Tennis court transformed into productive kitchen garden

[martincopland]

We purchased our final home in the Hunter near Singleton in early 2019.

As the cook in the family I was always keen on growing my own food and wanted a serious vegetable garden. It needed to be fenced (to keep out the kangaroos) and netted (to keep out the birds and large insects). We had a half sized tennis court and after a few games realised that that game wasn't for us.

So I decided to transform the space into a kitchen garden. Work began in October 2021 ripping up the Astro turf and leaving bare concrete. Next construction of the garden beds began in 4 stages in December 2021. Most of the garden beds are built with 8 treated pine sleepers 2400 x 200 x 50 mm and 8 sleepers 1200 x 200 x 50mm. These sleepers are stained and secured with corner posts with final demnsions of each bed being 2400 x 1300 x 800 mm. 

The beds are lined with building plastic with a layer of ecodeck top and bottom. They are braced with some stainless steel rope (to stop spreading on the long side) then filled with layers of compost, soil, manure etc. 

I have recently netted the existing fence and over just installed framework to support the layer of mesh over the top of the enclosure. The next step is the netting over the too of the enclosure.

So far 16 of 22 beds have been completed and growing crops is well underway. My aim is to grow just about every type of fruit and vegetables that we eat inside this enclosure. Currently we are self sufficient with about 6 different types of winter and year round vegetables. 

Work is progressing and the final 6 beds are planned to be completed in December.

[KatieC]

Hi @martincopland,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community! It is wonderful you have decided to join and share your garden project with us. You'll find Workshop to be filled with inspiration and advice for all things DIY and garden. We have many members who grow their veggies as well like @Noelle, @Baretta11, @Grub80, @mich1972, and also @IDIG who started a veggie garden for their community and recently began growing potatoes. 

Your garden is coming along so nicely and you have really utilised your space very well! What is your favourite veggie to grow? What is the easiest? 

Katie

[Baretta11]

@martincopland 

Wow that is one serious transformation.

What times do you open your restaurant to the public ha-ha

Do you seriously get to use all your harvest just within the family. It looks amazing and I love the raised beds, something I have to consider changing with mine.

What a gorgeous old styled home in the background too.

Cheers,

Barbara

[mich1972]

@martincopland  WOW !!!!! Amazing Edible beds. 
Gee whizz that’s heaps, love the set up. How’s everything growing ? What are you harvesting at the moment ? 
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop Community and thank you for sharing, looking forward to seeing updates. Nothing better than growing your own Edibles for your family and friends 😃

[Noelle]

I had my WOW to those who have already commented.  That is a very serious vegie growing area and I love the idea of the tennis court transformation.

Out of interest, what type of treated pine did you use, also the staining - suitable for food growing? There are lots of different timber treatments out there, not all suitable for vegie boxes, so it would be valuable to know what you have used, so others may follow your example.

Also how does excess moisture drain from the bases of the boxes?  Did you include a layer of coarse gravel or similar in the bottom of each and are the bases fully lined or open to the concrete? any tips you can add will be helpful 😎!

[martincopland]

Hi Katie.

my favourite vegetable to grow is eggplant and they are great to cook with so can't wait for spring to get planting. Asparagus is fabulous once it gets going and mine despite being only 8 months from seedlings are already supplying us with spears. Lettuce is very useful as it grows all year round and if you have the right varieties (not iceberg) you can just pick individual leaves as you need them.

[martincopland]

Harvesting lettuce and perennial spinach all the time. Have just started harvesting winter verges winter veggies specifically: kale, bok choy, broccoli, and sno peas. The asparagus has started early (it was supposed to wait a couple of months) and very soon we will have cauliflower and brocolini. Cabbage in about a month.

[Nham]

That is just awesome @martincopland and very clever in using the tennis court. Can I ask, how did you deal with the drainage, we have smaller beds and grow all sorts of veggies as well. The scale of this project is very impressive. 

[martincopland]

It's just H4 treated pine sleepers from Bunnings.

the sleepers however are isolated from the solid by a layer of builders plastic and that plastic is held down too and bottom with a layer of Eco deck and lots of staples.

I thought long and hard about drainage and in the end excess water just leaks out of the bottom between the Eco deck and the concrete base. So the timber doesn't touch the soil and doesn't get wet feet.

i have some erosion control matting around the bottom inside of each bed to prevent solid from betting out and the first layer in the bed is just plane sand...

see more photos..

[KatieC]

That sounds wonderful @martincopland! When I start my own veggie patch I will be sure to tag you and keep you updated. 

Katie