Middle Garden

The middle garden is on the steepest part of the hill and contained the orchard, terraces, swales, water channels, a chook pen, a zigzag sawdust path, part of the access road to the bottom garden, and two large trees. It is also the main grazing area for the sheep.
Seven terraces have been cut into the hillside.  To prevent erosion the terraces were kept as narrow as possible – just wide enough for an access path and the trees. I designed them so that they drained backwards and into swales. I built channels to take water coming down the hill into swales or horizontally along the hillside. After disturbing the soil with my digging I planted grass seed and encouraged the original grass and dandelions to grow back as quickly as possible. Rocks were incorporated into the terrace wall to increase its structural integrity.A deep trench was dug from the house, under the road down the east side of the middle garden to the bottom of the bottom garden for electric power, irrigation and to supply water for the ponds. The power would be for lighting and the pumping of water up the hill to the top pond and the top of the waterfall.In addition to the electric cable, two rural pipes were placed in the trench. One rural pipe split into smaller pipes that went along the terraces to irrigate the fruit trees through drip lines – two to each tree. The other rural pipe supplied water to the ponds and to the bottom garden. Drip irrigation was selected as the most efficient way of delivering water to the plants. It works by slowly taking a trickle of water to the root zone of plants, drop by drop, reducing evaporation and runoff. As the pressure will vary down a steep slope a series of pressure reduction valves and pressure compensating drippers were used.I planted dwarfing varieties of fruit trees and where dwarfing varieties were not available planted regular fruit trees and kept them low by regular pruning. They would need to be espaliered, pruned in such a way that they grew along the length of the terrace.Espaliering is training trees for easier management especially with regards to picking and netting against birds and other pests. Along the terrace above the fruit trees I cut in a pathway wide enough for a wheel barrow access to the trees.To take advantage of the cold climate I selected deciduous fruit trees which require a long cold spell to set fruit. Dwarf varieties were chosen so that the fruit can be picked easily and nets can be used over the trees to act as a barrier against parrots which are a big problem in Bridgetown.I calculated how far apart to plant my fruit trees – the horizontal tree spacing. The distance was based on the shape and size of the mature tree and its root system after several seasons of growth and pruning. Most of the trees were planted about 6 metres apart. I calculated how far apart to place my terraces – the vertical tree spacing? I did this by working out the angle of the hill and the angle of the sun at different times of the year and depending on these I calculated out how much light would be getting to the tree. As the hill is south facing a shadow cast over a fruit tree by the hill or other nearby trees would obviously affect growth and productivity.The steepness of the hill varied throughout the property with the greatest incline at the top of the hill and the least incline towards the bottom. This was taken into consideration when the tree spacing was determined. (See diagram) At the less steep area at the bottom of the garden I decided to build the waterfall and ponds. I reasoned that they would function well here but be more stable than on a very steep hillside. In addition I saw the boundary fence at the end of the garden would be a good place for a row of trees that, when mature would act as a sun trap creating a micro climate for the area around the ponds. The ponds would also help by reflecting sun light into the trees which would bounce back into the area.