I'm Quite Tyred....or How to Build a Vege Garden in Slow Motion

The site before I started work - Feigoas and Lemon on the right

Now that I'm home I'm spending a lot of time; well as much as I can manage, in the garden. One of my highest priorities is to get my vege garden going again. When Geri became very ill - yikes! 5-6 years ago ... I let my vege garden lapse and before I left for Australia I planted a heap of trees in it just to fill up the space.
On arriving home, I once again felt the urge to grow food and had a good long think about how best to acheive this given the local climate and the physical challenges of the site. I also didn't want to be investing a lot of money in building the vege beds. The solution I came up with was to use recycled car tyres. These have a couple of  advantages. First off they are free and by using them I am preventing a few from ending up in the local landfill.The other plus is that being black they absorb and hold heat. This; hopefully, will mean I can extend my growing season, especially if I use cloches to turn the tyre beds into mini green houses.

The first job that faced me was to remove the trees I'd planted and to reassess the few fruit trees that had remained in the garden. Let me explain that one. Over the years I've tried many different food and fruit plants in the garden. Some have done very well but most have struggled with the challenging climate and location. The few that I had left were two feigoas - which I had shifted a few years ago with the warning that if they didn't pull their socks up and start producing they'd be on their bike. They must have headed the warning because they have produced good crops for the last 2 winters. Mmmmm I love Feigoas! 

My Meyer lemon has been successful ever since I planted it so it had a secure and guaranteed spot in the garden. I had left the Quince in when I left and although it did produce a few fruits the spring gales played havoc with its ability to set fruit so it was out! Also on shakey ground was the lime tree, which is really still in its infancy. It has had a few relocations and valiantly attempts to fruit but it is struggling. After Mademoiselle Lime and I sat down and had a heart to heart I decided to give her one last chance and moved her for the last time. We'll see how she goes over the next few years before deciding if the hatchet will fall... tick tock, tick tock ...  

Nearing the end of the list is the Avocado tree. Now, it is a bit of an anomoly to have a thriving Avocado in this climate, but the tree is tucked away in pretty much the only sheltered corner of the garden and is really thriving. Last year whilst I was home on leave for the summer I picked 52 Avocados - what  a feast! You can see the Avocado tucked into the corner behind the framework in this photo. Oh, there are also two olive trees, both of which are thriving. They do fruit but need some serious pruning - in fact one of them is just about on my hit list I think... We haven't collected the fruit so far - that's on the round to it pile. 

There were about a dozen trees to relocate, all NZ natives and some of them reasonably large. I am very fortunate to have a friend with a farm and over the years she has very willingly received the stream of homeless trees; both fruit and ornamentals, from my garden. So I gave her a call and after much digging and lugging I had a mostly clear site to start work on. This same friend traded me two trailer loads of used tyres for the latest batch of trees = good trade!

In short order, the back yard was full of tyres and I faced the thrilling aka daunting, prospect of preparing them in such a way as to make them usable as planters. I had decided to remove one side wall and to drill four holes in the base of each trye so that I could insert and secure hoop supports for the cloches.  After much discussion and deliberation I borrowed my son's sabre saw and drill and set to work.  Very quickly I discovered that removing the side wall from tyres is a nasty, nasty job! The saw and the drill ran out of battery after 6 tyres which was just as well because that's about how long my charge lasted too. 

It was frustratingly slow work and I became a tad disheartened. Eventually I admitted defeat and employed a friend of my sons to have a go at them. Pat lent a hand and between them they managed to come up with a better technique and finished the whole miserable lot of tyres in about an hour - mutter, mutter, mutter! Still, at least the job was done and I could now begin to build the garden beds. Originally I had planned to simply place the tyres on the ground, fill them and get planting. However as I pondered, planned and visualised how the space was going to work I realised that I wasn't going to be happy with how that plan would look. So muttering under my breath and asking myself why I on earth I did this sort of thing to myself I trudged up to the house and collected my spade.

Although my progress has been slow; regulated by the weather, Geri's masto, my Fibro and the visitation of various exciting virus' amongst other things, I am making progress none the less.  This photo shows the first two rows in place. Since it was taken I've managed to do another row and have 2/3 backfilled those first two rows. I've had 2m3 of compost delivered and barrowed down the back - Pat's friend strikes again! He is proving very useful and is a good investment hehe. So, I'm over half way there and am dying to get going on the final three rows.

Patience, patience ....