Years ago, when our parents planted out their vegie patches, they turned over the soil, mixed some sheep manure through, planted their seeds and then came out every day to turn on the sprinklers to give them water. After a month or so, they would grab their basket and head out just before dinner to harvest some vegetables for the dinner tables and when they found a snail or a caterpillar, they would squash them with their foot. Simple.
And do you know what? There might be progress in the world with the invention of computers, cars with automatic parking and phones that can be carried in the pocket but still, a shoe is still quite capable of squashing a snail, water still comes out of the sprinklers and sheep still produce manure.
Gardening is still gardening….it’s not rocket science. Well, unless you’re growing rocket of course!
Why is it that people now thing that gardening, the simple act of planting a vegie garden, is so difficult? Some people are so sure that they don’t have the skills to do this that they even pay an ‘expert’ to come in and do it for them. I can tell you now, there are no experts in the world of planting vegetables and anyone, and I mean anyone, can do it.
I heard Heston Blumenthal say that anyone who has a favourite dish or likes food can cook if they want to. And gardening is exactly the same. If you want to do it, you can do it.
Don’t think that you need every single garden product that is on the shelf, in the magazines or on the tv either. I’m not saying that they are bad products, I just think that with so much choice out there it becomes too confusing for new gardeners so they don’t even give it a go. That’s such a shame.
All you need to start a vegie patch is a weed-free area of ground with 6 hours of sunlight, some manure to dig through it, an efficient method of watering it and some seeds or seedlings that suit the season. Oh, and a shoe to squash the snails.
After that, keep an eye on them and if you see something odd, perhaps the leaves are yellow or a few holes appear, solve that problem when you come to it. Use our website to help; we’ve kept it simple for that very reason. If you have any questions, just ask us as we’re always ready with great gardening advice and we promise not to turn it into rocket science.