Anything Grows In Orange

It’s amazing how much you can get done when you don’t have guests visiting! During our first weekend at home and free of guests in a while, we were fortunate enough to have brilliant sunshine and as a result, spent our time in the garden.

So this weekend, we pulled out all the stops to get the veggie patch complete. Mr L’Orange got busy with his drill and put together the wooden frame from treated timber pine (note the treatment doesn’t include arsenic). We chose to make the frame two planks high so there would be less bending when it came around to looking after the veggie garden. Everything got screwed together and then support stakes were dug into the ground and screwed into the outside to keep the frame in place.

Note how the spirit level isn’t used at all during the building process!

I had started preparing the ground a while back by digging the soil and then covering with top soil and manure. We added to this another cubic metre of veggie top soil on the Sunday when the frame was complete.

The spot we have chosen gets sun almost all day and also gets some protection from the wind by being situated in a corner alongside the house.

I’ve been dreaming about a vegetable garden for a few years now and talking about it ever since we moved to Orange, so I’m really excited about the planting that is going to take place this weekend coming.

We are planning to plant things that are easy to grow during winter and that we will definitely use, so I’m planning to get carrots, onions and garlic to kick off.

If you have any other suggestions please let me know?

Top Tips

If you would also like to make a fabulous raised vegetable garden follow these handy tips:

1)    Don’t try to make the frame with railway sleepers, they are too big and heavy to cut or bolt together.

2)    Make sure you don’t get pine that has been treated with arsenic – unless you are planning to bump off your partner.

3)    Don’t buy your wood from Bunnings as they will tell you it hasn’t been treated with arsenic, let you load your car (without any help or gloves) and then once the car is full of wood, tell you it really did get treated with arsenic and let you unload all the wood again (by yourself of course) and then let you march back to the other end of the store to get a refund. After wasting over an hour of our time in this farce, we are currently now on a Bunnings Orange boycott.

4)    Don’t move the wooden frame structure as a couple as it will only lead to arguments, best left to the man to do himself.

5)    Try to have your veggie garden ready for spring as opposed to winter so you can plant a wide selection straight away.

6)    Do add lots of manure and fertilizer to your soil.

7)    Add mulch when finished to stop evaporation and wind damage.

8)    Make friends with other veggie gardeners so you can do swaps when things get ripe.