Matthew and Daniels veggie patch

This year I have help 3 friends start veggie gardens, Mike and family were the first and as promised (by him) here is the first instalment of how his garden grew.

My efforts to show my four year old (Matt) and his 18 month old brother (Daniel) where their food comes from has turned into quite an obsession for their dad…

In February, we moved from a townhouse to an old house on a relatively big stand (1500m²).  A while after we moved in, Sean and his family came for a visit.  Sean took one look at the dark corner of the garden, and said chop out these trees, and we can build a fantastic vegetable garden.

So, dad put on his lumber jack shirt, headed off to Springbok hire to hire a chainsaw, and the some trees were turned into firewood, which would later be traded for seed.

I was quite proud of my efforts, until Sean arrived and informed me that vegetables need at least 8 hours of sunshine per day, and that more chopping was needed.  My wife, who loves the trees, was not overly impressed, but, the trees came down, and the firewood pile grew substantially.

Many bags of compost later, the rows were dug out, and planting commenced.  As it was fairly early in the season (23 July 2011), we only planted the frost hardy seeds.  Sean split the rows into areas, and seed was sewn.  We put in:

• Peas
• Asparagus (3 year old)
• Beetroot
• Radish
• Carrots (2 varieties)
• Lettuce (2 varieties)
• Broccoli

Note to self – do not sew a whole bag of lettuce seed in 3 lines of 1 meter long…

The plan is to cultivate seedlings for Tomatoes, Peppers, Marrows, Cucumber, and plant these after the September cold snap.

So the seed is planted, watered regularly, and…  Nothing.  The boys expected to see something overnight, and after a week (and some rather cold weather), Matt thought dad was telling fibs, and that vegetables do indeed come from Woolworths.

But then, a few days later, some green started to protrude from the soil, first the lettuce, then the peas, and the rest followed soon after.   There was much excitement, and dad does not tell fibs.  Dad was a little worried about the asparagus, but even these came up eventually.

Next thing, the birds arrived, and decided that they liked the taste of the broccoli shoots, so these were quickly covered with some netting, framed with some discarded curtain rails (aluminium no less, so no rusting).  Why they didn’t go for the lettuce is still beyond me, there’s so much of it after the whole bag of seed was sewn that I’m constantly thinning it out.

An old pool fence was hacked to pieces, and the bars used to make uprights for the wire for the peas to climb up.  Amazing things those peas, they cling onto that builders wire, and the following day, they’ve made 5 to 6 loops around the wire.

Potatoes were planted into hessian bags.  2 seed potatoes per bag, where the intention is to add compost as they grow, and just roll the bags up as the plants get taller.  To date, there’s no sign of the potatoes, but Sean says give it a week after I’ve given up on them, and they should show…  I was just as impatient with the asparagus.

Last weekend Matt and I built a compost heap, so now the kitchen peels, cuttings, mom’s flowers and anything else that can compost are being added to the heap.

I’ve been looking for some rectangular planters to build a border around the patch, and today finally found something suitable at the right price.  So hopefully this weekend, we can plant some Strawberries into these planters, and get the tomatoes, peppers, etc into the remaining rows.

Mom’s been planting herbs, these need to find a space in the garden though, so some shelves are needed on the walls.  Dad also has a mission to make some hanging pots by recycling 2L cold drink bottles and some fishing gut, and using these to plant seedlings.

All of these plants need water too, so we’re looking for a suitable container to harvest rainwater when the rain finally arrives, probably a 1500 to 2000 litre tank that I’ll direct a downpipe into from the gutter.

So far, it’s been a very rewarding experience.  We’ve not yet eaten much out of the garden, but it’s been a great way to spend time with Matt, building something together and watching it grow.  Daniel loves to pull stuff up, so let’s hope the carrots and radishes grow soon, so he can harvest.

Looking forward to salad from our little veggie patch…