Space in my Backyard.

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

i hope to do more this week end.
heres a pic of the last garden bed finished.

[egalecki]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Wow, Hagrid, your garden beds are works of art. I have some framed up beds, some of leftover bricks, and some not raised at all- I don't think asparagus does as well in a raised bed, so it's not going in one. I much prefer the beds where I can sit on the edge- and the soil stays much nicer when it doesn't get walked on.

What are you going to plant, and how closely do you space them? I find I can space things closer together in the raised beds, but not as closely as some reference material suggests- I just don't have good results with a few things when they're too close together, and I hate staking tomatoes, so they go 2-3 feet apart in big cages. I'm trying a new arrangement this year for supporting beans, squash and melons, hoping to wreak some order on those untidy critters!

Your arch is wonderful too, by the way, the bricks all look well cut and the whole thing looks really sturdy. Did you use a form?

[Frances]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Yes, tell us how you did that lovely archway! I really like the gradual curve to it.

...Actually I don't think I've seen an oven on this forum yet with the inner archway making a continuous curve like that. Nice!

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Oh
Frances do not tell me that i thought most did it this way.
i do not like being a ground breaker.
i used a form as this is the first time i have tried to lay bricks. after about an hour of the bricks being laid i removed the form so that as it all shrunk with water lose it would not crack.
i finished the arch last weekend and i am just about to go outside now (waiting for the sun to come up) to continue this weekend.
I am a teacher so i am able to get home a little earlier during the week so i can lay a few bricks each afternoon as well. the only issue is it is going into winter here now they are not like northern winters but it does get down to -3deg c sometimes and it gets dark early. oh well sounds sort of pathetic complaining when i see what winters others have. Got a friend in Ottawa Canada stayed with them a few time. now that is a place to bitch about a winter.

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Elizabeth
Thank you about the garden beds it has taken me some time to get to this stage.
Now about planting. I do have an asparagus bed it is raised 2m x 1.3m and i must say does very well. As there is only two of us it provides all i need. I put it in the very first bed i made and have had no problem.
As for planting we are going into winter so my garden beds are sort of sleeping at the moment. I only have in broccoli about a 300mm apart broad beans 150mm apart snow peas, sugar snap peas 100mm. My summer crops need pulling up to clear some space but i am consumed by the oven at the moment. For my last summer crops i had. Tomatoes both some staked and some not. next season i will use a trellis and weave them through that as i was talking to a fella who said it worked for him. Egg plant i love egg plant so i plant a lot of them 300mm apart. Carrots, beans, peas, capsicums, chillies, dikon radish, potatoes, pumpkins, fennel, rocket, and mustard lettuce.
That is about the extent of my veggies my fruit Nashi pears, three types of apples, two types of pears, apricots, prunes, plums, cherries, lemon, lime, olives, raspberries. And last year i got a couple of new trees an American walnut, English walnut and a black mulberry these should start producing fruit in a couple of more years.
My yard is still a work in progress and i have trouble of seeing the end some times.
But i take each day as it comes and try not to have more than a hundred projects on the go at one time okay that is an exaggeration 99 projects.

Regards
Mark

[gjbingham]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Hagrid - Sounds like you're going to be self sufficient in a couple of years. Do you have an oil well out back too?

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

GJ
No oil well but we only have one car and it does not use much fuel.
this did not start out to become self sufficient more i just want to know where the food we eat comes from.
more and more our supermarkets are importing food and i think it is silly when you can grow your own.

[carioca]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Bugger me, Hagrid, this looks to me -- when considering my slow progress -- like work for a decade, at least! (It will last a lot longer, by the looks of it...).

Just today my resident SWMBO looked at the concrete I have begun pouring around my blacksnake-friendly WFO and said, 'all that concrete! Wouldn't you have been better off just putting in some edging?'

But the formwork alone for those garden beds, blimey, I blanch at the effort and expense :-)

Take care!

LMH

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

LMH
the expense was not as much it might look.
the form work is only construction grade ply and as i mixed all the concrete it was about 1/3 the price. all up for everything it is 4200. not as cheap as i might of got materials in other states but freight would kill me there as it is 500 of that money went in freight. Materials in canberra are very over priced when i used to travel for work i was always amazed how much cheaper material was in other states however as i do not even have a trailer now i am stuck with getting robbed locally. Anyway i think i have done a lot for the money and remembering that the oven stuff was included in the cost. the id of the oven 1150mm so a good size. i got enough insulation blanket for 100mm thick all over and i used 75mm thick ceramic insulation bricks for the base so i did not need any vemacite. the oven floor is 300 x 300 x 50mm bricks.

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Here are a few pics of the next couple of courses i have put up.

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Oh i think i have a crack in the arch.
any thoughts on what i should do as i am not sure if it goes all the way through.

[dmun]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

When did you build the arch? What mortar are you using?

[Hagrid]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Dmun
i built the arch about 2 weeks ago and used high temp morta as it is the arch to the inside of the oven. i think it is called duracaste sold by a field furnace in sydney

[PizzaJNKY]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

Hagrid, your oven is coming along nicely. How tall is your entryway?

[gjbingham]

Re: Space in my Backyard.

That looks more like a debonding of the mortar rather than a crack caused by stress. Have you noticed these elsewhere? I saw similar "cracks" where the mortar seemingly dried too fast and pulled away from the brick.

No one seems to know what the correct answer is for a solution to the crack. You either leave it and hope its OK, pop that brick out and replace it (my recommendation since it is not tied into the dome yet), or grind out part or all of the mortar and refill the joint. Make sure to really wet the brick prior to mortaring and placing it if you take it out and replace it.