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When it began
Well, to be honest, I can’t quite remember what inspired me to start growing for myself, family and friends, but I reckon it has something to do with the fact my grandparents, aunty and uncle own and grow on farms. I came home from a holiday up in the Capricorn coast about a year ago and decided to start growing myself. It was a bumpy road at first as I had no experience what so ever in farming, but I tried my best and to this day there have been a lot of failures and triumphs.
Positioning
I live in a small residential block of about 740m2 with about 356m2 taken up by the house and the of the land is on too much of an incline so a rocky garden was put out the front. The back yard is only 40m2 plus to top it off, most space is taken up with a swimming pool and there is not much grass anywhere. So I already had one problem to deal with, but with a bit thought I found an easy way to combat this, pots! Then I had to think where to put them and much to the dislike of my parents, the best spot was on the front deck. It had around 6 to 7 hours of sunlight a day so it was a perfect spot.
Materials
One of the convenient things about growing in residential areas is how easy it is to get the necessary materials you need to start and keep growing. My local Bunnings Warehouse provided an invaluable source to buy from; all the materials I have used in the first 8 months of growing came from Bunnings. I used four large drum sized pots for a selection of herbs, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and corn. The rest of the vegetables grown were grown in Styrofoam boxes, standard sized. The soil used was Bunnings brand of potting mix made up of mulch and dirt. Other materials were used such as Sea Sol, Nitro Sol, fertilizer, wheelbarrows and shovels.
Planting
Once all the pots and dirt was prepped, planting seemed like the easy part, but all things considered it was harder than I thought. Getting the spacing and how many of each plant to put in each pot proved difficult as in the long run, the crop suffered from “malnutrition”. I had put three broccoli plant in only one pot the same with the cauliflower and corn, so when the time came to pick 2 months later, the crop was small and withered, the broccoli was very small, the cauliflower didn’t even flower and the corn was very deformed. But after persevering and trying again the crop became better and better each season.
New style of growing
About 3 months ago after discussing with my dad we decided to build a proper bed in the backyard to grow in. After more discussion we decided to use a raised bed with sleepers, the dimensions are 4m X 1.6m and I have never looked back since this was built. We decided that buying bags of soil would be too costly as each bag was three dollars for fifteen kilograms when we needed one ton of soil, so we went to the local landscaper and bought one ton of 100% organic garden soil. This soil was much better than the Bunnings brand as it must have contained more micro organisms “little guys”.
How I get my water
Because I live in a residential area, having a garden and using town water can be expensive, so my dad and I found a way to combat this problem a bit. We had recently build a veranda cover on our front deck, (which is why I moved my garden (less sunlight reaching the plants) and we were in the middle of putting up the down pipe when I realized I should put the spare bin we have under the gutter hole where the downpipes was going to be to get some water. After a week of this the down pipe was put up and I couldn’t get anymore water. After some more thinking we decided to attach a pipe diverted, so when it was raining I could divert the water into the bin and when the bin was full the water would be diverted else where. Also to stop the hassle of dipping the watering can in the bin each time I want water, we put a tap attachment to the front of the bin so it would be easier to fill the watering can.
Here and now
As I said before the proper garden bed was made about 3 months ago and my vegetables have been powering ever since. Today as I write this I have picked just under 300 tomatoes of three different varieties Apollo, Tiny Tom and Cherry, 35 cucumbers, 20 silver beet leaves, 15 pea pods and around 110 climbing beans. I owe this success of my Grandma Llyn and my uncle Hugh, with their advice I was able to maintain a healthy and rewarding patch.
Joining Certified Naturally Farmed Inc.
How I joined CNF was a bit of an accident, my Grandma, and now my CNF mentor, was down at my house for a few days and her partner Geoff was telling me about CNF and all that is involved with it and I just said to him, without warning, I wanted to join, which came as a surprise and was welcomed straight away. When I recently went up to Yeppoon I got my Grandpa to print off the CNF Associate forms so I could sign them and become an associate of an organic farming movement, but with this some methods I was using had to change. One example is, my mentor told me that some of the fertilising stuff I was using wasn’t really organic, so I had to stop using it; instead I now grow a cover crop before I plant in my patch so there is an addition of natural nitrogen to the soil. Remember I’m only 15, so I’m still learning how to grow organically. This will take a bit of time.
Worms and Compost
I believe in the long run these two processes will prove an excellent source of nutrients for the soil I use. Any vegetable food scraps (except onion) that our family creates, goes into the worm farm, this is then broken down and taken out and put into a compost heap, this in turn breaks down any excess nitrogen, which can harm plants and makes the soil rich enough for the next season of growing. Also any harvested crop that is below eating standard goes in the worm farm. The left over harvested plant, like the corn crop I picked, was cut down to smaller bits and put into the worm farm. They’ve been in there for 2 weeks and are almost fully broken down.
Results
I have not started properly growing organically as I have only just come home with the necessary instructions on how to grow like this but all future growing in my patch will be grown organically, not that what I’m doing at the moment is particularly bad, all I did wrong was use some wrong fertilisers. As you read I have sorghum growing where the corn has been harvested and 2 weeks after writing this everything is being harvested to make way for more sorghum and then I can plant my winter crop. Growing vegetables has proved a valuable and rewarding life experience and I’m lucky to have the support of family and friends to keep me going when something goes wrong, because as you know, putting all that effort in and seeing it go to waste can suck, with more advice, the next time you grow that particular plant it will have better results. Oh I almost forgot the best thing about growing your own veggies, its fun and you know what goes into them!
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