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Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
This week we welcome Mat and Fabian of The Little Veggie Patch Company to the Guest Blog! These Melbourne lads have recently released their first book which is fantastic - jam packed full of the fundamentals of caring for your veggie patch, an A-Z of edible vegetables and step-by-step instructions on weekend activities like making a scarecrow! Mat and Fabian will be sharing some of the basics this week, starting today with how to make a no-dig apple crate garden! - Jenny x
Aaaah, Monday morning and time to reincarnate an apple crate into a veggie patch. For us, this is the perfect way to ease into a week. First thing: make a lovely cup of tea. Next, collect the materials. All the materials should be available from your local nursery – you are after compost, pelletized chook poo (peeeoooooo!), worm castings and straw. When I think about it there is this fantastic nursery right in the heart of St.Kilda East that has all that stuff. Time to get a little dirty. You love it.
Materials:
While a no-dig garden could be dubbed the lazy person’s garden, it is also the smart person’s garden. A no-dig garden is created by layering organic matter such as straw, compost, worm castings and manure as a substitute for soil. As the contents decompose, they feed your plants with an array of necessary nutrients. The organic layers break down to feed your vegetables, the level of your no-dig garden will be reduced, so the only maintenance required is a top-up of ingredients (for example, some compost) when necessary — usually as the season’s crops finish.
1. Lay 20 cm of straw (one bale) on the base of the crate. This will act as a fi ller and fi lter for drainage rather than as a source of nutrients for your vegetables.
2. Incorporate a few handfuls of slow-release organic fertiliser. This is the stinky stuff, but if you really set your mind to it, it could be mistaken for Belgian dark chocolate.
3. Add 10 cm of mushroom compost (2 wheelbarrows’ worth), spread and compact down.
4. Add 10 cm of either lucerne hay or pea straw, and then incorporate a few handfuls of slow-release organic fertiliser.
5. Add 20 cm of mushroom compost (4 wheelbarrows), spread and compact down.
6. Incorporate a handful of a slow-release organic fertiliser to the surface.
7. Add the bag of worm castings as a conduit for the nutrients to your plants.
8. Because this is a fertile and quite raw mix, it is best to allow the contents to settle in for a few days before deciding what seeds and seedlings to plant.
The Design Files acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
First Nations artists, designers, makers, and creative business owners are encouraged to submit their projects for coverage on The Design Files. Please email bea@thedesignfiles.net
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