You can even grow a garden in a clam shell sandpit. photo - EB member cesca.
There are many benefits to growing your own fruit and veges at home.
Apart from the financial benefit of having fresh fruit and veges at your fingertips, there are benefits if you get the kids involved too.
Fresh food tastes better – and there is nothing like eating your own snow peas straight off the vine. If you're having trouble getting the kids to eat their vegetables, you might be surprised what happens if they grow their own.
Kids also develop a sense of responsibility. They understand that they need water and care for the plants, which teaches them that nurturing something helps it to grow.
So how to get started?
First, choose where to make your garden.
A potted garden
For the space challenged, there are lots of pluses to a potted kitchen garden. Many herbs and vegetables will grow in pots and you can ferry them in and out of the sun as the seasons dictate. If you move house, you can take your garden with you! Suitable plants to try include tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, chillies, leafy greens and eggplants.
Hanging baskets and kitchen window gardens
Cherry tomatoes, lettuces and strawberries grow nicely in hanging baskets, and look pretty too. Basil, oregano and parsley will do well in a rectangular tub on the window sill. You can even grow sprouts in a jar on your kitchen bench.
A clam shell garden
If your children are too old for the old-fashioned clam shell wading pool, don’t throw it out! Ity makes a great little garden bed once drainage holes have been drilled and the shell filled with compost.
Suitable plants to grow in a clam shell include lettuces, parsley, baby carrots, spring onions, radishes, tomatoes, peas, sweet peas and beans (you may need a wire frame for those).
A mixed garden
If you already have an established garden in your backyard, don't just rip everything out and start over. You can assist pollination by gradually planting things amongst the non-edible plants. The non edibles will play a role of bringing the pollinating bugs to the garden and some will help deter pests. Plants that can grow on fences include peas, beans and cucumbers. Pumpkins and melons can ramble underneath other plants. Mint and parsley will happily grow and replenish beside flowering bushes.
Prepping your soil
Growing your own produce is all about the dirt. Invest in some good quality organic potting mix, some manure or compost, a wetting agent, some water crystals and mulch. Combine a third of the manure/compost with the potting mix and add the wetting agent and water crystals as per the manufacturer's instructions. Plant out your seedlings and mulch, and get ready to nurture.
Staying alive
Keep your plants well watered, although this also leaches nutrients from the soil, so replenish it with liquid feed or a good quality fertiliser. Also, your pots may throw up a weed or three. Pull them out. Weeds will compete with your basil and tomatoes for moisture, nutrients and sunlight and put paid to your plans for homemade pasta sauce.
Making manure and fertiliser
Kitchen scraps can be put to good use in a worm farm, the castings from which can be used as fertiliser for your garden.
Kids will love their very own pet chickens. The chooks can earn their keep by supplying eggs, and their manure, mixed with straw, is terrific for the vegetables.
So get planting!
