Spring is a great time to hit the garden, with the weather warming up and the winter frost evaporating it is the time of year that Australia comes to life again.
Creating your own veggie patch is a perfect project for yourself will not only will it look great, but it will deliver fresh food for spring cooking as well.
Here are some tips for creating a simple, affordable and effective veggie patch in your yard.
Plan which vegetables you want to plant in advance
A veggie garden is not something you can do ad hoc; different vegetables require different conditions and maintenance so make a list of the veggies you want to plant and look up their care requirements so you can be prepared for success.
Start planting indoors
Perfecting your planting techniques may take some time, but you can get the jump on the project by starting planting in pots inside. This gives you the chance to experiment and develop techniques before diving into a full vegetable garden project.
Start a compost project
You can get your nutrients for your soil for free by composting your scraps, leaves and other natural debris today. You don’t need an expensive compost bin either, get a few old pallets for free to border it all in and you will have all the nutrients you need.
Prep the ground
Before you start building your raised bed (coming up soon), it is crucial to prepare the ground by removing all grass and then laying down a tarp or black plastic, staking the corners. You can also use landscape fabric, and both will help prevent weeds from shooting through.
Prepare a raised bed
You can plant vegetables in containers and experience a lot of success. Still, if you want a genuine veggie garden, then a raised bed is going to be more beneficial than planting directly into the soil. You can use simple products like cinder blocks or recycling old pallets to create the walls of your raised garden and that compost (combined with soil) you have been preparing to fill it. The best part about cinder blocks is that you can plant herbs in the holes in the centre of them. Having a raised area will mean you have plenty of drainage, so ensure you are topping up your plot with compost regularly.
How to continue to care for your veggie garden
You are going to need to tend to your garden often to ensure maximum success. The optimal time for watering is just after planting and then again only when the edible parts are starting to form. After your soil and mulch have been warmed up by the spring sun, add another layer of mulch on top and then replace it as required.
Look out for any errant weeds regularly, or they are going to take over your veggie garden. Pests can be an issue as well; an excellent natural remedy against crawling insects like caterpillars is to sprinkle broken eggshells throughout the nursery bed – they won’t be able to crawl over it.
