Growing your own fresh, clean food is one of the most satisfying parts of gardening. Fruit and vegetables grown in your own backyard and prepared fresh in your kitchen have a flavour and freshness that cannot be matched by supermarket produce. Food grown industrially on a large scale in monocrop farming not only lacks flavour and refinement but is often grown with untold amounts of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers. In the home garden, we can control exactly what goes into our food supply, focusing on regenerating soil, feeding our plants through healthy soil biology and choosing high-yielding heirloom varieties that have been selected for flavour rather than storage and transport. Home gardens are also far more biodiverse than large-scale farms.
Flowers, shrubs, herbs and wild parts of the garden provide habitat for a vast range of life; from small birds that feed on caterpillars and grubs, to ladybirds, helpful insects and pollinators. Rather than a food factory, the backyard garden is an ecosystem that forever changes and balances itself towards equilibrium. While we all encounter pests in our gardens, lose plants to insect attacks, or experience both disappointments and successes, the need for harsh chemicals diminishes as the health of our backyard ecosystem improves. Healthier soil and greater biodiversity lead to healthier crops and improved yields. The gardener becomes a builder of health rather than a fighter against disease, and no longer needs to subject their food supply to chemical warfare.
The wide range of crops we grow in our gardens also helps to ensure success. If one vegetable is not performing well this year, undoubtedly, you will find others that are thriving. Every season is different, bringing a new bounty to the kitchen and our plates.
The biodiversity, high-yielding heirloom varieties and high levels of soil fertility possible in smaller gardens make them some of the most productive pieces of land on the planet. A year’s supply of vegetables can be grown on a fraction of the land that is currently used commercially – and without the wastage, soil degradation, chemicals and CO2 pollution that go with modern industrial farming.
Deep, thorough soil preparation is crucial for building rich, healthy soil and achieving optimal results. Wherever possible, hand tools like a strong garden fork and digging spade should be used to incorporate compost, organic matter and organic fertilisers into the soil while meticulously clearing it of any perennial weeds or grasses before planting. Compost and organic matter added to the soil serve as the building blocks of a healthy garden, nourishing the soil life and, in turn, sustaining our plants.
While hydroponics and chemical agriculture focus on feeding plants, the home gardener can rely on biological processes to provide for their crops. Plants that feed from living soil do so under the direction of the environment around them, with their rate of growth and nutrient uptake dictated by sunlight, temperature and natural conditions, rather than being force-fed by water-soluble chemicals. By feeding the soil rather than the plants, we grow stronger, healthier, and more resilient vegetables that are in harmony with nature and our ecosystems. This makes them far less susceptible to disease and pest attacks than the force-fed, over-bloated hybrids grown for market. The gardener can also worry less about soil chemistry and focus instead on building life and vitality through soil development.
Achieving a rich, living soil will, of course, be clear in the quality of produce and yields as the garden improves. I’ve found that in deep, biologically active soil, plants can be spaced a little closer than the recommended spacing. If enough food is given to the soil, neither fallow nor rest periods are needed, nor strips of dead wasted space between rows. Nature abhors bare soil and will quickly fill it up with weeds. In the backyard garden, we do not need to leave space for tractor tyres, irrigators or other machinery. The entire growing area can be intensively planted, making use of every last bit of soil, leaving only small paths for the gardener and perhaps their wheelbarrow.
While mulch can be a helpful way to cover the soil, prevent weed growth and conserve water, a living mulch made up of the canopy of growing vegetables and plants is often enough to keep the soil covered while also allowing air and water to penetrate the soil surface.
With careful planning and plant selection, the garden can be kept full and areas of bare soil avoided. The time you save on weeding, watering and cultivation justifies the extra effort, not to mention the increased yields.
One method we use to maximise the potential of our growing space is to grow our own seedlings. Although you can sometimes buy popular heirloom varieties in seedling form, seedlings grown at home are usually better quality, more suited to your local conditions and give better results.
For many crops, seeds planted in seedling punnets are much easier to look after when they are young than if they were planted directly into the soil. Warm-season crops can be started indoors on a windowsill, or tender vegetable seedlings can be easily protected from hot weather by moving them into the shade. Watering is also much more efficient. A small tray of seedlings takes as little as half a litre of water per day while in the punnet. The same plants, directly sown into the garden at their recommended spacing, would require over 100 litres per day.
A 30cm x 30cm seedling tray can house up to 40 broccoli plants for their first month of growth, freeing up a large garden area for long enough to grow a quick crop of roquette, pak choy or other fast-maturing vegetables. Some can even be potted up into larger pots for a second stage of growth before being planted in the ground, providing us with healthy, advanced seedlings that shade the soil faster and allow for a greater turnover of crops.
By the time they are ready to plant out into the garden they already have a head start on any weeds that may germinate around them, making them far easier to remove. They are also past their most tender and vulnerable stage and are less likely to be attacked by snails, slugs or other insects.
Interplanting, also known as companion planting, is another valuable method for maximising the benefits of your garden and achieving rapid soil coverage. Longer-term crops, such as tomatoes, pumpkins and other summer vegetables, can be interplanted with fast-maturing spring crops like lettuce, radishes or herbs. The faster-maturing crops shade the soil and act as nursery plants for the main crop, as well as giving you an early harvest from the same patch.
Throughout the spring planting months, I always like to have spare lettuce seedlings and a selection of extra seeds that I can use to fill any gaps in the garden bed before weeds pop up or the soil dries out in the sun. Bush beans and other legumes are another good option and can be squeezed into small spaces between the main planting. Not only do they produce a delicious secondary crop, but they fix nitrogen from the air, helping to fertilise the plants around them.
Vegetables with different growth habits can be combined to maximise the use of garden space. A great example of this is utilising vertical space. Climbing beans or peas can be planted at the base of corn and will use the stalks for support. Trailing plants, like cucumber, squash or pumpkins, can be used to grow among taller plants like tomatoes or corn, creating a fantastic and productive ground cover.
Intensive, densely planted vegetable gardens require regular watering to maintain optimal growth. While drip irrigation can be helpful on trees or shrubs and sparsely planted gardens, intensively planted vegetable gardens usually need more. Given the hard work and love the gardener puts into preparing the soil and filling the garden with plants, the best approach is to ensure the entire vegetable bed is evenly watered and the soil kept moist at all times. Admittedly, this can result in more water per square metre of garden. Still, the quantity of water used per kilogram of produce harvested is likely to be many times less than that used for commercially grown crops.
Overhead watering using a watering can or watering wand provides the best coverage and is the most effective way to emulate the effects of rain. Water can be directed precisely where it’s needed, avoiding waste through runoff or unnecessary watering of paths. To minimise evaporation, I prefer to water in the early evenings, after the heat of the day has passed but before nightfall. This gives the leaves a chance to dry before dark, avoiding fungal problems, but allows the water to sink into the soil overnight before the sun hits it the following day. I find the time spent watering is more of a pleasure than a chore, giving me a chance to spend some peaceful time amongst my plants and admire the magic of nature.