When you live on the edge of real bush, the benefits are fantastic - lots of butterflies, and birds that of course feed on the butterflies and other bugs; families of echidnas, wallabies, hares... all of which are fabulous, except that as soon as your seeds germinate the wildlife gets to them and game over...
So it became clear that we would need to construct a truly critter-proof enclosure in which to germinate and grow our vegetables.
I did a basic design for this and then talked to Geoff, a friend and neighbour. He then told me that in order to follow my design I would need to upgrade the timber that I was planning to use in order to ensure that the whole structure was sound.... And fortunately Geoff was around to help with the construction.
So over the last couple of weeks I have been excavating holes for the posts, concreting the posts in place, stretching wire around the enclosure, putting in sleepers for the beds (so as to raise them slightly and make picking the produce a bit easier on the back).
Not quite finished yet - still have to put the gate on and complete the bird proofing, but we have now planted out tomatoes and beans, and next week will plant some more seeds. (On that note we are only planting non-hybrid open pollinated seeds).
Here are some pictures of the construction taking place:
