Your first vegetable garden

Welsh onions are planted in the top bed here. They're non-bulbing green onions, although there is a red variety of Welsh as well.

I am delighted there are so many new gardeners around now. Gardening is one of those things that creeps up on you and while you initially think it's just another simple activity, it becomes more than that very quickly. After the first season, you start thinking of the next, then reading more about techniques and the old ways of growing food, you start looking at other gardens as you walk around your neighbourhood, you jump at the chance to visit friends with vegetable gardens, and you remind yourself of your own mother when you take cuttings and seeds home bundled up like precious cargo. You might as well admit it - you're hooked! Another gardening convert joins our side.

Celery

Melanie asked if I would write about when I first started gardening and I would be happy to do that, if only I remembered when that was. I do remember helping my mum with the weeding, I remember my grandma's vegetable garden and chooks, but I don't recall when I dug my first garden. In the 60s and 70s, when I shared flats with others, I used to plant a couple of little tomato bushes in with the flowers out the front. In those days I didn't realise plants have different requirements and I probably didn't worry about not producing a lot of tomatoes. I remember we had a vegetable garden in the first home we bought because Shane fell over near the bean trellis one day and nearly took his eye out with a piece of wire poking out. He still bears that scar. But I guess the first garden I remember being serious about, making sure it was organic and mulched, was our garden up north. We also had chickens there and that was the first time I realised chooks were an important part of the natural system I was trying to set up. Now I know there are plenty of ways of combining different natural elements to produce vegetables, but then, 30 years ago, I was learning about keeping the chooks away from the garden and the damage the hot sun caused.

Ann Shirley, our New Hampshire. She's an excellent layer.

I'm still learning, gardeners never stop doing that. Just when you think your tomatoes or beans are the best, you see an old forgotten variety that looks better and you try it. Gardening helps you grow as a person because it teaches you to slow down, that nature will take her own time and no matter how fast you drive your car, or yourself, when it comes to your garden, although you are in the driver's seat, nothing will happen as fast as you want it to.

If you're a novice gardener, take it slow until you have worked out your climate, and how to get good results. I think a good way of starting would be to plant your favourite vegetable - like tomato, beans or strawberries - whatever it is that you REALLY want to grow at home, and then add a few small easy crops like silverbeet (Swiss chard), lettuce (if you're in a cool zone) and some of the Asian greens like bok choi (Chinese cabbage). Those small leafy vegetables are very easy and don't require much care, but while they're growing, you can tend your favourite and learn all you can about it. Read about vegetable gardening, look at gardens, talk to other gardeners.

Eggs and lemons from the backyard. A daily harvest.

The one thing that will make the most difference to your results will be to plant into good soil. Most soils need organic additives to produce good quality vegetables. If you don't add anything to your soil, you will grow your tomato or beans, but they may be plagued will insects and you'll get meagre crops. However, if you add old cow manure, compost that has been made with chook poo, and worm castings to your soil, you'll be amazed at the difference it makes - you'll have less pests and disease and you'll have better and more prolific crops. Soil makes the most difference. So dig your additives in and let the soil rest for a couple of weeks before you plant. If you do that, you'll have what the gardening books call "rich soil" or "soil rich in organic matter".

Richmond Green, an apple cucumber.

What you do next will depend on what type of vegetables you want to grow. If you're planting green leafy vegies, rich soil is enough. If you're planting fruiting vegetables, you need to add some sulphate of potash, which will encourage strong roots and more flowers. More flowers = more vegetables. I wouldn't worry about pH or minerals in the first year. See what your work produces. If you get what you hoped for, your soil is probably fine. If you don't get your desired results, take your problem plant to the local nursery, or to a neighbour gardener, and ask what the problem was. Gardeners are a remarkably generous bunch of people and they will share their knowledge with you. When you have a couple of years planting your favourites and a few easy crops, move on to the next level and try growing root vegetables, vines, herbs and fruit.

Just a word to the perfectionists, Sandra and Ellen, and others. I've been gardening for a long long time and I always have failures and there are always years when the unexpected and extremely irritating happens. It's part of the equation. I know that merely knowing that will not make a difference to you but I want you to know that it's okay to give up those ideas that "perfect" is the only option. Personally, I believe there is no such thing as "perfect" and gardening has taught me that, and many other things. Let go, be in the moment and be open to wherever your garden takes you. And Ellen, I think your idea is a very good one. We have knitting buddies here and I think gardening mentoring would work well. So, do we have any experienced gardeners who would be willing to mentor a novice? Please add your name to the comments or email me and I'll match you up according to your climates and zones. When you add your name - as either a mentor or a novice, please add as much detail about your climate and conditions as you can so we get a good match for you.

But no matter if you've been gardening for years or if this is your first season, the important thing is that you're doing it. We have given up so much of our collective heritage and the skills we all once took for granted, doing this, producing some of your own food is a huge step up to where we all should be. We need to be firmly rooted in our gardens, along with the plants. Happy gardening, everyone, and if this is your first year, welcome to the wonderful world of worms. LOL!