How many of you have this resolution stuck on your fridge at the dawn of a new year: “Grow some fruit and vegies.”? Lots of you, I hope, because of all the resolutions you could possibly make, home growing is not only one of the most do-able, it’s also one of the most exciting. There’s the promise of basket loads of delicious food for starters, which I can guarantee will be better tasting and infinitely fresher than the stuff on offer at the supermarket.

But there’s more to it than just physical pleasure. For me, home growing is one of the most deeply satisfying things I do. This is due in part to the nature of the work, whereby good stuff is produced through gratifying toil, but even more profound is the sense that you’re tapping into ancient rhythms. With lives dominated by a 24 hour news cycle rather than the cycles of night and day, full moon and new, summer and winter, the choice to take up home growing is a choice to reconnect.

Ahead of you then, new home growers, is an exhilarating, and occasionally frustrating journey. The best advice I can give is to start out brimming with enthusiasm. Let no one temper it. You’re right to be excited, and the best way to get started is to simply get stuck in and have a go. Vegetable growing isn’t as difficult as some gardeners claim, so chances are good that your initial efforts will be rewarded with admirable results. In turn, these results will spur you on to a new level of competency.

In practical terms, how should you actually make a start? Well, the very first thing you ought to do is spend some time laying out your plot. Make it as simple or elaborate as you wish. Perhaps start small and leave room for expansion, but don’t feel that you need to skimp on design just because you’re planning a vegetable patch. Make it beautiful and functional. Once the layout is in place it’s time to work on that most miraculous building block of life, the soil.

The very best thing you can do is improve existing site soil by adding plenty of compost and rotted manure, checking to make the pH is neither too acidic or too alkaline. If you’ve built raised beds and need to bring soil in, try to buy real soil rather than one of the soil-less mixes. Either way, get plenty of organic matter into your plot for good long term results.

Now that you’ve improved the soil, it’s time for plants. This is where most new home growers totally lose the plot and buy a boot load of this, that and everything else. Well, so be it. Who am I to tell you shouldn’t go a bit overboard in your first season? Kylie and I did. We grew lots of things we didn’t really eat, but the experimentation was brilliant fun and what we didn’t like using ourselves got donated to friends and rellies. I’d call that a good outcome, wouldn’t you. I repeat, let no one temper your enthusiasm.

Try growing some crops from seed. Some easy plants to start with are beans, corn, rocket, beetroot and pumpkin. Sow just beneath the surface of finely prepared soil, and keep evenly moist until seedlings appear in about seven days. When they’re up and have grown a second set of leaves, thin the seedlings out to the spacings recommended on the packet.

Now comes the trickiest part – maintenance. Some garden writers will tell you that vegetables are prone to all manner of pests and diseases. This is only half true. For a new garden’s first couple of seasons, pests will be yet to really discover your plot. In subsequent years this will change, so use the opportunity now to practise some organic control measures. Most importantly, don’t flip out every time a hole appears in a leaf. Most problems aren’t serious and can either be controlled or ignored. Keep the soil well fed and well watered. My approach to pest control is a combination of prevention, building biodiversity, treating acute problems, and practising the fine art of turning a blind eye.

Above all else, go for it! You’re about to take up one of life’s truly noble pursuits, a source of endless joy and boundless satisfaction. Tune into the seasons, don a straw hat, take up a spade and start digging. Long live the home grower!

First published in The Chronicle 16th January, 2010. Photo by Justin Russell.

Backyard chooks

If you’re a regular reader of Secret Garden, you’ll remember that at the start of 2008, I spilled my guts and let all and sundry know my theme for the year. If you’re new to this column though, welcome, and here’s the low down: I don’t make New Year resolutions. Maybe they work for you, but I’ve found that if I resolve to lose five kilograms in the coming year, for example, I’ll almost inevitably put five on by the time December rolls around. Instead, I make a theme.

For 2008 my theme was “reconnect”. The impetus came when I realised how disconnected I was from the source of so many things in life, particularly food, and I decided that I would strive to “bridge the gap” by developing an understanding of where my food actually comes from, in addition to growing as much of my own as possible. It wasn’t a measurable, specific goal, but looking back, I can see that I’ve made a significant amount of progress both in my thinking and behaviour. I’ve bridged some gaps.

For 2009, I’ve decided that my theme will be “sustainable”. By way of explanation, I should probably start by noting that the term sustainability is notoriously difficult to define. One common expression is “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Another approach is the “triple bottom line” or “three pillars”, which is commonly used in a business context. This suggests that sustainability is about the good of the planet and people in addition to sound economics.

However you define it, though, the common denominator in all approaches to sustainability is the environment, so my focus is one of environmental sustainability, particularly as it relates to domestic living, and even more narrowly, home gardening. Let me phrase it another way: gardening should make a positive contribution to the health of the environment, and this year, I’m determined to implement changes that help facilitate such a contribution. If that still sounds a bit highfalutin, I’m looking at a range of practical measures including the following.

1. Replacing petrol powered tools with electric power and manual labour. The most obvious example of this change, even though I don’t own one, is sweeping the path instead of firing up the noisy, dirty two-stroke blower. Some other suggestions might be the use of hedging shears or a cordless electric hedge trimmer rather than a petrol powered model.

2. Producing home-made fertiliser and other soil amendments from manure, compost or worm juice. This is where a backyard flock of chickens really come into their own, recycling all your organic waste and converting it into eggs, manure, and if you’re so inclined, meat. If you don’t have room for chooks, you’ll almost certainly have room for a worm farm or a bokashi bucket.

3. Rainwater harvesting and efficient irrigation. I’d like a bigger rainwater tank or two, and the plan this year is to set up efficient drip irrigation to fruit trees and windbreaks. My aim is to be completely self-sufficient in harvesting and storing rainwater for garden use.

4. Purchase quality long lasting tools that rarely, if ever need to be replaced. The cliché that we live in a throwaway society has never been truer than it is today. My favourite gardening fork is an heirloom that belonged to my grandfather, and is going just as strong as it did when purchased more than 40 years ago. The same can’t be said of many gardening tools, which tend to be complete junk that needs regular replacement. My new goal is to buy something once, and make it last.

5. Avoid excess packaging and recycle. The amount of plastic packaging that my family tossed in the bin this Christmas was something to be ashamed of. I already recycle and reuse plant pots, but I reckon I can do a lot more to reduce the other bits of packaging that my gardening efforts produce.

These are just a few areas to kick things off, and I’m sure many more will come into view as the year progresses. Why don’t we do it together? If you have an idea or take an action that makes your garden more sustainable, let me know by mail or email, and I’ll make a note of it in this year’s Garden Cuttings section. Here’s to a more sustainable 2009!

First published in the Toowoomba Chronicle 3rd January, 2009