I have 30 square metres of raised vegie garden beds. It’s not enough! I could make good use of double that without running into soil building or harvest distribution problems, but it’s all the space I can really spare for annuals on this little 500m2 suburban block. But by halving the amount of time a plant spends in the garden, I effectively double the garden space.
It all just boils down to sun, soil and water, and on a small, urban site, sun is the limiting factor.
Aphids have discovered my broad beans. Best way I’ve discovered yet to deal with them is to tap the broad bean tip onto the palm of my hand, which gives me a handful of aphids easy to squash (and a handful of squashed aphids).
This is the third, and last of my three major soil building factories – the worm farm. The hardest part was getting the cast iron bathtub. It was on Gumtree as a giveaway, come and get it, bring a trailer. Beauty. What they didn’t say was that it down over the edge of the drive on a slippery muddy slope at the top of a very steep driveway with no…
Chooks and worms do the bulk of my soil building, but compost can only contain the micronutrients of the ingredients that go into it. Using some ingredients from trees that deep mine subsoil, and some weeds that are dynamic accumulators helps, but the hero for micronutrients is seaweed, and the best way I’ve (yet) discovered to process it is by fermenting.
First pick (of many to come) of Madagascar beans for storage. In my subtropical climate, I’m looking at bananas (including plantain), cassava, taro, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, yams and beans as storable calories, and these Madagascar beans look like becoming a mainstay of the system.
The biggest (by far) mistake that I see beginner food gardeners make is underestimating the payoff you get for soil building. Water, sun, the right plant for the season, heritage varieties, pest predators – they are all important, but nothing gives you more harvest for effort than building soil.