MAKING THE MOST OF A SMALL PLOT
“I’d say the biggest way I’ve evolved as a gardener over the past five years is understanding my soil and how the soil biome works. So, it’s a matter of feeding the soil rather than feeding the plants. If you feed your soil, your soil will feed your plants for you.
“In late summer to early autumn, I grow a seed mix of mustard greens and pigeon pea. I’ve been doing this for more than three years, and my crops have improved out of sight. I time it so that while one plot’s growing a green manure crop, the other is still producing food. Just remember to rake the seeds into the soil, then give them a good soak; if you leave the seeds on top, the birds have a field day! This year, I sowed early in March. We get a lot of rain then, so the growth is phenomenal. I was digging my green crop back in about four weeks after sowing.
“Doing this is like a reset for your soil – especially if you’re growing vegies in one smallish plot year after year. It’s also a good way to get rid of nematodes that build up in the soil from growing the same things. I cut the crop with hedge trimmers, dig it in with a fork and hose it in, adding blood and bone to help it all break down. Then I leave it for 3–4 weeks, and that’s enough to condition the soil for my autumn crop.”
Justin likes crops he can store, and his impressive crop of Kipflers, Nadines and Pontiacs will last his family about four months, given that he also gives a fair bit away. “Kipflers are my favourite-tasting potatoes, but I really like Nadine for their uniformity in size and shape,” he says. “I also love growing garlic and I grow enough to last us the year – I’ve allocated about 2.5m2 to it. We have mildish winters in western Sydney, which heat up quite quickly in spring. One, called Italian Late, is well suited to our area, and I’ve found that Flinders Island Purple is also doing well.”
getting down to bees-ness
At home, Justin’s kitchen garden is a raised bed sitting on a concrete slab, which he’s created using the no-dig method. “Rather than initially filling it with soil, I layered sticks (photinia hedge trimmings), lawn clippings, compost, soil, pea straw and just enough organic garden mix to grow crops,” he explains. “Over time, it all breaks down, feeding the soil microbes. I’ve only had this bed for six months, but already the soil is healthy and full of life and worms.”
Whether he’s at home or his community plots, Justin’s biggest challenge is western Sydney’s often fierce summer heat, which he gets around by only planting summer crops that he knows can handle the days when temperatures might reach the high 40s or more. “Other than that, it’s fruit fly, and I’ve had to resort to netting recently.”
He has far more time for his other flying companions – the bees he keeps in 13 hives on his in-laws’ property “out the back of Camden”. “Many are from catching and relocating swarms in the local area,”
Justin explains. “Come swarm season – late October, early November – Steve, president of the community garden, and I will be out several times a week catching swarms in people’s backyards or hanging from trees. The garden’s got quite a few hives now, too, and sells the honey to raise funds. The name for my own honey, Montpelier Gold, comes from the road my in-laws live on, Montpelier Drive. It’s a long road running from The Oaks to Picton, so any local would recognise the name.”
It’s a hobby Justin dreams of expanding in the future, on a property big enough to bring all his plots (in both senses of the word) together. “Hopefully, a mixed, small-scale farm – maybe an acre – with room for a patch big enough to grow most of our vegies, and where I can plant some trees and watch them grow old.”