Sunday, March 22, 2020

Can we grow some food in a small space?



My son and his family are coming back to Perth and are going to be buying a place near the Swan Valley -about 30 minutes from here.

The house is about 10 years old, and is in a development where all the houses are pretty big but on small blocks. My daughter in law wants to grow some food and has asked for my help. She has the aim of having herbs outside that she can cut whenever she needs them -instead of paying huge amounts for tiny bunches. She wants the kids to be able to eat more vegetables -and they have already demonstrated that they are much more likely to do that if they have grown it themselves.

The house has two garden spaces -on the north side a small walled garden, and on the south a bit of a bigger area- as you can see in the picture above this area has more sun. It has the potential to be a bit windy.



The garden is typical of houses in Perth -poor sandy soil and there are a few struggling plants which used to be connected to a drip line irrigation -now not working. There is a bit of lawn -a bit straggly, and a sunny area on the east that I have my eye on as a possible place for a fruit tree or two.


With the world the way it is, it is going to be important that any gardening we do is as cheap as is possible! We have had some early successes in this regard.


On a walk around the block this week I came upon a neighbour's place which had 4 of these raised garden beds on offer for the very cheap price of $25 each -they are more than $100 each when new. We are very thrilled with these because they can go on some of the paved areas, and are narrow enough not to take up too much space. We plan to put a straw bale in the bottom of them and put potting mix on top. The straw will rot down eventually and we can keep topping it up. We can control the soil quality in them for quick harvests while we work on the rest of the place.

We also have picked up a plastic compost bin -for free- from someone we know. This garden will benefit from lots of organic matter being part of it's future!


There is a small lemon tree in the backyard -I think the compost bin could go nearby and feed the tree. I haven't had a good look at this tree -it may be shooting from its root stock, but we will see.

We have also got 3 vouchers for the local Council's free mulch -they make it from the green waste which is collected once a fortnight from houses in our area. This will be great to help us conserve moisture in the garden beds. 

I have started some seedlings and cuttings in readiness for the garden: mizuna, curry leaf, peas, lemon grass, dill,  warrigal greens, along with some ornamentals. I have just moved their trolley out of the sun -it is still getting hot here and some of them needed a drink after I did so! I also have larger pots of spring onions, celery, mint and parsley. 


There are some online resources which are encouraging us as we start this venture.

This short story from Gardening Australia looks at a small and very productive garden -click here and this one about a share house is also good -click here

While the garden comes together here, we can of course share the produce from my own garden. DDIL is very happy to see my lime harvest begin! She loves limes and lemons, but hates paying exorbitant prices for them -don't we all! I will soon have many more, and the Meyer lemons are colouring now. I also have pink grapefruit which are not too far away from harvest.



This seems like the best time to start a garden -with various lock downs and social isolation, we will need activities to keep us busy, and will have plenty of time at home to do the work.  The kind of savings we can make -and the more nutritious and flavourful food we can grow and eat -are going to be worth the effort. I have been spending a couple of hours per day in the garden -I get a lot of mental health benefits from being outside and helping things grow. I find I can focus on the now, and not worry so much when I am outside.

Are you gardening? Do you have a small garden like this? Any suggestions? 



5 comments:

TheAwakenedSoul said...

Yes, I'm definitely gardening. I've got a small potager garden in front of my cottage, and an orchard in the backyard. Right now I'm harvesting Meyer lemons, blood oranges, and herbs. Soon the ruby red grapefruit and apricots will be ready. The rhubarb looks promising, too. I have tiny onions to plant, zucchini, tomatoes, and herbs. I'm so glad that I mulched the soil and have been adding to the compost pile for years. Good luck with your new garden.

Anita M said...

The very best thing for sandy, hydrophobic soil is a product called Soil Matters. It contains among other things, kaolin clay, which enhances soil health and water retention. It is a 'forever' fix and saves money down the track with soil wetting agents. I have no affiliation with it's makers. Just happy with the product.

sustainablemum said...

It sounds like you have some wonderful plans for this garden space. I think the only advice I would give, after years of gardening in the totally unpredictable weather we get in the UK is to accept that there will be some failures but to keep trying and to only grow what you conditions will cope with. I have had to stop growing courgettes, cucumber and tomatoes outside as we just don't get enough warm days for them to fruit and ripen but they are fine in the polytunnel. Keep it fun!

Meg said...

I planted out some veg last weekend. I put in some little lettuce seedlings, 2x heritage cherry tomatoes, beetroot, perpetual spinach, heirloom eggplant and snow peas. There's lots of spring onion and different herbs growing in my garden. They self seed everywhere.

I grow a dwarf mulberry, blueberry bushes, a bay tree and one pineapple in pots. I am waiting to see if the pineapple, which I grew from a top, will fruit or not.

I think you can grow a really abundant garden in small spaces. One book that I thing has some great ideas for this is Indira Naidoo's "The Edible Balcony".

Meg:)

Nanna Chel said...

We have 1/2 acre so can't help out with ideas for growing in a small space. Josh on Gardening Australia always has good tips on growing veggies in WA as you know.

How wonderful that the children will be able to help with the gardening and help grow veggies. I wish my grandchildren could but there is too much lead in the soil where they live.