Vegetable Gardening

 

Back in the ‘80s…I landed a ‘contract’ to supply my parsley to the local fresh fish shop. Every few days I would deliver bunches of parsley destined to be used to enhance the window display of fresh fish. My income would not have covered the delivery costs. But it was a start.

In a horticultural class at school the teacher commented that if we knew how to grow our own food we would never be hungry and not always reliant on paying out to feed our families.

I have always remembered this and wonder if the current economic state is the driving force behind new vegetable plots being dug nationwide and suddenly being trendy. If so, the recession can be a good thing which stalls our reliance on the supermarket and force us to explore the resources in our own back yards. Our vegetable garden saves us $30-$40 a week during November to April in that I don’t buy any fresh vegetables. I like the fact that we’ve got that extra $30-$40 dollars a week to spend or save, but usually it goes on beautiful summer fruit (until our trees get going themselves) and great meat and fish. One of my plans for going forward is to sort out the continuity of supply for as long as possible and store as much as we can for the winter.

Apart from my interest in vegetable gardening, other fantastic benefits to health and the environment are my other main reasons. Fresh vegetables are usually highest in vitamins and minerals when first picked, it’s a form of exercise, you can control what chemicals you use, in my case none, and the children can learn valuable life skills.

Producing your own vegetables reduces the amount of packaging and transport needed when vegetables are sold via the supermarkets. There is likely to be less waste produced also, as you can pick as required, any scraps left can be dug into the garden or composted and returned to the earth, or in our case fed to our chickens to be turned into eggs. In fact my vege compartment in the fridge is bare between Nov and April, as we only pick to order so indirectly a power savings also I guess.

The basics of vegetable gardening are soil, water and plants. All soils can benefit from organic matter, this can be added in the form of compost, grass clippings or $1 horse manure from the boy down the road etc. In time this will enrich the soil, help it to retain water and provide valuable nutrients to growing vegetables. A good supply of water will ensure your gardening thrives from spring through summer and provides up until it cools off in April/May. At the moment, for time reasons I prefer to buy store bought seedlings, although more exciting and original and heirloom varieties can be grown from seed. Another crucial ingredient is a form of snail and slug repellant. I use Quash, being organic it is safe if my chickens peck at it, and safe for the children in the garden, and I don’t like adding chemicals to the soil. I have recently discovered that young plants surrounded my crushed shell are quite safe too, and have heard that pine needles do the same ‘scratching belly action’ that they slimy critters dislike also. What a great use of the pre-loved Christmas Tree!

Depending on space, vegetables can be grown anywhere, and are quite at home planted in amongst flowers. This year we grew our own potatoes in a half wine barrel, which were enjoyed on Christmas day in a potato salad as they weren’t big enough …not enough water I’m told. We planted them at the bottom, and as the leaves grow we’ve continued to heap soil around them to encourage more production. …factory farmed potatoes.

My son loves freshly grown peas and strawberries and they are unlikely to make it inside. I am a fan of courgettes and beans which grow in abundance, along with corn, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, beetroot, herbs, capsicum, lettuce mixes…the list goes on. In our garden we also have passion fruit, raspberries, orange berries, fejioas, mandarins and Chinese gooseberrys, and a heirloom grape. All quite young, but hopefully will grow up with the children and keep us in fruit in time also. This will be another massive savings from the grocery bill. I love it when I’m cooking to ask my son to get some herbs from the garden, it’s great seeing him come back in with weird and wonderful selections for me to add to our dinners.

Come and join our ‘The Good Life’ Group on Mums on Top …together we’ll help each other, share ideas, ask & answer questions and challenge each other to new ways of gardening….we can even swap seeds

I am also blogging my adventures in my vegetable garden on http://pureeco.blogspot.com/ feel free to join us.

*Register now    RSS Feed
Email a friend