VEG STYLE WITH
If a traditional veg garden won’t work for you, Leigh Bramwell has some work-arounds
THE LANDSCAPER AND I have a puppy. No, I don’t really know why. She’s exactly like a toddler, I suspect, except she willingly eats her vegetables.
I discovered this when, after about three months of constant rain and long Covid (me, not the puppy) I mustered the strength finally to throw some plants into the raised vegetable bin at the side of the house. Parsley, rocket, native spinach, sweet stem broccoli, basil and a token bok choy were my seedlings of choice and happy I’d done a good thing, I left them to it for a couple of days to settle in.
When I next looked at the bin 24 hours later, everything except the bok choy was gone. The puppy confessed to the crime (the wilted rocket leaf hanging from her bottom lip was the deal-breaker) and I put the vege garden on hold for a bit.
Last week, I decided we should clean up the courtyard, which has been used as the puppy containment area for the last few weeks. Out there, Maddie had thoughtfully pulled all the annuals out of their troughs and brought them and their soil-covered roots inside, and dug a 400mm hole in the shell garden, scattering shells and dirt everywhere. Silly me not to have noticed she had moved her attention away from unpicking clothes to excavation. Amazing how much that dog can get done in the time it takes me to make a cup of tea. I wish I had her commitment.
The Landscaper and I stripped the courtyard of all its pots and furniture, water blasted the decking and pavers, filled in the hole in the shell garden with the remaining dirt and shells, and spread $60 worth of lime chip over it. It looked great. We reinstated the furniture, sat on it, and had a beer.
Later, I moved the troughs which had housed the annuals to the front terrace, where the dog comes by invitation only and under strict supervision, and planted them with more parsley and basil seedlings. So far, they’re loving it. They get more sun on the terrace and because they’re right in my line of vision, I will likely remember to water them if that ever again becomes necessary.
When I have my next respite from long Covid, the rest of my vegetable seedlings will be planted on the terrace.
So if you’re committed to growing and eating high-quality vegetables but a traditional veg garden won’t work for you, you can probably transform an outdoor living area without sacrificing style.
The bones of such a garden are probably already in place, so you can utilise the walls, paving, containers, pergolas and water features that are the usual features of a well-designed courtyard or terrace.
The makeover to an edible garden is a matter of replacing non-productive plants with productive varieties, and the trick is to think small. A plum tree in the middle of a 6m x 6m courtyard isn’t going to make anyone happy except the birds, but a dwarf apple, apricot, citrus or pear will do the job. You can grow one in the ground or in a tub, the latter making it both more manageable and more fruitful.
For a hedge to add privacy, consider the feijoa. It’s evergreen — a useful attribute for a hedge — and it produces stunning red flowers followed by feijoas. They’re rampant in late autumn and give you lots of tropical treats just prior to winter.
Walls are wonderful for passive solar heating so if you have one that’s northfacing, grow a sun-lover in front of it. Try a trendy blueberry — you can plant them year round.
Create an elegant raised bed from timber, corrugated iron, gabion baskets or concrete blocks, and fill it with multicoloured greens. Red oak leaf, lime frillice, dark leafed rocket and spinach, orange nasturtiums and yellow stalked silverbeet will create an artistic mix of colour.
Herbs are great to fill empty spaces — line a gappy path edge with parsley, replace a broken paver with creeping thyme, and add lavender, oregano or rosemary wherever there’s room.
None of this means you can no longer use the area as your outdoor living space — this is a game of substitution rather than addition. And the bonus is, you can ask your guests to pull out a few weeds while they’re enjoy as glass or two, and you will have a truly sustainable veg garden.