Our front yard is approximately 230 square metres in area, a long and narrow 230 square metres! It is comparatively flat and has an East of South Easterly aspect; we have been here for a long time so some of the trees have grown quite big. One of the things that you notice first when looking down the street is that we have an oasis of green when compared to our neighbours, who tend to have open front yards with little in the way of vegetation. This translates into lower cooling costs during summer.
The choko house is an evolving thing and will change over time, so I will update the tour every so often to keep it current. This article is up to date for autumn 2011.
The Hedgerow
Right at the front of the front yard is the areas set aside for the hedgerow, in fact it forms the front border of our yard. It is newly constructed and at the moment looks a bit sparse but because we are in autumn at the moment and heading down towards winter there is not much point in doing massive plantings that are likely to be frosted off before they get a chance to take hold. The trick to making a hedgerow is stacking – growing plants that will thrive at different levels – groundcovers, small shrubs and annuals, taller shrubs and then the full grown trees with climbers interspersed to take advantage of the upright growth habit of other trees and shrubs . The fun bit is making your hedgerow out of only edible or useful species rather than those which are purely decorative.
In our hedgerow at the moment we don’t have any groundcover species but there are a few smaller shrubs notably a coffee tree and a tea tree (camellia Sinensis), a rose (rose petals and rose hips), a well developed feijoa and native plum tree and right at the northern end a 3 metre Bay Tree (Lauris Nobilis). Interspersed along the row are three large (5 metre) Tea Trees (melaleuca alternifolia) of the type that tea tree oil is harvested from. There is also a hop vine and thornless blackberry but neither of them is looking brilliant at the moment and a blueberry that is starting to come on a bit. The continued development of the hedgerow will be an article in itself when the time is right.
The Banana Circle
The banana circle has been in the northern end of the front yard since it was put in during a permablitz by our permie friends a couple of years ago, it now rests between the mulberry tree and the hedgerow. A banana circle is basically a hole dug in the ground, the spoil from the hole mounded up around the edge and then planted with bananas, then a whole stack of organic matter thrown into the hole to rot down and provide fertiliser. The bananas have been growing steadily but not fruited yet although I am hopeful for next summer. At the beginning of last winter we got a frost down to -3°C and it knocked them around a bit, I thought we lost 2 of the smaller ones but they have all bounced Back this summer and are growing strongly again.
The Herb Spiral
The herb spiral also went in at the same time as the banana circle and it is in the centre of the yard, in theory it is a spiral but in our case, because we used surplus roof tiles, it is more like a two tier wedding cake. It has different microclimates that suit different herbs but it does tend to dry out a bit so mulching is important. We’ve cycled through a few herbs but the rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, tarragon, lemon verbena and lemongrass just keep on keeping on. The tiles that make up the top part of the spiral (cake) have started to tip outwards under the pressure of the growing medium because they are only secured in the growing medium of the lower layer, so I have had to tie them in with some 12mm sisal rope, which adds a rustic look to the herb spiral.
The Mulberry Tree
The mulberry tree was a seedling, gotten originally from my father’s next door neighbour, and has been in position at the northern part of the yard next to the tank for at least 15 years. It is hugely vigorous and even after a severe winter cutback it fruits hugely, but still puts forth lots of vegetative growth too. I reckon if I had a miniature goat or two I’d be able to feed them for at least part of the year on mulberry cuttings. For the moment I shred the trimmings and they either go in the centre of the banana circle or into the composter. One problem is that it does tend to shade the solar hot water tubes a bit so I have to keep on cutting it back.
It is a wonderful tree though, shading the second bedroom and keeping the whole northern end of the house cool as well as provide a cool and restful canopy to have lunch or read under and it keeps the northern water tank cool in summer as well. All this and lots of mulberries in the spring, how can you lose?
The Tank
We installed a 5500 litre plastic water tank just north of the house, it takes the runoff from the northern half of the roof and is plumbed in to two taps in the backyard, one near the greenhouse and one over the twin tub washing machine. There is now also an outlet in the front yard. Most of the water from this tank is used for keeping our veggie gardens and fruit trees productive and occasionally to run the twin tub washer.
The Wicking Beds
There are two wicking beds in the front yard, the front or more easterly one is 30cm high and currently grows rhubarb and cotton. It was also supposed to be growing sunflowers for the seed and oil but due to a lousy germination rate that part of the bed is not growing anything, so it will wait until next spring now. The challenge will be to try and nurse the cotton plants which are frost tender, through our next winter.
The other wicking bed is 60 cm high and was originally designed to contain asparagus plants, one in each corner and one in the middle and these are continuing to grow and who knows? I may get an asparagus crop next spring.....it’s something to look forward to anyway. Once the asparagus fens were up and growing it seemed that there was an awful lot of space left over so in the middle of three sides I planted a capsicum plant and on the fourth I planted a chilli. Likewise it will be a challenge to see if we can keep these four plants going over winter and not get them frosted off.
The Fruit Tree Circle
At one stage in the southern part of the yard we had a carob tree that grew very high, then after 15 years or so it flowered and I found out the damn thing was male and we would never get any pods off it! It is now drying in the wood pile and will form part of our sustainable winter heating supplies. With the carob gone I wanted to grow some fruit in the front yard so we built up a circular area around where the carob had been and then made an inner raised circle in the centre, the outer circle sports two lime trees (Tahitian and kaffir) two apples (pink lady and gala) both dwarves, a curry leaf tree, a macadamia nut tree and a dwarf lemon tree. In the inner circle there are three red currant bushes although the heat this summer has given them somewhat of a beating and I don’t know how well they will survive. Right in the centre is the chook statue......class eh?
The Olive Tree
The olive tree has been there for over 20 years and we get a variable number of olives of it, experiments in oil extraction are continuing...... Underneath is built up and planted out with some edible flowers.
The Garden Beds
These run across the front of the house and for the most part contain ornamentals (happy wife = happy life) interspersed with some edible flowers and herbs
