Veggie Patch Basics

Find out how to set up a productive food garden and what to do every month to make it a success.

This blog post shows how to get started. Following this first blog post there is ..........

Veggie Patch Basics-2 , which covers the period April-May.

Veggie Patch Basics-3 , which covers the period June-July.

Veggie Patch Basics-4 , which covers the period August-September.

Veggie Patch Basics-5 , which covers the period October-November.

Veggie Patch Basics-6 , which covers the period December-January. 

Veggie Patch Basics-7 , which covers the period February - March.

If you are keen to start and it is not April or May, you may be tempted to skip the posts that cover other times of the year, but it is best not to skip them, because every post adds new info that aims to add to your general vegetable growing skills.

If you are not a newcomer to growing vegetables, this Veggie Patch Basics series might still be good to read to 'fill in the gaps'.

    Part 1:  Starting Out

Why grow your own food?

Why grow your own cabbages, when a splendid-looking cabbage can be purchased for two or three dollars?  Here are my reasons:

1. Home grown food often tastes better and has a higher nutritional value than shop-bought stuff
2. They don't contain pesticides, if you don't use any
3. Growing your own food can be very satisfying
4. In the age of climate change - no food miles
5. It's a great skill to have when one day fresh fruit and vegies will be in short supply

If you would like to read more about why to grow your own see Five Reasons to Grow your Own.

The plan with this series of articles is to take you through a whole 12-month season in blog posts that cover two months at the time. The aim will be to help you make your first food gardening season a real success. It is an ambitious plan on my part. Let's see how we go!

April - May is an ideal time to start!

The April - May period is an ideal time to start a food garden. However, if you are reading this article at some other time of the year, and you are keen to get started: please keep reading!  There will be heaps to learn in this series of articles, and it will tell you what can be done in each two-month period over the next 12 months, no matter at what time of year you start your veggie garden.

Today is a windy April-day with a top temperature of just 13 degrees.  We are near the end of Tasmania's growing season.  I am sure there are some moderately-warm sunny days yet to come, but from here on until the winter solstice temperatures will go down gradually.  Nature is going to slow down considerably.  Plants that are not force-fed or artificially-heated will take a whole lot longer to produce a crop than was the case in the middle of summer.

Please keep that in mind when you sow or plant in April - May.  When I sowed radishes in January it took them just 3 days to come up.  If I would sow them now, it might take 10 days for anything to show above soil. Everything grows so much slower now, or gradually goes into complete hibernation.

But don't go slow or in hibernation yourself at this point in time! One Food Garden Group member recently commented that 'not much happens in my garden in winter'. What a pity! Because winter creates opportunities!  There are no caterpillars that munch away and destroy your cabbage seedlings.  There are no aphid colonies that make your heads of broccoli too disgusting to eat. There are few or no slugs and snails that instantly eat all the young peas that emerge above ground.  Winter will be a slow time, but a good time to do things in the garden!

The best spot to start your food garden

It may be perfectly obvious where in your garden you are going to grow vegetables, because there is an area where there was a vegie-patch at some point in the past.  Besides, there is no room anywhere else. But before you start, please believe me when I say that where in your garden you are going to grow your vegetables can make the difference between success and failure!

I remember a Food Garden Group member telling me that they initially started where a vegie-patch had been in the past, but that the soil was so depleted and riddled with pests, that they decided to start anew somewhere else in their garden.

I also remember one visit to a food garden by our group last year when the hosts told me that they had made one big mistake. It stuck in my mind because we can all learn from it.

They explained that, when they moved into their newly constructed home in December, and went full bore planting trees and bushes in their new totally empty garden, they decided that their vegie-patch was going to be along the length of the house, right outside their kitchen.  That makes sense. You don't want to have to walk far on a rainy dark evening from your kitchen to pick a bit of silverbeet.

But they had overlooked one thing. When they decided to have their vegie-patch in that area in December it was in the sun all day, but as the season progressed towards mid-winter they began to realise that their vegie patch was shaded by the house for a good part of the day because their vegie-garden was right next to the house ... on the south-side.  It meant that they really can't grow much in their vegie-patch over winter.

When our group visited their garden that vegie patch was still in the same place, because they found, that once you plant all your trees and bushes, and make your path ways, it takes a lot of determination to move things around again. Often mistakes you make stay with you for a long time!

When you choose a spot for your vegie-patch make sure that ...

1. It is in the sun, even in mid-winter
2. Roots of nearby trees do not take away all the goodness you add to your food garden
3. It is not in a gully that becomes muddy after big rain falls
4. The soil is not all clay or left-over building-material rubbish from when your house was built
5. You leave room around your vegetable beds for flowers because flowers are crucial for attracting insects that will pollinate your fruiting vegetables such as pumpkins.

In Tasmania we can harvest fruit and vegetables from our garden all year round.  All it requires is that you put your food garden in the best spot in your garden!

Think outside the square! One of our Food Garden Group members has her veggie garden in her front garden right along the street.  Have a look at her garden here.

If you would like to know more about positioning and designing a food garden, there is blog post Starting a New Food Garden on the Food Garden Group blog that covers this subject.

Now find the shadiest spot in your garden ...

Why would you want to do that?  Because that will be the best spot for your compost bin or compost heap! For most food-gardeners making your own compost is an important part of having a successful vegie garden.  But why make your own if you can buy ready-to-use compost?

• Making compost in your own garden from your own food scraps and garden waste is an efficient way of processing these materials ‘at source’. It is surprising how many councils still do not collect green waste and turn it into compost. As a society we throw away too much. Your compost heap can help keep your food and garden waste out of council landfill areas.
• Compost made by you is probably going to be of much better quality than commercially produced compost and it won’t cost you a cent.
• Good compost is one of the key factors for a successful food garden, so why would you give away to your council, either in your green waste bin or at the local tip, the ingredients to make it.
• There is nothing more satisfying than enriching your garden with ‘your own black gold’.
• Rather than adding fertilisers directly to your garden where their effect might be too harsh and might damage beneficial organisms in your soil, your can use a compost heap to transform them into substances that can easily be taken up by plants and that will make your beneficial soil organisms thrive.

If you would like to know more about making compost, have a look at Making Compost - part 1

If are looking for some inspiration for making your own composting area, or you would like to know why I don't like plastic compost bins read Making Compost - part 2

Also: don't put your compost bin or heap in the shade of a tree.  Tree roots will invade your compost.  The tree will love it, but your compost won't be much good.

And lastly: don't put your compost heap on concrete or a paved or tiled surface.  Ideally a compost heap is always moist, but if it contains too much water, it needs to be able to escape.  A compost heap that is very wet over a long period will not produce good compost.

We are not going to talk about making compost right now, but it is good if you decide at this time where your compost bin or heap is going to be.

Make four beds ...

Someone not long ago suggested to me that raised beds, the ones that mean less bending over and less working on your knees, were for old people, and therefore she was not going to have any!

Okay, fine! The choice to raise your beds or have them at ground level is yours!  But I can tell you that, if the soil in your garden is black-clay or mostly-sand, you are setting yourself up for success by creating raised beds with nursery-bought food-garden soil/compost.  Don't expect nursery-bought soil or compost to be great, because it nearly never is, but it will be a much better starting point than having to improve really dense or sandy soil. Been there, done that, and in the end I gave up!

In these blog posts I will regularly talk about improving soil, and over time you can make not-fantastic soil really great!

So make yourself four beds, raised above ground level or at ground level. A couple of mistakes are often made at this point. 

Make sure that, if the area has a slope, the length of these beds is parallel to the slope, instead of down the slope.  The idea is that you make the soil-surface level, so that when you irrigate, the water does not immediately flow down hill.

The second mistake that is often made is that people make their beds too wide.  Make them narrow enough, so that, when you are right next to the bed (but not on the bed), you can reach the middle! It means that you will never have to stand on the bed, and therefore you will not compact the soil. Ideally you can walk around vegetable beds, so you can reach plants from all directions.

Galvanised iron beds are very popular.  They are strong, save a lot of work creating beds, and are not overly expensive.  Many suppliers will be happy to custom-make beds to your specifications.  

Another material that is popular is treated pine logs. Those who are handy with timber may find constructing raised beds with treated pine logs a very satisfying task.  You can make them precisely the right shape, length and width that fits your garden and the end result will be pleasing to the eye. 

Just be aware of one aspect: the chemicals used to stop the pine from rotting.  Some suppliers will claim that the chemicals they used are not poisonous.  I suggest that it will be best to assume that all treated pine contains a certain amount of poison.  If you line your treated pine raised beds with an impervious material such as corflute or thin hardwood boards you will keep leaking poisons away from your soil and all will be fine. A major reason for growing your own is to gain access to poison-free produce, so don't undo that by introducing poisons via timbers you use.  

Weed mat is not a good material to put on the inside of treated pine as it allows water through.  Thin plastic sheets might be okay, but you may pierce them.

Hardwood sleepers are really the best material for those who like to make their own raised beds.  They will cost twice as much a treated pine logs, but you won't need any lining on the inside of the bed, and that will save money and lower construction time.

I made some raised beds using galvanised iron sheets and treated pine boards.  The pine boards are on the outside and don't touch the soil inside the bed (see photo below).  I bought the pine and sheets at the tip shop and they did not cost me much.

You can find more tips and hints for adding raised beds to your food garden in Adding a Raised Bed on the Food Garden Group blog.

Now here is a bold promise ...

If you don't get into the habit to grow your vegetables just anywhere where there is space in your vegie-patch, but divide your vegetable garden into four areas, or have four raised beds, then you will get far fewer pests, your carrots won't fork (see photo below), your green vegetables will grow well and produce good crops, and your tomatoes won't just grow leaf, but plenty of tomatoes!

a forked carrot is perfectly edible, but not easy to peel

These are bold claims! But believe me, they are not hard to achieved if you arrange your vegetables as follows ...

Area 1: peas and beans (called 'Legumes') - they add nitrogen to your soil

Area 2: big eaters - vegetables that need a lot of nitrogen, compost and fertiliser

Area 3: root vegetables - without much nitrogen, fertilisers and other soil nutrients they won't fork

Area 4: potatoes and tomatoes (called 'Solanums')- need little if they are in good soil

Sounds difficult?  Turns out not to be difficult at all if you keep following this Vegie Patch Basics series.

Under the name 'crop rotation', the division of crops over four areas shown above is used by many food gardeners and professional growers, including in permaculture. The word 'rotation' is used because four areas are used as indicated above for one year, then the pea and bean area becomes big eater area and so on, in other words the use of each area rotates.  Not need to think about this now.  I will come back to it much later in the last blog post of this series of articles. If you are keen to learn more about crop rotation now, then read The Importance of Rotating Crops on the Food Garden Group blog.

For now, just divide the area in four, or have four beds.  By doing so you have made the first important step towards good management of your vegetable garden, because it is not just the crops that will be different in these four areas.  We will also treat the four areas and fertilise them in different ways as well.

Now prepare your beds ....

First remove all grasses, weeds and rocks

Removing weeds in summer can be a thankless task because very soon the next lot of weeds appear and a few weeks later you can hardly see where you weeded.  Not so in autumn and winter! Your beds will remain weedless for quite some time. Great!

One thing before we move on: don't just remove what is visible of the weeds above ground.  Remove  weeds completely including roots. That way the weeds do not regrow from an intact root system.
If, while pulling out weeds, roots and all, you find any pebbles, rocks, bits of brick, tiles, you name it, dig them out.  Get rid of them!
Earlier in this blog post we talked about the best spot for your compost bin or compost heap.  Put the weeds you pulled out, minus any seeds and seed heads, in that spot. Put the seeds and seed heads in your green waste bin or garbage bin.  We are going to let the weeds wilt a bit, then a month or so from now we will use them to start a compost heap.

Then aerate your soil

In the old days that meant a rigorous digging exercise to turn over soil.  Since then we have learnt that micro organisms makes a major difference in the health of the fruit and vegetables we grow. This is because healthy plants have a close physical relationship, a symbiosis, with the microbes around their roots, a relationship that is beneficial to both plants and microbes. Gardeners feed their plants manure, compost, fertilisers, mulch and minerals and assume that plants 'somehow eat' in order to grow and prosper. However, it is the microbes that make all that food available to the plants, and therefore we should disturb them as little as possible when we try to improve our soils.

So please do not rotary-hoe or dig your beds. The aim of what we are going to do is to add air to the soil  and to make it easier for water to penetrate. The micro-organisms in the soil will benefit from this, and your soil will improve.

To achieve this, stick a fork in the soil at the start of bed 1, wriggle it a bit backwards and forwards so the soil is slightly lifted. Then let it drop back to where it was before.  Then take the fork out and repeat the process a little bit further along, until you have perforated the whole bed with holes. Only three more beds to go, and then your whole vegie garden will be punctured with air-holes.  Also, next time it rains or next time you irrigate water will penetrate deeper than before.

By the way, if your fork finds any hard objects in your soil, once again dig them out and discard them.

Now add lime
Your soil may contain all the elements for optimal plant growth, but if its acidity/alkalinity level of the soil is wrong for what you grow, then plants will not be able to access the elements, or they may get too much. 

Acidity/Alkalinity is measured in what is called 'pH'.  The pH scale goes from 0.0 (extremely acid) to 7 (neutral) and then up to 14.0 (extremely alkaline). Most vegetables do best in soil with a pH between 6 and 7.  Most Tasmanian soils have a natural pH between 4.5 and 5.5. We will talk about measuring soil acidity/alkalinity in a later article in this series.  If you want to know more about this subject now, Food Garden Group blog post Acid or Alkaline? gives you the full story.

Adding lime to soil increases its pH. It will be safe to assume that the vegetables you are going to grow in your Tasmanian vegie-patch will benefit from the addition of lime to raise the pH to ideally between 6 and 7.

Please buy agricultural lime at a hardware store or nursery. Dolomite is a type of lime that is also good to use, but long-term use of dolomite can cause problems, so agricultural lime is best.  Put a fair amount of lime in a bucket, then by hand broadcast it over the whole area where you are going to grow vegetables. Now let's be clear about this. We are not looking for a thick layer of lime covering the entire area. We are looking for a good sprinkling of lime, so the soil is still visible, but the lime is nicely dispersed over the area. 

Rake this in, then water your whole vegie-patch, so the soil is moist to at least a few centimetres deep. As a result of this, the pH will gradually raise somewhat over coming months. Then we will do a pH test and decide whether more lime is needed.

One last thing: ideally you wait at least a week before moving on to the next step (sowing and planting), in order to allow the lime to begin its work, but if you are in a hurry, go ahead, no real harm done!

We are now ready for sowing and planting!

This series of blog posts continues with Vegie Patch Basics - 2

See you there,

Max Bee