A birthday of beans and peas

Our last home here in NZ was a glorious showpiece of manicured lawns, garden beds full of colourful and thriving dahlias and roses, fruit trees so overladen that the ground beneath them was a possum's delight, and a veggie garden bursting with delicious edibles just waiting for harvest. 

Okay, who are we kidding? That's what it was like when we moved in. When we moved out...not so much. Just maintaining the gardens and lawn required several hours of effort - EVERY DAY. And we had far more important things to do like hit the bike park or play music or hang out with friends.

So, when we bought our new home, we said, "no more lawn or high-maintenance gardens."

We definitely don't miss spending several hours every Saturday just mowing a lawn, but we do miss the "yummy" side of our old garden. We've slowly been adding fruit trees (feijoas, grapefruit, lemon, and lime) since we moved in, and (fingers crossed, touch wood) we may actually see some action there this year.

Our little grapefruit tree is sprouting flowers...

But for more immediate gratification, how about veggies?! So, instead of fancy dinners or luxurious spa treatments, this year for my birthday I asked Mike to build me a veggie garden box. With some inspiration from my friend Shelaine, I decided to go for a no-dig veggie garden (aka a lasagna garden).

First we had to go shopping for supplies. The van was busting.

Here's Mike hard at work.

With the box built, it was time to fill it. The whole deal with a no-dig garden is layering. First newsprint...

Then hay and fertilizer...

Then straw and more fertilizer...

And finally compost...

We were so excited with the first box that we even built a second! They are now planted with beans, tomatoes, capsicums, hot chilli peppers, basil, cucumber, courgettes, peas, radishes, rocket and cos lettuce, brocolleti, spring onions, celery, and mint.

The artistic string designs on top are to keep the cats out. My veggie gardens do not want to be a litter box. Ew.