Planning for a harvest!
There is nothing quite like the smell of basil in your home vegie garden!
I love spring. Well actually more to the point, I love a garden full of yummy things that I can eat. So, here at Grantables’ heartland, we’re getting ready to plant out our third summer of yummy things in our new raised vegie beds! I’m so excited!
As I was planning these new beds a few years ago, I was dreaming of basil, home grown cherry tomatoes and elephant garlic (yes, it’s a thing) while I looked out on a dreary, rainy day. Thankfully it was rainy as we needed it but it did suggest my dreams were a little premature. There was some planning to do. We needed to get the new raised beds in place and filled and ready for planting (the doing not the dreaming about it!). We needed to define the scope of this vegie garden project. So of course I started with WHAT and WHERE questions.
What would we replace the old garden beds with? We needed something that was quick to install, cost effective, taller (much taller) than the old beds and that would have a reasonable lifespan. Concrete sleepers and H frame were considered and then discarded due to cost and the time it would take to get it all done. Raised timber beds was another option, life span was the concern here and to do it properly was going to require outsourcing some of the work. So, in the end, raised galvanised beds was the option that ticked all the boxes – tall enough, reasonable lifespan, relatively cost effective when considered against the alternatives and quick and easy to get in place!
Next question was – do we keep the garden beds in the same place? This one was easy. Yes! As the site of the last vegie bed, it was – a) the only place with good sunshine and airflow and – b) the garden watering system was already in place and - c) no room anywhere else!!
Last big question – what would we fill these new tall beds with? All soil? Straw and soil? Sticks, straw and soil? We wanted something that would break down and feed all the good microbes in the soil that would feed our plants. So, soil alone was out. Sticks, straw and soil we’d used before – lots of good composting happens in the bed over time but the soil levels dropped fairly quickly. So, this time we decided on straw and soil.
With these three questions answered we could start the doing - we ripped out the old raised garden beds that have served us well (thanks to a man with an small excavator) and moved dormant fruit trees (thanks to a man with a shovel!). Our new, taller raised beds went in, were filled with straw and soil and were ready to go! (We're now in year 3 of the bed and we quickly realised straw and soil drops quickly too - so now we top-up only with soil.) I was very excited! We were ready and the knee pads were being retired! And last year we harvested what was planted in autumn and we are getting ready to plant again. Bring on the those tasty home grown tomatoes and basil!
We planned our project (pre-project activities) and then executed (the actual project)!
I think every project I’ve ever seen has been like this. Before the actual project, there are what I like to call pre-project projects. It might be site investigations or designs or sorting out your contributions or any number of things.
Things you need to do before you get to the actual project.
One of the tricky things with many grant programs, is they are often open for short windows of time. It might be 6 weeks or a couple of months. This is usually not enough time to get all those pre-projects completed.
This means you need to get ready!
If you have a project in mind, you need to start your planning now. Then you will be ready when the right grant pops up. You won’t be madly scrambling about to get all the documents you need and you will have all the answers you need for the application.
Start where we did. Ask yourself questions. What do you want to do? What is the situation now? What do you want it to be like when the project is complete? Find out how much things will cost and how long it will take. Ask around and find a team to help you. If you’re not sure who you need or why, read my No grant writer is an island post!
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