Workshop
Ask a question

The Bunnings Workshop community can help with your home improvement projects.

Mandala garden

Kiwifr33
Having an Impact

Mandala garden

In the beginning...So I joined for the workshop side, but we started a mandala-style integrated vege and fruit garden eleven years ago on bare lawn, and there are still photos floating around...

Kiwifr33
Having an Impact

Re: Mandala garden

In orderInfrastructure corner as much as possible:

38399291-06E7-4AD8-AF88-36079FD14051.jpeg

The chicken dome. They didn’t ever have much impact on the grass.

1DFDD494-4B9E-4999-99B7-CF952259586D.jpeg

Slight setback after our first dust storm

CA8774BF-AEDE-41E5-81B9-13462ACB169F.jpeg

Weeding out grass and composting 

00B03284-0A37-493E-9CBC-87D7666B724E.jpeg

Weeding complete, path and drain construction

EA098705-195E-4D6C-848F-7C6280C521C9.jpeg

Paths filled with firewood waste bark, cover crops in, fenced.

 

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: Mandala garden

Thanks for sharing @Kiwifr33. It would be interesting to see how the garden is going 11 years on. I hope you have garnered a lot of produce from it over the years.

 

Jason

See something interesting? Give it the thumbs up!

Re: Mandala garden

IMG_2332.JPGA couple of years in, mulching heavily and chickens keep coming back over the main beds.

Feb '10 031.jpgThe 'edge guild' in the foreground: herbs and groundcovers to keep the real weeds out. Chickweed goes great in a salad. Our breakthrough was finding the book, 'Edible Weeds of Melbourne'. If you can pick it and eat it, you don't have to pull it out...

Feb '10 037.jpgDon't underestimate the difference between dirt and soil. What you are looking at is the result of a symbiotic web of fungi, bacteria, micro- and macro-organisms. And of course, chicken manure, deposited and sheet-composted by the birds themselves.

Pond plus 005.jpg

The central habitat pond, ready for lining and filling. It got topped with a sheet of reinforcing mesh, which is about 2cm below the surface when the pond is dead full. Good for the kids, didn't have to fence it separately and they could reach through the mesh and catch tadpoles without ever being able to fall in.

Re: Mandala garden

971AC921-9352-4BCE-A1D7-37E0D86806E0.jpeg

Filling of said pond.

B214312D-C63D-4B0A-ABB6-81E15E6118B5.jpeg

Filled, bordered and planted.

8005ACC0-D4BF-480C-88BB-84CA22CAB7CD.jpeg

Arty

8A455BD0-4DD7-4067-933A-6E766CD7D1D4.jpeg

Now. It’s in there, trust me.

Re: Mandala garden

7E212F4F-C64C-4370-813A-9CC667A7BB9A.jpeg

Orchard beginnings

27DB2ECD-EF95-4428-A1DE-858A9186CD32.jpeg

Prepping for soil. It’s all on nasty granitic clay / sand / gravel. Basically really old turned over tailings - you can’t dig, you have to use a wrecking bar and then scoop it out.

A25C52D5-B783-45CE-8CA8-708B68D70450.jpeg

Now. Had a big score about 15 months ago - our uphill neighbours are tropical fish farmers and need to discharge in excess of 5Kl of water per day. Pre-fertilised, and via hose so we can put it wherever we want it. We have a system of swales on contour that was originally to catch storm water: now it holds this water and soaks it in.

MartyH
Amassing an Audience

Re: Mandala garden

You were very lucky with the water situation @Kiwifr33! Can I ask, what are swales?

Re: Mandala garden

Couldn’t agree more @MartyH, the water came just at the right time.

A swale is a ditch and berm arrangement - pile what you dig out on the downhill side. The contour part is the most important, you can make your own landscaping levels to make sure the bottom of your swale is pretty much level. Google 'a frame level', or our favourite, because you can use it to level across wider areas or to make a particular 'fall', is the 'bunyip' water level. Used to bring storm water off the roadside at 1:100, dodging the big gums in between. Hours of fun...

There is a great book that my wife studied extensively before breaking out the shovel, https://www.bookdepository.com/Rainwater-Harvesting-for-Drylands-Beyond-2-Brad-Lancaster/97809772464... Your local library may well have it if you’re lucky, but if you’re short on water it’s worth $46...

Make sure you get volume II as it has all the goodies about constructing earthworks. The first one is all the principles and can basically be summed up as 'catch as much as you can, as many times as you can' and 'the cheapest place to store water is in the soil.'

Below is basically standing on the swale bank. The water 'plumes' underneath the soil, kind of in a teardrop / lens shape. We know it’s wet enough when it soaks out through the slope of the driveway,then we move the hose on.

 53B82AB8-F78D-45B9-939B-E8E07B7B0397.jpeg

Re: Mandala garden

Love all the photos. Thank you for sharing them. 

Why join the Bunnings Workshop community?

Workshop is a friendly place to learn, get ideas and find inspiration for your home improvement projects