There is certainly great satisfaction in harvesting something you’ve grown from the veggie patch and then preparing and serving it at the kitchen table. We have been nurturing our little patch for a few years now and have learnt  lessons about what are the most fruitful, resilient and easy care plants are in our subtropical, Central Queensland environment.  There is also a knack in how best to manage the fine balance of feast or famine which seems to go with growing your own food.

 While we’re a little way off being fully self sufficient, and our dedication to the homegrown cause has an energy that ebbs and flows,  it seems spending around 15 minutes a day in the patch almost guarantees that there is always something to harvest.

We have five garden beds that we rotate between. They are slightly raised, and are essentially not ever dug deeply but rather regularly built up with composted manure from the cattle, milker, horse or pig yard.  Before planting, we add a wheelbarrow of well rotted (stockpiled for 6 months) manure to each square metre of bed, rake it until the tilth appears fine and then plant the seedlings of choice.

We’ve had little success growing from seed and so have tried most seedling varieties from Bunnings and now have a list of ones that have proven a sure thing and those that we know will struggle to produce. We don’t use any spray or chemicals in the  patch and so those veggies prone to insect attack often succumb to the pressure and fail. If our Winter’s were colder then cabbage, silver beet, broccoli and cauliflower would also be on the menu. We have tried, with little success …….

Because of our mild climate, most veggies produce year round providing water is kept up. We do have a shadier bed which is planted up in the heat of summer as the lettuce seeks some respite from the sun’s bite. The winners year round for us have been lettuce, zucchini, basil, rocket, eggplant, capsicum, chilli, coriander, spring onions, leeks, sage, parsley, oregano, beetroot, cucumbers and snow peas. Buying a punnet or 2 of seedlings each week or fortnight is a great way to spread the feast and give  a much longer harvest. Corn is also a winner apart from in the dead of winter when the hours of daylight are short. Tomatoes are fruitful but we do share quite a few with the insects and we have determined the smaller, cherry type tomatoes are the hardiest. Of course, the teeny tiny wild tomatoes that germinate from rotten fruit and grow with wild abandon over the back fence are the sweetest and most prolific!

With no roundup or weedicide used, we grow a fair portion of weeds. These are just pulled out as time permits. (The kids, with a little bit of direction, are pretty handy at pulling out the unproductive plants.) I do use the whipper snipper to keep the grass between the garden beds neat and tidy.

Vigorous vines such as pumpkin, cucumber and sweet potato are also winners and have their own area. Our pumpkin vine has been relegated to a spot behind the shed where it can ramble to its hearts content. We’re harvesting wheelbarrow loads now as the vine dries back and leaves dry off to uncover fruit scattered over a quarter of an acre.

Likewise the sweet potato enjoys its own space. We mulch the patch heavily around August each year which seems to encourage the vine’s resurgence. Cucumber is another vine that delivers a feast. The fruit is easily pickled for shelf life.

The regular addition of composted manure (and hay) has meant we have a healthy population of worms.  I often have a gardening companion waiting to catch his early dinner of an afternoon.

It would be remiss not to  add that a robust, rabbit proof fence has been an essential element of our production system. There has been occasion when the gate has been left ajar and we’ve woken to a well trimmed lettuce and parsley crop.

My latest project has been getting a rose garden underway. We’ve had some success and some challenges. Roses have been rewarding but I haven’t mastered them without spray. Any clues or tips to share?

 

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