Join us at the new garden bed, nestled close to our house and above the swale, as we kickstart the journey of cultivating our first produce – the three sisters garden with corn, pumpkin, and beans.
After weeks of composting, the horse manure is ready for action. Watch as we prepare the bed floor with cardboard, creating a foundation for our garden. The process continues with the construction of a border using wood trash, followed by a heavy mulching.
Mother Nature graces us with wonderful rain as we focus on the importance of stacking functions in our garden. This week’s plans include the installation of a fence and shade cloth, finalising our drip irrigation and the act of sowing our seeds – a moment that marks the beginning of an exciting chapter.
Share your own experiences in the comments below. How have you stacked functions in your garden? We’d love to hear your insights and learn from your gardening journey.
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January 2024
Hey guys AR from polyculture farms um I just wanted to give you a quick update on how the vegetable beds going that you saw us starting in a few videos back uh we’re getting ready to plant our first Three Sisters Garden and uh we’re kind of fighting time because we could get a
First Frost in April if we’re unlucky but hopefully it’s not going to be till May and we get a good like 100 days of growing and uh yeah we’re prepared to potentially not get a full Harvest but we’re giving it our best and it’s going to be a good learning experience either
Way so we’re getting to the point now where we’ve been composting our horse manure and cardboard for a fair while now and it’s pretty much ready we’ve just made the main bed it’s about 1.1 it will be about 1.2 M wide once it settles a bit uh and I’m actually not sure how
Long it is I need to U measure that but it’s not too long probably about 4 M um so what I’m going to be doing today is we’ve just made the bed I’ve placed in Star pickets as uh not only for a little fence that we’re going to put around
This veg bed for the RS and the possums and stuff like that but also for a barrier to hold this wood trash that I’m using as like a bit of a makeshift um vegetable garden uh bed so this way I get to use everything that I already had
On the farm we didn’t have to spend anything we even had most of the irrigation stuff lying around we just had to get a little bit um but then also uh if I if I ever a need to I can easily move this so it took me a couple hours
To get to get all the bed manure from that area to this area cuz this is where our first growing section’s going to be there’s a gum over there that’s a little bit too close to that spot and we are going to take it down cuz it’s right
Next to our house so for now we’re just going to start growing in this bed here so I did that and then also uh this has been living under a TP for the last few weeks uh they only take the top off when we get good rain and uh we got about 10
To 15 mil today i’ say so that was awesome and uh this compost is basically ready as well it’s good enough anyway so what I’m going to do is I’m going to lay that compost on top of this to finish the bed and then I’ve got a bunch of
Mulch straw mulch that I’m going to come and I’m going to heavily straw this bed and then in the next few days we’re going to get ready to come back and put this fence up we’ve got our drip irrigation set up that we’re just leaving out in the sun hopefully take
Shape or I’ll have to put hot water through it cuz it’s a bit kinky and then uh we will be able to sew our seeds so we’re going to sew corn beans and pumpkin a lot of people are saying that you need to get your corn in for a few
Weeks before you put your beans and your pumpkin in um but I don’t really have a few weeks to to to spare so we’re probably going to plant the lot uh this week and we’ll adjust we’ve got extra seeds if we need them and uh if it doesn’t fully work out doesn’t fully
Work out it’s more important that we got the bed done and we’re stacking functions which is what we’re trying to do we’re regenerating this Terrace uh by introducing all this uh future soil to it and uh we’re starting to use some of our wood trash for the garden bed so uh
Yeah let’s get into it so before you might have um heard me mention stacking functions how we’re trying to stack functions when we do these kinds of jobs and designs and um I’m not all that good at it but I’m trying to be better and basically what
It is is where you if you need to do something you design it into your system so that it performs multiple functions not just the one that you wanted uh but multiple ones that you need to do so in this instance we we wanted to start growing food that was one of our
Priorities as you guys know we’re trying our hardest to regenerate this area around this top Swale it’s in a really degraded Edge and so you know we need to regenerate it which means means we need to build soil we need to bring fertility we’ started that at the very top in the
Dam with the geese but we haven’t had any kind of rain that would cause any overflow for so long so I haven’t been able to see what I’m thinking is going to happen like I’m thinking that once we get that next 100 Mil drop or 120 mil
Drop and we get overflow that dam is just going to spew all that beautiful Goose manure wety sort of nutrient into the whole water harvesting system below and hopefully it’s going to do a lot of good work and settling all that idity and regenerating but but that’s like a
That’s like a macro design that’s like on a big scale but on a smaller scale I thought why can’t we build our vegetable bed we need to build soil anyway where we are we have none why don’t we build it on this degraded Edge so one we need to take a fence
Down uh so we’ve been able to redirect some of the pickets and mesh and material to this bed two we need to to keep moving this wood trash and uh spreading it out sort of across the farm instead of having it clumped up for the stuff that we don’t burn into biochar so
Beautiful raise beds make the frame against the star pickets and then three any of the erosion because you have to design for erosion uh especially out here but anywhere really you’re going to get erosion and you’re going to get entropy which is where like energy leaves your system just from wind and
Sun and anything um so we’re designing for that so anything lost from that or a lot of the stuff lost from that bed is going to flow straight down into the main Swale and going to be a big fertility kick for it so um hopefully we’re over time we can link more and
More of these systems together and uh you know I think I’m I think my next thing is going to be a chicken tractor um to get get some uh chickens laying eggs and running them across this Terrace because uh you know it’s great to have that horse stable available so
When we’re in town we can get a ute load of horse manure for our composting and soil building but eventually I’d love to be building a lot more of a soil on site and the geese are kind of preoccupied building that Wetland upstairs so I figured if I could get a couple of
Chickens in that little green chicken tractor and start uh making compost with them that would be pretty awesome uh we’ll see what we can do down the track but yeah so that’s stacking functions if you guys have any examples of um how you stack functions in your
Garden I would love to know place it down in the comments below how is this for timing guys just doing my last wheelbarrows worth of mulch the bed is so well mulched and all the mulch is already wet cuz it’s been rain Dawn today when that first storm
Came through all of the manure and compost is already moist cuz it had been rained on as well and then I put this mulch over the top the first thing that always happens to me when I put Mulch on top is I think
Am I am I being lazy here do I need to soak this mulch and then it rains I’m so stoked it’s been so muggy today but at the same time it’s been overcast which I’m really grateful for it allowed us to actually come and do all this labor and
Man you guys probably know by now that I sometimes have trouble motivating to have proper Farm days like this or I call them Farm days as is gardening but um yeah when I finished one it’s always a great feeling so I hope you guys are all staying safe
With the rain you guys are getting a lot more than us well not all of you but some of you who are watching I’m just going to take my time reving in this storm and hope that it sets in and uh we’ll wrap it up there guys
Thank you very much we’ll see you next time for the growing cheers
17 Comments
Nice work!
Awesome! Just quick thoughts, paper and wood are dead material in compost, so they will take away moist and Nitrogen from the soil. Work great with fresh manure and highly volatile compost, but put it in beds is too late, will take away from the plans that will be living there.
Cheers!!
Nobody claimed the fridge? 😮 Mine now.
Living the dream! nice work. ~denver, co food forester
Great that you are starting to plant food. Have you ever heard of land racing? It seems it might work really well for you since you don't seem to be an experienced gardener. My friend did it because she could not live without tomatoes and/or corn. So she bought 40 different types of tomatoes and corn and planted them all . She just kept track of what she planted where in the beginning and then walked away. Only watering if truly necessary, at the same time Letting them grow naturally by neglecting them. And then just seeing which ones survive, then save those seeds from those best fruits.
Then plant them again the following year to increase the genetic ability to survive in your climate….. Stack the function of using an area that needs to be planted, but doesn't have perfect soil and that way. Whatever doesn't work out is just more Biomass for you.
I was very interested to see your boundaries marked out on the ariel photo, dont know why but I had assumed your eastern boundary was at least another hundred yards further on. Also a strange kink on the northwestern boundary why does the property line not follow the road?Does this roadside land belong to the state? The photo provides us with a really good overall idea of the work done so far and of the areas that still need addressing also of note are the old pathway/animal tracks and an old fence line. The key lines show up well. I think I might be tempted to guerilla plant the roadside verges, in theory being uphill should provide a fertility shadow downhill across your property.Have you considered taking three or four buckets of water from dam one to dam three to kick start the succession process number three being the smallest might be the easiest to jump start.Did you ever include bottom rooting water weeds in any of the ponds once established could provide many benefits cleaning and oxygen enrichment for the water food for fish and geese alike shelter for fish fry and the smallest members of pond life also snails, Of course there are other fresh water filter feeders that make dramatic differences to water quality.you just need to be careful as to choice.
for the three sisters planting, the delay with the beans is to keep them from pulling down the corn, shouldnt be an issue if you baby your veggies like me and have the time to keep the young corn upright and free of tendrils for a week or so
your map at the begining was good, you mentioned in the comments of one of you last videos that you intended to let dam 2 fill in and build another dam somewhere else, do you have a map you can show us of what you imagine to be the final result or what you're aiming for?
Did you get some of this latest rain? We have had over 150mm here just east of Toowoomba.
If you get the corn in punnets and the beans and pumpkin in seed it should work out OK. I do think sisters need brothers, so I'd look at some carrots and radishes. Maybe throw in a mum n dad too. Maybe warrigal greens and perpetual spinach.
Comfrey and cardoon are two deep tap rooted semi edible and utility plants I love to use for chicken feed, mulching, and fertilizer. They both can be spreaders tho so maybe not for the down under ecosystem
When I first started working as a gardener I kept getting so lucky with Mulch.
Almost every time, just as I finished Mulching and wrapping up a job, the rain would come through like divine intervention
I saw the logs and figured the mounds were hugle culture.
What part of this brownish land are you creating your food garden on? I'm on central Vic and about to take on virgin ground after being used to a garden that's been built for about 150 years. At my age a 1,000 sq. m is probably too much but I'll give it a go.
I would recommend 4-6 hens. They enjoy the company and will help protect each other. a rooster will make you more sustainable and will help protect the ladies from ariel predators
Sweet potatoes love poor soil and lots of heat and I might throw in some pumpkins near the edges to ramble around, create a lot of biomass and shade the soil.