A lot of people want to be self sufficient but very few achieve that goal. Purchasing our property thirteen years ago was the key to achieving that goal for us. First we started with the hut then we built the house completely off the grid. We have beef, mutton and pork ready to be harvested at any time that we require.
Our recent goal has been to build a green house where we can grow our own food for a longer period each year. We worked out that the perfect place was at the end of our three bay shed. The biggest problem that I had was there was no way that I could dig a hole for piles. When the shed was built it took a thirteen ton digger twenty minutes to dig those holes for the piles as it was into hard rock. So my way around this was to put down a concrete pad to build on top of. Even when I put the boxing down I tried to hit a warratah into the ground and could not so I had to strengthen the boxing up with timber.
Once the concrete pad was poured and set we arranged the Windows and doors that we had aquired to work out the best positioning of these. It was Michael Whitelock that came up with the design that we went with. Also Michael suggested having the raised garden in the green house. I managed to put all of the framing up on my own but to put the roof on I got another friend Hayden Manson to come up for that job as he builds house roofs for his job. Once the walls were up and it was all covered in I built the raised gardens 600mm wide and 600mm high then lined this. Once lined we added two bails of straw before topping up with two trailer loads of mushroom compost from Orari nursery.
Now that I had completed my job it was Janices turn to take over and add her bit of magic to this green house. Janice has done an amazing job of our gardens around our house and it is something she likes to do in her spare time.
