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We currently live on a relatively small property with very limited useable garden space. Despite this, however, we have a lovely wooden deck at the front of our house. Find out how we went about building a raised veggie patch on our deck.
As you can read in our article, Reuse and Recycling in South Africa, when faced with a new project or a problem to solve, we generally first try to look at what we have around our home before buying additional items. In this case the previous owners of our home had left a deck "gate" which they didn't end up using, some green plastic netting, some plastic piping, some wooden planks and poles and 2 stretches of wooden fence which became redundant when they installed the deck. We also had several pieces of braai wood which we had bought, but which subsequently proved to be quite awful to braai with.
Obviously we wanted to protect this lovely deck (especially since we spent quite a few days re-coating it after we moved in!), so our first objective was to find a way of lifting the entire structure, thereby preventing the existing deck flooring and railing from getting damaged. We made use of the treated poles, planks and fencing we'd found, together with the support of two of the existing deck railings to create a basic rectangular framework.
Once the planks were in place, Tigger (our safety inspector) made his appearance. After scrutinising the underside and thoroughly testing the planks for stability, we were given the green light.
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Next we painted the fence-piece and gate using the same coating we used on the deck (for uniformity) and nailed the parts both to the poles below the structure, and to the deck railing. After this we lined the entired thing with green plastic netting material. We tried to keep the netting strips as large as possible, tying them together and to the outer edges, with both cable ties and green gardening ties.
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In order to protect the deck from excess moisture we decided to line the veggie patch with black 250μm damp-proof plastic sheeting.
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We placed the sheet inside the structure, holding it temporarily in place with clothes pegs, folded the edges up and cut it to size. We taped the corners down using black PVC tape (wondertape).
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Towards the outer edges leading off the deck we created a few outlet holes enabling excess water to run out of the structure. This was a simple matter of cutting a hole, inserting a piece of black plastic piping, and taping around it to prevent leaks.
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We also added a few dollops of silicone around the pipe for good measure. The other end of the pipe leads out onto the garden surrounding the deck.
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Once the outlet pipes were fixed, we surrounded each of them with a few medium-sized pebbles. The idea is to minimise the likelihood of blockages forming in or near the outlet pipe.
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Once the pipes and pebbles were in place, we filled the lower part of the structure with gravel for drainage.
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We fixed the edges of the plastic to the outer lining using cable ties.
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We now needed some sort of layer to keep the organic matter from clogging the gravel and subsequently blocking the outlet pipes. We had quite a few woven plastic feed bags (which used to contain bark chips and braai wood) lying around, so we stabbed a few holes in them with a pair of scissors and positioned them over the gravel.
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We then placed the useless braai-wood on the bags and Tigger dropped in for another inspection.
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In order to give the veggie patch the best possible chance, we decided to collect as much garden refuse, leaf-litter and lawn cuttings as we could. Then we added whatever kitchen waste we had at the time and covered it with a few sheets of newspaper. This is in order to keep moisture in and also to protect subsequent layers from the underlayer.
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Once the newspaper was in place we soaked it.
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Once it had settled we filled the patch with soil.
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We placed two poles inside the patch and constructed a loose-lying plastic netting "lid" over the poles. The intention of the lid is to to protect the veggies from hungry birds and curious cats. The back of the lid is fixed to the netting at the railing side of the structure and the front of the lid is fixed to two small hooks twisted into the front part. This prevents the lid from flapping open.
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Here we're watering some planted seeds with a home-made "watering can". Basically it's a conventional food can with a number of small holes knocked into the bottom using a hammer and nail. This type of watering can gives a lovely soft trickling stream of water which doesn't dislodge newly-planted seeds.
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| We built the raised veggie patch in September 2009. Since then we've enjoyed a number of delicious strawberries, tomatoes, lettuces and courgettes. |
Although the first version was successful, we have now adapted the design by removing the bird netting and covering the structure with 40% shade-cloth. This should help to reduce water-loss and minimise the amount of watering needed. The strawberries, lettuces, tomatoes and carrots are already looking much happier! |
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