Extending the Edible Garden.

Food garden pre-mulching

Over the weekend, I mulched and added a few more plants to the edible garden, which next to the Hugelkultur.

Pre-mulching with first row of cardboard

My favourite weed-matting material is cardboard boxes. Its thick, its free, it breaks down, forming compost and its fairly non-toxic. Its important to overlap the cardboard on the edges and to ensure its in the perfect location in relation to the tree stem. Too far means you'll get weeds growing up, too close can kill the plant. I usually leave a gab of a few centimetres and also don't mulch right up to the stem. I also find the cardboard more manageable if its slightly damp. So either water it, or leave it out for a few days. 

Cardboard weed-matting. 

Sugar Cane Mulch

After laying down the cardboard, I covered in a thick layer of sugar cane mulch. The mulch is really rough, straight from a sugar can farm about 40 minutes away. I prefer to use it because it smells great, sort of sweetly and I like the look of it.

Gigi 'planting' 

 I haven't added a border to the garden yet, mainly because I ran out of time over the weekend. I am also planning to extend the garden so the the whole area of the fruit orchid is mulched out. I haven't yet decided whether to add borders as I go, or wait untill I've finished the whole lot. I need to mulch out the whole area as its a little difficult (actually very difficult) to mow.  I didn't plant the fruit trees in row, just haphazardly all over the place. Lesson learnt for next time.