Basics

Carrie and I moved into this 2-bedroom property in June 2017, the property needed and still needs quite a bit of work carrying out.

To be ready for the next growing season 2018, I want to have added the elements needed into the front garden to enable us to grow some of our own food.     

Wants/Needs

For it to be possible to grow organic food in the garden I will need to transform the lawn into beds for growing food. The lawn is something I’m wanting to remove and to do it in a structured well-designed way. In the coming years as the design matures having a place to sit and enjoy the garden would be of great value, I enjoy sitting and reading outside. With the maturing of the design, encouraging wildlife into the garden would be of great value. The types of wildlife would mainly be insects throughout the summer and birds during the winter months.

Composting is something I want to incorporate into the design, helping to try to work towards creating a closed-loop design. Compost will eventually provide most of the nutrients that go back into the soil each year. It will also give us a place where we can recycle our kitchen waste along with the garden waste.  

Adding a composting area to the garden will be a good place to start followed by a raised bed for salads and other picking leaves. Larger vegetable beds will come next. In the coming years, a water harvesting solution and a greenhouse will add value to the design.        

Resources

Time, money, skills and equipment all play their part in the design. I only have so much time each week to invest in creating and maintaining this design. Money is very limited due to the other needs of the property. I’m fortunate enough to have good health, experience in garden design and a wealth of outdoors skills that can be utilised for this design. Equipment needed will be very limited and already owned.

Reviewing the permaculture principles mind map created for this design will help to keep a focus on both the project and the intended outcome of the design.   

Other resources I have off-site are timber boards to make a raised bed, 2 large barrels that can be used to store water, a greenhouse and endless plant pots. I also have a large compost heap at an allotment that I’m giving up.  

General

What I particularly like about the site is the micro-climate created by having a very sheltered area with residual heat given off from next doors house wall. It would have been great if the site was flat but I’m looking forward to working with the challenges of the slopes in the garden. The large trees do pose a problem for sunlight reaching the garden during certain times of the day but will also provide a solution for soil fertility, collecting and composting the leaves in autumn.

Overall it will be nice to replace the lawn with a food crop.

The above is the summary of two questionnaires I took which can be found in the appendix section for this design