Archive for November, 2008

One of the earliest lessons to learn when taking up vegetable gardening is to understand the soil you are using. The garden of the property I lived in before my current residence, the soil was so hard and dry that it took a mattock to dig a hole large enough to plant something. When I did manage to bore a hole and plant something, more often than not, the plant would die due to not being able to expand and trenghten its roots. The soil was pure clay and if it wasn’t clay I was trying to break through it was bits of house where the builders had simply dumped their rubbish and thrown down top soil to cover their mess. Clay soil withholds moisture and the roots of the young seedlings do not have the strength to break down the soil and fully establish themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the main reasons people don’t try things for themselves is because: a) they don’t think they will suceed, and b) they feel intimidated because there is always someone who knows more than they do and has been doing it forever. I have always been held back from trying new things for these reasons.

Growing my own veggies only started about three years ago. Fresh off the plane from the UK, I was amazed by the amount of available space. England is crammed with over 60 million people, where growing veggies is done on a rented allotment rather than in the back garden due to its small dimensions. Read the rest of this entry »

As I talk around I am constantly amazed at the response when I ask people if they would grow their own veggies. The most common responses are, “I don’t have time”, “I’m not practically minded” and I don’t live in a big enough space”. Our addiction for junk food, instant meals and ‘low-fat’ fixes, have blinded us to the reality of how food is grown, produced and finds it’s way to our supermarket shelves. Read the rest of this entry »