blow about  – Bill also mentions using non-synthetic carpet as well. This all breaks down to provide nutrients for the plants. There must not be any spaces at all through which weeds or grass can pop up through so I tore up newspaper to get into the awkard spaces, especially around my lime tree. I watered and then added the stinky layer which instantly attracted two hovering specimens (the flies and Bobble who was bemused at the whole sight and stench of it all). He couldn’t understand why I wasn’t taking the grass out never mind putting down newspaper and thought what I was doing was all wrong.

I modified it a bit and also added compost as a layer, another manure layer and then a dried leaves and fine twigs layer as well which I borrowed from the forest gardening method. The top most layer I covered with bark chip. I then planted my other small plants, gooseberry to the back, then jalapeno and the smaller ground plants last. I’d also read up on plant guilds and companion planting to make sure I’d placed everything in the right place.

The end result, how pleased was I?!?

Coming soon: Rockhunting in Joburg – how to find free rocks and how Bobble got roped in (grumbling of course) for a bit of a hunter-gatherer session or two.

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