I’m no green thumb. I’ve neglected many plants in my time, even the succulent variety that I chose for their hardiness. I am getting better though. I realise now that they actually need watering (sometimes daily), sun, fertiliser and some attention to keep them mostly happy. With this newfound knowledge, I’ve created an edible container garden, just outside my back door on the deck and, it makes me so happy!
Having a veggie patch is something I’ve quite honestly dreamt of for years, but I always thought I’d need to build something in a garden. That was put on hold because I’ve lived in apartments and then since moving to New Zealand, we’ve been renting, so I can’t just dig up a garden and even if I did, I might have to move on and leave it behind.
The spring before last, I started researching edible container gardens. Mostly what came up for me were these huge expensive wooden planters that I really couldn’t justify spending money on. Then more and more, I saw how people were using smaller pots and dotting them around their regular plants.
This last spring we set off to the garden centre, determined to be able to harvest food and not just herbs from my very own garden. Little did I know what pure joy this little experiment would give me.
We came back armed with a lemon tree, five heads of lettuce that they told us we could harvest the outer leaves as we go, rocket, two varieties of tomatoes (supergold supertom and totem), strawberries, parsley, basil and a couple of marigolds to ward off pests. They joined the rosemary bush and the feijoa tree, that we bought for our feijoa obsessed son.
The rocket didn’t last, it got infested with caterpillars pretty quickly. Funny enough, it shared a pot with the parsley and they didn’t get affected. Within a couple of weeks of planting the lettuce we were able to harvest them weekly. Two out of the five didn’t go so well, so I removed them to give room to the other three. They took off and have since given a family of five, one to sometimes two big salads a week for the last eleven weeks, just from harvesting the outer leaves. Coupling that with the crops of tomatoes has been the most rewarding. Suddenly I’m going back to a simple salad so that I can experience the true flavours.
Other than our problem with the rocket, the others have been free of pests although the kids haven’t managed to beat the birds to most of the strawberries. Perhaps we’ve been lucky, or perhaps it’s the couple of Marigolds that helped. The lettuce have had some aphids which I’ve controlled by spraying with a solution of warm soapy water with garlic. Just to be sure we don’t some extra protein in our salad, I soak the picked leaves in the sink with water and a dash of cheap vinegar so that any insects drop off. That’s a little trick I learnt from Guillaume’s Grandmother in France and is good for store bought lettuce too, as I’ve found a few caterpillars in the water in my time.
Now I just wonder what I’ll do in the winter. We have so much rain in Auckland at that time of year that I’m not sure if much would survive. I’d love some tips of what to grow then. Do you have any edibles that you grow at home?
For my New Zealand readers, I wish you all a happy Waitangi Day!
Mel xx
P.S. Did you know I will soon send out my first newsletter? You can subscribe here and if you do so by the end of next Tuesday, you will go into the draw to win a $100 store credit to my Great.ly Store.
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Oh yummmm this looks so good, Mel! And it makes me want to try again this year. Last year I knew I’d be too busy to keep any veggies, but I loved eating our own fresh salads the year before. Our garden soil is not suitable for a veggy garden, but I had a square meter garden in wood. It’s impressive how much you can grow & harvest on such a small m2. Do the kids help with harvesting too? Eating your own tomatoes makes you proud, don’t you think? I have no idea what to grow in the rain… but maybe there’s a helpful gardening blog out there ;)
It’s sooo good! Yes the kids do help, they helped with planting also so it’s been a very rewarding exercise for all of us. I think I’m going to take a trip to the garden centre in preparation for Autumn and then winter… I so hope you go for it this year, I’m sure that you would inspire many! M xx
How lovely, that’s pretty good going to get that much salad. Great tips about the added protein, by Mum has always grown lettuce and cabbages, but the amount of caterpillars I found in my dinner as a kid, always put me off growing them or eating the ones she gives me now, complete with half a gardens worth of mud usually
Ohhh no! I would be turned off too. I promise no mud or surprises in my salad if you ate here. xx
It all looks so fresh! And good tips for battleing the ‘extra protein’ ;) Enjoy!
Thanks Yvonne, yes I’m never a fan of finding surprises on my salad. xx M