Karen from Dayton

Meet Karen Porter from Dayton! 

Karen & her husband live with their 3 rottweilers & 3 cats (probably very nervous cats) in Dayton.  The house is fairly new; they've been there about four years, and there are still new homes going up around them.

Karen's back garden is mostly for her pets, but she does have a fenced area for a square foot garden which has grown a supply of vegies & herbs over the past year or two.

Slowly, she's been eyeing off the space in the front yard; which is mostly natives.  She has one raised bed in the front yard, and the opportunity was perfect for her (and us) to create a new in-ground garden bed which is effectively on the front verge.  She has had great success with sweet potatoes on the front verge - have a look at some of these she found underground when preparing the garden bed!

The soil is fairly sandy - as you would expect in a newish estate - but it has begun to be improved by the addition of woodchip mulch that Karen's been using over the years.  

There is a street tree and a couple of young citrus trees growing nearby, as well as some low growing natives which will shelter the vegie garden a little in what will otherwise be quite an exposed site. Like all the other Harvest Club garden beds, geotextile material was used as a root barrier to slow any invasive roots.

Preparing the garden area involved hacking back the spreading branches of an Eremophila to clear space; there wasn't too much else growing in the site that needed removal.

We look forward to seeing how the garden develops, and what the neighbours will think of it!  Unfortunately she had lost the first planting of zucchini to snails; so Protect-Us certified organic snail pellets have been used to hopefully protect against further losses.

Incidentally, Karen has an interesting business - she will bring your dog/s along to your wedding and make sure you get the wedding photos with your furbabies on the day...  If you're curious, you can find out more here:  http://www.mypetattendant.com

Here are some photos from Karen's garden before and just after planting out her seedlings.  Check in regularly to see Karen's garden progress.

This item posted: 13-Sep-2016