new thoughts after the weekend

Going around and seeing other people's gardens = a little depressing with how beautiful they are as well as functional, while mine is pretty much a mess... How to make it less of a mess? Well, that's pretty much the big question, isn't it?

chook stations

Disadvantage: raking out the chook mulch will become that much more difficult.

If I build rock walls for the chook station frame to rest upon, then that gives a kind of 'garden bed' space that can be filled with soil (or chook mulch), and maybe makes the garden look a bit nicer. It also will delineate the spaces for 'intensive garden beds' and 'mulch pile/perennial plants'.

Actually, now I think about it, Linda Woodrow had a space in each chook dome for perennials, right up the back and the middle, so the chooks could destroy them, and then they could grow up during the rest of the season. I don't think this will work in my garden, because the chooks are on the station for a lot longer than just two weeks, and they can do a HELLUVALOT of damage to a plant in a couple of months if the giant craters in the chook pen spaces are any indication...

Chook Tunnels

Need to fit up against the fence, between the fence and the trees. I want them bare ground so the chooks scratch away at the weeds that pop up, but they'll also need to be removeable, accessible from the top and/or the side (some kind of trapdoor, hinge/frame?), and there'll need to be points where I can put something down to keep the chooks from running away from me.

I know where I want the tunnels: running around the outside fence, but the truth is that design will be key to make this workable.

Food forest/edible hedge

Along the front boundary line (where the picket fence presently is).

Trees for food forest along front:
- Macadamias (2)
- Acerola cherry (2)
- Loquat (from seed) (2)
- Avocado (from seed)
- Avocado (graft)
- Quince (from seed)
- Chocolate Pudding tree
- Pomegranate
-

Also dig up and plant along the boundary line
- multi-citrus (2, presently in front bed)
- kaffir lime (presently in back corner)

Perhaps dig these up sooner rather than later and get into pots. I think they need richer, more fertile soil than they've been getting.

would like:
- olive
- pecan/pistachios/walnut (limited by garden space)
- kumquats

Underplanting/interplanting
- salvias
- fruit salad herb
- nettle
- raspberries
- blueberries
- holy basil
- all those other trees/plants that I've been quietly minding off to the side

Other Things - to be done at permabee
- compost bays
- bathtub garden/bathtub pond (2 bathtub ponds)
- digging out the back paths
- enclosing the front orchard with frame/netting