Design Considerations

I've been chatting with friends and neighbours who often pop over to see how the mound is going and a couple of people plan to build their own - here's some things I've learnt through ours

- Tomatoes and cucumbers need very high stakes!
- The mound should not be too wide as its not a good idea to stand on it. The top mound is too wide for me to comfortabley reach the front side of the tomatoes. The width should be so that you can comfortably reach into middle and any height (eg stakes) on far side.
- zucchini go wild and are spiky! our plants have taken over the front of the mound and I can't get into the front section of the mound without either standing on or scratching myself on the plant. I think zucchini better at a back section where you won't regularly have to gain access
- there is hardly any weeding, but lots of picking, harvesting, training, staking to be done- I think our mound is a little long as I have to right around from top of citrus garden down to corn bed - I would prefer a short cut through to other side
- when planting, think in physical dimensions what the full grown plants will be like- the mound has little 'sub-climates' due to shading and access to water, lettuce will do well in the shade of other plants whereas things like capscium need more direct sun
-careful of planting delicate plants near the ditch- my lettuce and parsley often gets a bit trampled by myself or the hose
- don't be shy on layering on the cardboard. I've done practically no weeding in past three months and I am thankful to Tiny for insisting on thick, thick layers of cardboard that overlap

Thats all I can think of now-

Where to plant Banana trees?

Hi Tiny and Mum,

I have some banana suckers that need to go in straight away- so do I plant them (A) in the back mound (b) in the ditch in front of the back mound (c)behind the back mound or (d) somewhere else completely.

Will update with photos tomorrow.

Garden Layout

Its a bit tricky to capture the layout in a photo, so I've hand-drawn some garden maps to show whats where. The plan was to plant the back mound with papaya and banana- but I haven't been able to get any seedlings yet and my papaya seeds didn't take. I've planted some okra seeds straight into the mound, so hopefully they will come up. Its rained straight for 2 days, but still the snow peas are wilting a bit in todays heat. The green manure is coming along very nicely and once it gets more vigorous I'll let the ducks into it. The ducklings are still covered only in down, no real feathers yet but today I decided to let them live in just the big cage- the small cage was becoming smelly and wet too fast as they are eating and growing quickly.I'm a bit concerned about snakes getting them, but its a risk to take.

The pumpkin is definately doing better with the duck poo lucerne around it. The oregano and mint in the herb garden is fine, but the capscuim attracted a possum or other very hungry animal that ate all the leaves plus the coriandor (grrrr)- doesn't look like bugs- looks more like big bites taking off all the nicest leaves.

The bats are going mad in the coco palm- which was fine the first few weeks but now there is a big sloppy pile of bat manure underneath that is sticky and difficult to clean.I'm trying to see if I can lay newspaper underneath to catch the sloppy manure and get rid of it nicely!