Being able to grow fresh, organic food for my family and friends is one of the most exciting and important things for me… and certainly one of the main reasons I wanted to move here…. to give me the space to do this. I have grand plans for one day being almost totally self sufficient in veggies and eggs…. but I know I have to start small and slowly expand as my understanding and knowledge grows with the plants. It’s just sooooo hard to not dig up half an acre and plant EVERYTHING now!!! I’ve devoured about 8 organic gardening books, cover to cover, in the past 5 months… I don’t think I’ve studied so hard since UNI! BUT…. I now have to put all this theory into practice… hmmm… just put shovel in the ground and start digging!

So the site we’ve chosen is the sunniest part of the property… right on our northerly fence line. There are already some established tiered garden beds on one side… predominantly established with weeds…. but I think there are a few herbs, roses and camellias in there somewhere! The weathered fence is in need of some assistance in standing… especially after I’ve removed most of the ivy, honeysuckle and some other matted weed from it… I think they were holding it up!!!! Between fence and weed garden there is lawn… but lawn divided up with rotting railway sleepers… perhaps once part of the tiered weed garden! SO… I’ve planned my first lot of beds around the existing sleepers… and now digging and weeding begins!

After removing the weeds from the four large tiered beds, and creating another four new beds in the lawn, I dug through lots of compost and a few different types of manures and some dynamic lifter…. then I let it sit like this for a few weeks to warm up and let any weeds show themselves!

After a few weeks, as patient as I wanted to be…. I couldn’t resist snapping up some seedlings to trial an early plant. So on August 1st I planted lots of goodies… lavender, chives, rocket, lettuce, leek, peas, snow peas, coriander, parsley, thyme, sage, spinach, rosemary, silverbeet and beetroot….

On August 2nd (day after I’d planted my first seedlings) we woke to the biggest frost of the winter.  Good one Kirst!!!   Remarkably MOST things have survived! A few of the peas look a little worse for wear… and a couple of the leeks have disappeared… but I think that is due more to my planting technique rather than frost. So all in all, looking very good – and another few weeks on the carrots, broccoli, zucchini, oregano, more lettuce and leeks and potatoes are in.

In my first entry of my garden diary I wrote “I want the veggie garden to be a place of beauty, not just production. I want to be there. I want it to be full of life, flowers, lavender and lushness”. Hmmm…. I wonder how this will change with coming seasons and years?!