Thursday 30 March 2017

Our Backyard

Growing some of your own food doesn't have to take up too much space.  I guess you could say we have a reasonably sized backyard but it certainly isn't on the large side.  Our home was built in the mid to late 80's when house sizes were anywhere from 12 -  25 + squares.  Our is 15.5 on an average sized block for the time.

I've taken some photos of our backyard to give you an idea of how our fruit trees and veggie garden are laid out.  I hope you enjoy the tour.



This photo is taken from our back gate that separates the front yard from the back.  On the left is the feijoa tree.  Just before that ( not in the photo ) is a strawberry guava bush and the loganberry bush.  The small tree closest to the bottom of the photo is the peach tree.  Directly above that is the pear tree  Across from there is the apricot tree.  Behind the apricot tree is the mandarin and cherry trees.  The two strawberry patches are on the left just before the shed.




Looking slightly right from the previous photo  You can see the mango plants in the terracotta looking  pots under the pergola.  Each side of the sliding door are two pots of raspberry plants.  They haven't done as well as expected and we'll pull them out at the end of the season.  Right behind the mango plants you can just get a glimpse of the veggie beds.




This is almost at the top end of our pergola looking out at the strawberry patches and the cherry tree.  Behind the cherry tree is the worm farm and two compost bins.  On the right of the photo is our plum tree.  The green shed is " mine ' and stores the Christmas decos and tree,  and my excess grocery stockpile like toilet paper etc.




The plum tree is on the left,  veggie beds in the middle and our lemon tree on the right.  Darren's garden shed is just behind the lemon tree.  The raspberry bushes grow on the left side of Darren's shed.




This is looking towards the chicken coop and run in the far right corner of the yard.  We had an area set up for a sick chicken to rest in during the day. The other chickens were pecking her and she wasn't getting enough food.  Just near the clothesline is a very small avocado plant.




Looking from my garden shed towards the start of our backyard.  Cherry tree on the right.




Our pergola with assorted pot plants,  fruit tree cuttings / plants.




Rosemary bush just below the hose reel.  Chicken feed in the bin.




Taken from the right side of our backyard.  I'm standing up against our fence.  You can't see it but the chicken coop is to the right of Darren's shed ( silver ).




The back of our house and garden.  Clothesline included.

13 comments:

  1. This is really helpful to see Wendy. Can I just ask, I'm wondering what is the orientation of your block, that is in terms of where is North?

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    1. North is in the direction of the top left hand corner of our block. If you look in the first photo, North is just behind the green garden shed.

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  2. very well thought out garden, we can see how small it actually is too; am amazed you can fit so much in!
    well done, it looks great!
    thanx for sharing

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  3. Fabulous photos. Thanks. Question is your vege patch right against your fence. I will need to save up a bit more to get some decent sleeper boards for my patch as the original pallet ones have rotted away after three years. It is hard as I need to pay off our debts but also growing our own would save us money. Need to juggle things around.

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    1. Hi Janine, no the veggie garden beds are about 1 1/2 feet away from the fence. Same with the strawberry patches.

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  4. Thanks Wendy. I wouldn't have thought you could fit so much in but there you go. Your yard is so neat and tidy too.

    Here I was thinking 'now where am I going to plant my lemon tree.' I have a good idea now.

    Thanks for the tour.

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  5. I think people assume we need to dig our entire backyards up to grow enough useful food - not so. This post proves that.

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    1. Some people do dig up their entire yards. I couldn't do this and Darren loves his grass.

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  6. Wendy,
    Your yard is lovely and you have a really good food production set up in your space. I think it's beautiful and growing any kind of our own food is very frugal! I think your berries always look so delicious and you have logan berries? Yum!!
    XOXO
    Vicky

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  7. Truly amazing to see how you can fit so much into a suburban garden and still have it looking so charming. I hope you sick chook recovered! This was a real eye opener to the possibilities. Thanks again Wendy....Heather

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    1. Heather, our sick chook is still sick. She's not laying but eats, poops and drinks. We think it's Avian flu ( like pox ).

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  8. Hi Wendy

    Thanks for giving us a tour of your backyard. It is such a neat and productive yard. It's great to see how much can be grown in a small space.
    Did you make all the strawberry jam from your own strawberries as they didn't seem to take up much space?
    This makes me think maybe I could try growing strawberries too.
    What vegies to you grow; and have you used special soil or fertilisers as you seem to have produced a lot from what you have shown in previous blogs?

    Blessings

    Kerrie

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    1. Hi kezzie. Yes the strawberry jam I've been making has been from our own strawberries. I think I've made about 16 - 17 jars this year. This has been the most productive year for strawberries. Usually we just pick a few to eat.

      We use mushroom compost for the veggie garden beds and have been topping them up with our own compost. At the moment the tomatoes are finishing, we are picking lettuce and we have tiny silverbeet plants.

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