Avoid these mistakes if you want a thriving edible garden, advises
Byron Smith.
My team and I have been helping people grow food in cities for more than 10 years. Through the practice of designing, building and maintaining productive edible gardens throughout the seasons, we have become very aware of the most common mistakes that prevent aspiring gardeners from becoming fully fledged green thumbs.
Here are the main reasons I see flourishing garden dreams hit discouraging speed bumps.
Growing things that don’t inspire you
It’s simple, really: What do you eat? Grow that first. I often see clients try to grow a huge array of exotic and somewhat challenging edibles first, before becoming a seasoned hand in the garden.
Reward yourself by starting out small with a selection of up to 10 herbs or leafy greens that you know you will eat. Faster-growing edibles that you are guaranteed to eat will mean more satisfaction in the kitchen and confidence to keep going.
Only planting seedlings to harvest sooner
Here’s the thing: Some plants are better grown from seed, rather than seedlings.
While I understand the excitement of planting a half-grown edible into the ground, feeling as though you have a shortcut to success, there are certain plants that struggle when transplanted (from its cosy little container into your beds).
Success with seed-grown plants applies to root vegetables, climbers such as beans and cucumbers, and also leafy greens such as lettuce and rocket. Herbs such as dill and coriander are also best from seed. If not planted by seed, these plants can stress out and go to flower quickly, or simply stay very stunted. It’s also much cheaper to plant from seed.
On the other hand, kale, chilli and tomato are fine by seedling, as are rainbow chard and silver beet, plus our favourite herb, basil.
Planting with little regard for seasonality
Check that each plant on your wish list is good to go now; otherwise hold on to the seed until the climate in your area cools enough for winter crops to be planted.
This seems like a commonsense thing to do, but I can’t tell you how many gardeners get this wrong and wonder why their plants haven’t sprung to life.
Forgetting about UV
Remember that your edible garden needs six-plus hours of sun each day. Some easy ways to get more rays on your plants are to raise your pots, shift some furniture, use a sunny wall to grow vertically, utilise a verge garden and prune some overhanging branches, if possible.
Or perhaps your home may have the potential for a roof garden. Anything to capture another hour of precious sunlight.
Expect slow growth otherwise, but you can always persist with shade-friendly plants – mint, cress, and sorrel do OK in shade, and the smaller leafy greens like rocket will persevere.
Skipping the nutrients
Compost, quality potting mix and fertiliser are all essential for a thriving garden. If you are growing food in the ground, you can add compost and/or manure to replenish the soil. This will improve the water and nutrient holding capacity of clay or sandy soils, plus improve the structure of the soil for growing healthy edible plants.
Good quality, premium potting mix will sit in pots or planter boxes without compacting (like soil would) and allow air and water flow for years.
Terrible potting mixes are sold cheap – spend the extra, and you will never regret it. Add an organic vege fertiliser to both garden types, plus any homemade compost and worm castings if you want real success, sooner.
Neglecting the garden
Gardens require us to slow down to observe and understand. You will need to dedicate time to check on your edible garden daily (a few minutes is fine). A water or quick pest inspection doesn’t take long, and you will be accustomed to noticing the smaller changes.
This story was published by Domain and is republished with permission.