Veggies

When you look over the area where you are thinking of placing a veggie patch, there are a number of things that you need to consider and while none of them are deal breakers, picking the site with most of the right factors will make your journey into veggie growing easier, more pleasant and more productive. In the end, most difficulties can be fixed or at least allowed for and your choices will be limited in an urban or suburban area so when looking for your site pick the best you can but don’t worry if it isn’t perfect, the important thing is to get out there and grow!

1. Aspect – In other words, which way does the land face, north or north east is best, so that you get the most amount of light. This is very important in Europe, less so here in Australia with our abundant sunshine. Having said that it is possible to reduce light levels if you have plenty, less easy if you are already operating on the minimum level.
2. Shade – Also related to light levels, broken shade can lend itself to lettuce and strawberries, full shade can be very restricting. So where available, full sun it is!
3. Soil type – While you can grow almost anything in almost any soil, but the better your soil is to start with the less work you will have to do to make it productive. Generally soil contains various percentages of sand, clay and silt. To get a rough idea what your soil is like, make a 2cm ball out of wet soil with your hand and then drop it. If it feels gritty and falls apart when it hits, it is mostly sand, if it feels greasy and slightly flattens when it hits it is mostly clay, but generally it will be somewhere in between! Sandy soil is hungry (needs nutrients and water) but is well drained, clay soil is very good nutritionally but has poor drainage. Put a calcium salt like agricultural lime or dolomite on a clay soil to break it up, and any soil will benefit from organic matter such as compost. If your soil is concrete and you don’t want to dig it up, consider raised beds or container gardening.
4. Drainage – this is how quickly water drains away when you stop adding more. In general terms a clay soil is poorly drained and sandy soils are well drained, but you might find boggy patches in low lying sections of any soil. If drainage is a problem, build a bog garden in the area or put in a pond, but if the whole of your back yard is poorly drained and your neighbours won’t find it funny if you divert the water in to their place, go for raised beds again.
5. Slope – this affects drainage and aspect, if you have steeply sloping land you might think of putting in terracing or swales, but more likely it will be a gentle slope because those are the areas we tend to build up. A gentle slope will assist in drainage and if it slopes down towards the north or northeast it will provide a better aspect.
6. Existing plants – If you have a yard full of tall trees (which council won’t let you cut down) it makes growing veggies more difficult from the point of view of shading, but also the trees will pirate any fertility you try and put into the soil to grow veggies. Again, raised beds on an impervious base or use of containers may be the answer. On the other hand if the land is growing a good crop of “weeds” or grass that is a good indication of a well drained, fertile soil.
7. Access – The easier it is to get to your veggies the more likely it is that you will take the time to wander down there and, weed, pick, mulch or generally lie down amongst them. If you have a big yard, you still might want to site the veggie patch close to the back door of the house to make access easier for yourself.
   Remember, don’t be too despondent if your site isn’t ideal, almost any problem can be fixed or at least compensated for by the varieties of vegetables you grow.

All sites will suffer from one or a number of problems and unless you are looking to supply your local fruit and vegetable shop year around, you will be able to work out a compromise and produce some food in almost any area.

When you do go looking for your first (hopefully first of many) place to grow, don’t fixate on the back yard, there are many other opportunities for setting up places to grow food –

The front yard – we have two wicking beds growing perennial as well as annual vegetables, our herb spiral, the banana circle and ten fruit trees in our front yard. We have never had a problem with pilferage. It is a sad fact that much of what you can grow in your front yard will not be recognised as food by the general public so it will probably be safe. On the plus side growing food in your front yard may produce opportunities to make friends and discuss urban food growing with your friends, neighbours or even passersby.

Patios, decks or Balconies – depending on their aspect and how much sun they receive can be a good place to site veggie boxes, wicking boxes or self watering containers to grow fruit and veggies in. Even standard pots and planters can produce food with a little bit of effort and because they will be close to the house they will be quick and easy to harvest. You do need to check that the structures will support the weight of the pot, growing medium and plants but in most cases you should have no problems with a few Styrofoam veggie boxes.

Roofs – the flat roof of sheds or garages can be used as growing spaces too with the same things to look out for as patios, decks and balconies above. One way of using the extra space afforded by a roof is to build a no-dig garden which is lighter than conventional gardens for the same volume or a hydroponic set up could also be considered. One point worth noting is that there should be no drainage allowed from the growing container onto the roof if you plan to use the roof as a catchment for rainwater.

Window Boxes/Sills - While somewhat out of fashion a window box, either home produced or bought can be used to grow herbs or vegetables, depending on the light available. On the inside of the window, small self watering pots can be placed on the window sill and used to grow small vegetables, greens or herbs.
Inside the House – If you have a flat surface inside that gets a few hours of sun a day you can use it to grow Microgreens and even if you have areas that don’t get any sun at all you can still grow sprouts or mushrooms.

Your Families’, Friends’ or Neighbours Yard – Even if you live in a flat with only one window that gets no direct sun at any time during the day, you can canvas your nearest and dearest or even those less near and dear to lend you growing space in their yard. Ideally within walking distance of your place of residence, land owned by others can be used by you to produce food for yourself, with a percentage donated to the land owner in lieu of rent. If you can get access to land owned by others you will still be producing food in the city or suburbs as well as developing your growing skills and improving your nutrition.

Allotments and Community Gardens – There may be land available in your area for nominal rent or for work done on the site in allotments, generally run by the local government or community gardens which may be run privately by members or by local government bodies as well. If you have no land or growing space on offer, contact your local council and see what is available in your area.

Before leaving the process of selecting your veggie patch site, we do need to talk a little bit about how big the veggie patch should be. If you haven’t grown vegetables before it is best to start off with a small space and work up, a small space worked effectively is much more productive than the larger one let go because it takes too much to keep up with. While I do have issues with those enthusiastic garden writers who declare “it is possible to grow all the vegetables for a family of 4 in a 3metre by 3metre square” (all I can say is that they must eat out a lot!) with care and planning you can grow a proportion of your veggies even in a flat.
The beds are best kept 1metre to 1.2 metres wide so that you can get to all parts by leaning across them and not have to walk on the beds themselves, because this causes soil compaction, reducing the amount of air in the soil and causing poor drainage.

We currently have about 35 square metres of veggie beds and they provide food (in a larger or smaller amount) almost every day of the year.

So after looking at all of these points and deciding roughly where would be best to put in your veggie bed(s) and how big they should be, it is time for a bit of planning.