A dream of mine has always been to have a veggie patch.
As a kid, we had a nectarine tree in our backyard. The nectarines (white) were amazing, and still to this day I prefer white nectarines to the yellow ones simply because of the tree we had in our backyard.
I remember another time mum grew a pumpkin by accident. She had kitchen scraps that she just threw on one of the garden beds in the backyard, and a pumpkin grew. It was one of the tastiest pumpkins I’ve had.
Do you remember back in science class making a bean sprout? All it took was a bean (mung, lima or green), a container, and some cotton wool balls. I found it fascinating.
I also remember taking that principle but applying it to an avocado seed. To be honest I never thought it would work. Lo and behold when it started growing roots, I thought “no way”. When it sprouted leaves I thought “this is so cool”. Then I planted it in a pot and guess what, it kept growing. When it came time to plant it, I decided to donate the tree to the veggie garden at my high school. I have no idea if it’s still there or if it produces fruit.
So they were some of my first experiences with sustainable living.
Fast forward until now. I’m older and wiser and well I have kids, and I want to indirectly teach them about science and sustainable living. What better way to do that than by creating a veggie patch!
We had picked up some old railway sleepers to be the beds. Let me tell you those things are HEAVY. Easy 70kg for 1. If it still had the metal railing on it, then 100kg. Yeah, don’t need to go to the gym, just build a veggie patch!
Our veggie patches, or patches in our case, were made in stages.
It took a few more weeks after the “big” patch was made before we started on the littler ones.
While we were digging the space for the smaller patches, we found lots of old household remnants, old broken plates, and other rubble. Found some interesting pieces of “rust” which we gave to the kids nana as she loves rust. So much so she has a “rust” wall.
While moving the bricks into place we found a gecko! Kids adored him.
They didn’t want to let him go.
After we got back from holidays we started planting. We planted, leeks, zucchini, beets, beans, carrots, corn, shallots, and other things I don’t remember right now.
It took a couple of weeks of constant watering, and we went from nothing to a veggie explosion.
In the next few weeks, I will post the next installment of the Veggie patch. So keep watch.
The next sustainable living post will be about the new compost tumbler.
Do you have a veggie patch?
Do you think there is a difference between organic and store bought?
Fav veggie?
I think this is a brilliant idea! My Mom kept a garden when I was growing up and even now has a small one with a few veggies in it. I learned to appreciate the products of hard-work, plus they just taste so much better when you grow it yourself. Good luck!
I can’t wait to taste the “fruits” of our labour. Everything is doing so well. Kids also love watering the patches too.
Brilliant idea! My mum also kept a veggie and herb garden when I was a kid and it was so fun to harvest everything. I agree with the other commenter – things definitely do taste better when you grow them yourself!