One of the problems we find (as I’m sure most urban food growers do) is to get enough land to grow the stuff we want to. We bought a dwarf fig a year or two ago and a friend gave me a blood orange tree more recently, and after much casting around both the back and front yard I had no idea where I could put them. They needed to go somewhere where they would get enough sunlight and in most unoccupied places they would either be shaded out or shade something else out.
On the southern boundary of the front yard however, the neighbours had planted a bottlebrush years and years ago, it was scraggly and not happy.........did they still want it? They said no! I could take it out and replace it with some edible species and we would share the bounty! So that is basically what happened, most of it became mulch or fire wood and only the stump remained. It seemed to be a stump which was pretty determined to remain where it was, but the neighbours had a 4 x 4 that was pretty determined that it was coming out. The 4 x 4 won.
With the stump gone it still took quite a while to dig out and chop off the remaining roots, so that I could dig the trees in. Unfortunately the soil in that area consisted of about 15mm of topsoil on top of 5 metres of clay, so I decided to build up a raised bed to ensure fertility for the plants and good drainage.
I am not one for complicated design and my original idea was for a rectangular bed with a tree at each end, but in a minor burst of unaccustomed creativity decided on a vaguely kidney shaped bed instead. I dug down a bit and loosened up the soil and made sure there was enough depth for the soil level for the trees to remain the same. Too deep and you cover up the trunk risking collar rot, too shallow and you can expose the roots, particularly on the shallow rooted citrus. If you are planting grafted trees, the graft must always be above the soil and mulch level.
After some digging (and lots or sweating and cursing) it all looked pretty good so put the retaining logs in place and secured them with tent pegs then placed the fig and the blood orange into the bed and started to fill in around them. I still had some soil left over from when I put the worm tower in as well as a pile of “organic mix” and shreddings mixed so that I what I used to build up the soil level.
That left the middle bit, and I had some blueberries that I wanted to grow there. Blueberries prefer and acid soil so I got hold of some coffee grounds from a cafe and spread a good layer on the soil to keep it acid. I also wanted to ensure the blueberries had water so I had saved an unglazed terracotta pot and lid to act as an olla. I put that in and then backfilled with the organic mix and soil up to the right level, and planted the blueberries and scattered some more coffee grounds on top of the soil.
It has been very dry around here and so I watered the living daylights out of the bed and filled the olla to the brim. To finish off I put on wood chip mulch to keep evaporation down and encourage beneficial fungi that will grow with the trees. It is now finished and all I have to do is wait for a bumper harvest, all from an area that was previously unproductive.
Update: 2023
Unfortunately, the blueberry (as tends to happen with me) did not survive, however the blood orange and dwarf fig have gone from strength to strength. A couple of years after the original construction I expanded the bed and added a dwarf lemon tree, and while it has been overshadowed by the fig a bit, it seems happy enough. At the time I also added some extra timber surround so that the whole bed was enclosed, but after 10 years it had deteriorated and was looking rather sad. I have since replaced it with some repurposed pavers and bricks and added some wood chip mulch. The neighbour has also added some statuary, for a bit of fun!
