Organic vegetable garden - The plot starts!

 A well grassed site in a Community Garden ready for cultivation. The area was part of a former sheep grazing property established in the 1870's that operated until 1971. You can see the old woolshed in the far background.  It is about 20m above the level of where a small creek once flowed down the Tuggeranong Valley.  (Photo taken on 22 February 2012.)

 'Borrowed landscape' from plantings of Casuarina and, in the background, Mount Taylor.

Digging started on the 24 m2 plot on 22 February and after 7 hours I managed to clear all the weeds - mainly couch grass.  A kookaburra observed my efforts and had a good laugh.  Not being a vegetarian he wouldn't have understood.

The soil is a reasonable quality clay loam with an average depth of 200mm topsoil to firm but crumbly clay.  Average pH was tested at 7 to 7.5 - basically neutral.  A top dressing of 10 kilograms of gypsum was applied to the whole area designed to loosen the sub-soil without digging.

The aim of this project is to grow a range of Japanese vegetables over the winter using organic gardening methods.  Canberra can be quite cold over winter and it is therefore important to establish the plants in Autumn to enable growth before the cold sets in.  The photo shows Daikon  or　 だいこん　( Japanese Radish) at an Osaka market.  In half of the plot I plan to grow Daikon, Mibuna, Mizuna, Mitsuba, Kabu, Shungiku and Japanese Cabbage.  The other half  of the plot will carry a green manure crop of broadbeans, barley and fenugreek.