Hi Holly, the grape wines will be amazing. We planted a couple to shade our West facing verandah and I was skeptical but the difference is huge! The vine and leaves let enough light in while protecting the verandah from the hot summer sun in Perth. One thing I've struggled with is the lawn near our vege beds. Although we've left over a foot gap between the lawn and the beds, the grass have been sending runners underground and popping up in the beds. I've been tracing and digging them out leaves, runners, roots and all, but they are persistent. I hope you have better luck at preventing this than we did. And yes, we did the whole solarisation thing and when the grass poke through, I'm managing to trace then right back to the main part of the lawn nearby. Love your videos,and it's so good to see a local grower and the tips you're sharing is wonderful. There's so much to learn. Thank you. ❤
Yay that’s so good to hear! I will also struggle with grass in the front as it’s the runner type so just going to try do it in stages and experiment a bit!
I'm glad you found two seedless grape varieties that you could decide on. Ever since you said you have slightly regretted not getting a seedless mandarin variety, I have been thinking about that in regards to my own garden. It's always so hard to choose which variety of fruit tree you want to get because there are so many things to consider. I'm still in the early days and planning my food forest, and I find it very helpful to hear from you which fruits and vegetables you look forward to harvesting every year, and which ones you find you don't enjoy as much as you maybe thought you would. So thank you for sharing those things with us! I do get a bit sick of gardening channels that only share the ups and never the downs. They're both important to hear for us learners!
Oh Holly! After not seeing your videos for awhile (my fault entirely), I am so impressed with how beautiful your gardening space has become. I have a lot of questions but will confine them to only three. 1. Do you keep a journal of what you are doing in your garden/food forest? 2. Will you be updating us on the property that you bought, I believe it may have had a mainframe house on it? 3. Will we ever get to see your partner's face or is he just too shy? Cheers!
Hi Craig!! Thank you 🙏 starting to take shape and so happy with the last few projects. 1. No I don’t keep a journal this channel I guess is in some way. 2. Yes I have the cutest Aframe house but it’s still a rental for now. Has been pushed back down the list atm with the costs of everything 🤣😅 3.Haha maybe! He’s definitely not keen on being in a video. Have you added any new fruit trees lately??
My whole front yard was Kikuyu and completely out of control. I contacted a logistics company and got a pallet of large (approx 2m x 2m when flattened) and about 6mm thick cardboard boxes for nothing. I used these to sheet mulch, then got free mulch from a tree lopper and covered it about 300mm thick. I had to pull small amounts of grass from the edges for about 12mths but it has 100% gone. I added drip line, mulch every 2-3yrs and now (6yrs later) I have changed my soil from horrible clay to really nice, balanced soil. It's now a developing food forest. Soo many ideas, soo little space.
We must have super kikuyu as it has managed to send runners down underneath a 4 foot retaining wall and into garden beds below. It really is a beast and a bit of a battle but we want to keep a small lawn, mostly for our dog. I think the kikuyu will outlive us 😂
awsome idea Holly! and great thinking on the grapes! you can get tape they use in green houses between the plastic film and the steel frame to insulate the heat from melting and wearing the plastic! might work for the vines! i built a steel arch for my mother to train a couple pear trees over she uses a peice of foam between the trunk and the frame lashed with that strechy tree tie stuff you can get! all the best! ps shout out to hubby for rocking that Kato singlet😉
Holly, I'm south of Perth and used cardboard and wood chips around my raised beds out front. I don't get any weeds, and the wood chips breaking down has built lovey soil. And, it looks great all year round 😊
Remember the cardboard breaks down very quickly and unless it's a very thick layer of mulch weeds will get through because the mulch breaks down and becomes soil. Also seeds and weeds don't always come from under the mulch/ground, they also seed them themselves from wind blown seed, bird droppings and just seed falling to the ground cleaning, weeding your garden beds and bc the mulch is breaking down creating soil, its the perfect environment for them to grow. I say this bc pathways between garden beds are high traffic areas and so will wear down much more quickly, Than say in a garden bed area where there is minimal or only seasonal disruption to the paths, ground. I guess bottom line is, where there is plantlike and soil there will be more plants/weeds wanting a space to reproduce.@@SustainableHolly
Your front garden look stunning now! I have a grape trailing over my patio,unfortunately it blocks the morning sun in summer ,it would be great if iy would block the afternoon shade but it wasn't possible to have ut planted like that. This summer is going to be hot most likely, shade is so important ! Love your videos!
I have to be careful what I plant on the other side of the beds for the next project because that’s is all my morning sun. But hopefully the grapes will do the job for my midday and arvo heat 🍇🌿
As much as I love my American HOmesteaders, I love watching your channel as I am in South Africa, so we have seasons at the same time. Good advice today as I am totally re-doing and planning my garden, chop out a few alien trees giving me too much sade and redo the raised beds
Ooh thanks for sharing, I love this idea- I’m going to see if my husband can build me something like this too amongst my raised beds. I think a grapevine would be wonderful 😊👌
Do yourself a favour, keep your grass. Great drainage, easy to maintain, you don't have to find new sources for mulch every year and it looks good, It's uniform and it's cheap. Spend your money on more plants or infrastructure. Grass as pathways is a great choice I feel. You can plant it up with thyme or chamomile or other ground covers to give interest to your grassed path ways. This of course is for your consideration to feel into and see if it's right for you.
Yeah it definitely has been easier to keep it this way until now and I much prefer a living mulch but I have quite a few more trees to plant so it may be on its way out 😆 then mulch and replant some living mulch 🌿🌿🌿
Aww this makes me so sad, we just cyt the near last grapevine our grandfather planted when coming from Portugal... he passed in march this year😭 well done on your planting
Hi Holly, the grape wines will be amazing. We planted a couple to shade our West facing verandah and I was skeptical but the difference is huge! The vine and leaves let enough light in while protecting the verandah from the hot summer sun in Perth.
One thing I've struggled with is the lawn near our vege beds. Although we've left over a foot gap between the lawn and the beds, the grass have been sending runners underground and popping up in the beds. I've been tracing and digging them out leaves, runners, roots and all, but they are persistent. I hope you have better luck at preventing this than we did. And yes, we did the whole solarisation thing and when the grass poke through, I'm managing to trace then right back to the main part of the lawn nearby.
Love your videos,and it's so good to see a local grower and the tips you're sharing is wonderful. There's so much to learn. Thank you. ❤
Yay that’s so good to hear! I will also struggle with grass in the front as it’s the runner type so just going to try do it in stages and experiment a bit!
I'm glad you found two seedless grape varieties that you could decide on. Ever since you said you have slightly regretted not getting a seedless mandarin variety, I have been thinking about that in regards to my own garden. It's always so hard to choose which variety of fruit tree you want to get because there are so many things to consider. I'm still in the early days and planning my food forest, and I find it very helpful to hear from you which fruits and vegetables you look forward to harvesting every year, and which ones you find you don't enjoy as much as you maybe thought you would. So thank you for sharing those things with us! I do get a bit sick of gardening channels that only share the ups and never the downs. They're both important to hear for us learners!
Thank you so much for the feedback 💚 I would love to expand on this in a video as I have definitely been refining things over the last year!
Good to see you back! Those grapevines will look beautiful on the arbor, and i love grapes!
Thanks Claire! I’m so excited! Me too! 🍇🍇🍇
Bottle gourds & choko is a great choice 4 climbing shade plants...your garden is looking amazing in the front yard.
Thanks Mel 💚 they should be tough enough to survive 🤞🌿
I'm soo happy you finally got the grapes Holly! Your garden is looking stunning! Can't wait to see the progress! 😍🍇💚
Thanks Jackie! So excited I’m checking them daily willing them to grow hahaha
@@SustainableHolly That is literally me everyday in my garden too! 😂
Oh Holly! After not seeing your videos for awhile (my fault entirely), I am so impressed with how beautiful your gardening space has become. I have a lot of questions but will confine them to only three. 1. Do you keep a journal of what you are doing in your garden/food forest? 2. Will you be updating us on the property that you bought, I believe it may have had a mainframe house on it? 3. Will we ever get to see your partner's face or is he just too shy? Cheers!
Hi Craig!! Thank you 🙏 starting to take shape and so happy with the last few projects. 1. No I don’t keep a journal this channel I guess is in some way. 2. Yes I have the cutest Aframe house but it’s still a rental for now. Has been pushed back down the list atm with the costs of everything 🤣😅 3.Haha maybe! He’s definitely not keen on being in a video. Have you added any new fruit trees lately??
My whole front yard was Kikuyu and completely out of control. I contacted a logistics company and got a pallet of large (approx 2m x 2m when flattened) and about 6mm thick cardboard boxes for nothing. I used these to sheet mulch, then got free mulch from a tree lopper and covered it about 300mm thick. I had to pull small amounts of grass from the edges for about 12mths but it has 100% gone. I added drip line, mulch every 2-3yrs and now (6yrs later) I have changed my soil from horrible clay to really nice, balanced soil. It's now a developing food forest. Soo many ideas, soo little space.
Amazing! Hopefully I can get it going and use the hot summer to my advantage 😆
We must have super kikuyu as it has managed to send runners down underneath a 4 foot retaining wall and into garden beds below. It really is a beast and a bit of a battle but we want to keep a small lawn, mostly for our dog. I think the kikuyu will outlive us 😂
Holly, your front garden is thriving, it looks beautiful. The arbor looks fantastic too, H has done a great job.
Thank you! 💚 It’s really good to see my vision start to come together 😁🌿🍇
awsome idea Holly! and great thinking on the grapes! you can get tape they use in green houses between the plastic film and the steel frame to insulate the heat from melting and wearing the plastic! might work for the vines! i built a steel arch for my mother to train a couple pear trees over she uses a peice of foam between the trunk and the frame lashed with that strechy tree tie stuff you can get! all the best! ps shout out to hubby for rocking that Kato singlet😉
Thank you! Those are great ideas. Definitely have to see how it goes and keep making adjustments 🌿🌱🌿🌸 haha you can take the kiwis out of NZ….🤣
Ni ya the shade looks good what a way to grow in future. Take care and stay safe 🪱♻️🌺🌳🥰
Thanks Barry! Hopefully they take off 🌿🌿🌿
Congrats for the vision and to your partner for the construction. It is really coming together.
Thank you! I’m so excited to see the next years growth 🌿🍇🐝
Shade structure looks awesome and gives me some great ideas! Thanks for the video and nice to see you back 😊👋🏼👍🏼
Thank you!! big list of videos I want to make so let’s go hello spring!!! 🌻🍇🌿💚🐝
Holly, I'm south of Perth and used cardboard and wood chips around my raised beds out front. I don't get any weeds, and the wood chips breaking down has built lovey soil. And, it looks great all year round 😊
Yay!! Will be saving my cardboard and using the summer sun to do most of the work 🙌😆
Remember the cardboard breaks down very quickly and unless it's a very thick layer of mulch weeds will get through because the mulch breaks down and becomes soil. Also seeds and weeds don't always come from under the mulch/ground, they also seed them themselves from wind blown seed, bird droppings and just seed falling to the ground cleaning, weeding your garden beds and bc the mulch is breaking down creating soil, its the perfect environment for them to grow. I say this bc pathways between garden beds are high traffic areas and so will wear down much more quickly, Than say in a garden bed area where there is minimal or only seasonal disruption to the paths, ground. I guess bottom line is, where there is plantlike and soil there will be more plants/weeds wanting a space to reproduce.@@SustainableHolly
Your front garden look stunning now! I have a grape trailing over my patio,unfortunately it blocks the morning sun in summer ,it would be great if iy would block the afternoon shade but it wasn't possible to have ut planted like that. This summer is going to be hot most likely, shade is so important ! Love your videos!
I have to be careful what I plant on the other side of the beds for the next project because that’s is all my morning sun. But hopefully the grapes will do the job for my midday and arvo heat 🍇🌿
Great garden update. Missed your videos
Thank you! 💚🌱
As much as I love my American HOmesteaders, I love watching your channel as I am in South Africa, so we have seasons at the same time. Good advice today as I am totally re-doing and planning my garden, chop out a few alien trees giving me too much sade and redo the raised beds
Thank you, love having you here! 🌱🌸🌿
Your garden looks amazing so lush !!!
Winter really is my gardens time to shine!!! 💚🌿🌱
Wow Holly, what an achievement in a short time. So many great ideas & inspiration here!
Thank you! Finally can see my vision coming to life 🌿🌿🌿 🐝🐸🌸 lots more to do 🙂
Harvey Norman has cardboard from fridges and washing machines in their blue bins for free. The thicker the cardboard, the better.
Hi, from Brookdale, (Armadale Shire).
Hi Kristin 🌱
Ooh thanks for sharing, I love this idea- I’m going to see if my husband can build me something like this too amongst my raised beds. I think a grapevine would be wonderful 😊👌
Do yourself a favour, keep your grass. Great drainage, easy to maintain, you don't have to find new sources for mulch every year and it looks good, It's uniform and it's cheap. Spend your money on more plants or infrastructure. Grass as pathways is a great choice I feel. You can plant it up with thyme or chamomile or other ground covers to give interest to your grassed path ways. This of course is for your consideration to feel into and see if it's right for you.
Yeah it definitely has been easier to keep it this way until now and I much prefer a living mulch but I have quite a few more trees to plant so it may be on its way out 😆 then mulch and replant some living mulch 🌿🌿🌿
Aww this makes me so sad, we just cyt the near last grapevine our grandfather planted when coming from Portugal... he passed in march this year😭 well done on your planting
Oh sorry to hear 💚 did you make any cuttings as keepsake? I’m so sentimental about trees also
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Hi Holly may I know what is the size of raised bed in cm please. Thank you for the video :)