Vege gardening - amateur styles!

Pretty much since we moved into our house almost 8 years ago I have dabbled in vege gardening. My family always had a massive vege garden (I grew up on an orchard), and although I hate gardening anything that doesn't produce food (you should see some of the garden surrounding our house, or weed patches!), I feel very satisfied when I can produce something edible.

My gardening style is very much low maintenance. If it requires too much care it will just die or go to seed, and I won't grow it again. I do not use any form of pesticide on the garden, partially because I don't like the idea of putting it on my food, partially because it requires far too much effort. I do use fertiliser when I remember, sometimes organically certified, sometimes not. I always put a big layer of compost on the garden before planting it to ensure the plants get a good start to life. Things that are easy to grow from seed I grow from seed, things that require too much effort I buy seedlings.

Our garden is organised into 3 rectangular beds and an L-shape garden that is half taken up by perennial herbs. 1 rectangular bed is slowly being taken over by berries which I planted over winter, but at the moment there is room to still plant some veges. Every year I make a rotational plan for the garden, but I never follow it and just try not to plant the same thing in the same spot 2 years in a row. As you can see my gardening style is very low key!

As part of this blog I thought I would share what I am doing in the garden each month, and also some of my successes and failures in the vege growing department. Just to show you that my garden is a mix of beautifully growing vegetables and mess/ veges heading for failure here are some pics:

Herb garden with thyme, oregano, mint, parsley, basil, lemon balm, chamomile, rosemary and rhubarb all of which are very easy to grow:

Purple dwarf beans, carrots and silverbeet - again all really easy to grow:

Raspberries and blackberries working at overtaking the garden, assorted salad greens, leeks and onions (all very easy to grow). Some experimental capsicum and aubergine and chilli plants. Notice the big gap that Ellie has claimed as her digging spot. It has had cucumber and spinach planted in it but they are no match for her efforts with a spade!!!

Sweetcorn and courgettes, both very easy to grow from seed.

And the odd one out - the weed patch!!!!! I plan to plant this with stuff in early autumn or late summer when the others are still full of productive plants. Not ideal as the weeds are not going to be easy to rid of!!!!

Tomatoes in pots. Tomatoes and I have a checked past. Last year I coaxed all sorts of heirloom tomatoes from seed, lovingly planted them in the garden, pinched out all the latterals.... and then they all got blight and died before the tomatoes were ripe!!!!! If you look in the Yates garden guide there is at least a page about all the issues tomatoes can have and the concoctions of chemicals you can apply to them. Bugger that! This year I am attempting cherry tomatoes in pots in the hope they don't get diseased and because you don't have to pinch out latterals. They aren't looking their best though I have to say. Oh well!

So that is my vege garden and I will keep you updated on information and ideas as I practice them. In terms of what to do in your garden at this time of year I really don't recommend planting anything as it is too hot and you are probably going to go away on holiday and leave everything to die anyway! It you do have veges planted water them regularly and deeply. I like to do mine every 3 evenings. If you water them little and often the roots grow more shallowly and they will not be as hardy, so every 2 - 4 days and deeply is a better practice to follow. Mulching is also a brilliant idea, but as you can see I haven't got round to it this year. Weed them and fertilise regularly for best growth.

As my veges produce (I was late planting all my summer vege crops) I will also be working out some recipes to share. Be prepared for 100 ways to use zucchinis in a month or so!