Changing how we work in the garden

After quite a few conversations and hours of thinking about the pros and cons, Hanno and I have decided to keep our vegetable garden going; although there will be some changes. We were going to pay someone to weed and plant for us but decided that the $200 would buy a lot of fruit and vegetables and was not a wise investment of our limited funds.  Then we thought about having a cottage garden with no food crops. That would have been an easy option for us but when I thought about not being able to walk outside and pick herbs for our meals or not having homegrown tomatoes, it was so far from my vision of us, we dropped that idea too. Eventually, after weighing it all up, we've decided to grow some things in the garden and have another garden in the bush house with food plants in polystyrene boxes.

That's the practical breakdown of it but for me there is a more important element - the psychological benefits of the work involved in keeping a garden. I come from a family of workers and when I was growing up my father grew a few vegies in the backyard and my grandmother, who lived in the same suburb, had fruit trees and chickens. My family valued the taste and the economy of home grown. After my brain tumour diagnosis I decided to sit back and relax more but having done that for a couple of weeks I realised that instead of making me feel better, I was beginning to feel hopeless. My days felt so empty without a to-do list. It makes me happy to work in my home and even after decades of backyard growing, it makes sense to me.  I don't want to stop. Hanno has bouts of dizziness too, so I want to modify how we work, and keep that sense of independence and control we have over our lives.

Purple sweet potato slips in the bush house. If they don't shoot, I have orange sweet potato starting to grow in the kitchen.

When we first came to live here, there was no sewerage connected to any properties in the area. We were the first to have it installed and the council set up in our backyard to install a lot on the infrastructure for our street. It was like the trenches in WW1. Now, whenever we have a drought, you can see the footprint of some of the trenches, as seen in the picture above. 

Hanno cut both the elderberry trees back.  They'll grow back as bushy as ever in the next couple of months.  We got three buckets of berries from the tree.  

Elderberry cordial is a great summer drink but it's also been proven to have properties that help keep us free from colds throughout the year.

We did a bit of work outside yesterday morning and discovered just how dry the garden has been. We planted purple sweet potatoes back in September, they grew well, covering the corner of the garden where they were planted. Hanno started harvesting them yesterday and found only a few small sweet potatoes in cement-hard garden soil. A total failure. We've not had enough rain to keep the crops going properly.  Yes, we watered the garden but now we know that when the soil dried out, no amount of watering was going to make the difference real wet season rain would make. Most of the watering has been useless.  We've had less than 10mm of rain in the last two months - which are our hottest.  Anyhow, there's no use in looking back, we have to move forward. I took a couple of cuttings from the sweet potato and now have it resting, and hopefully growing, in the bush house.  When it recovers and starts growing, we'll replant it in the garden and hopefully by then, the rain will gently coax it to produce large purple tubers.

  Our bush house crops will be:  

• Lettuce - an all year variety
• Cherry Falls tomatoes - a large and prolific cherry tomato
• Radishes - Long White Icicle
• Viking spinach
• Red pack choi - ready for eating in 7 weeks
• Rainbow chard
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Bay 
• Mint
• Aloe Vera
• Welsh onions

  In the garden:  

• Sweet potato - purple variety
• Potatoes - in a potato bag
• Golden nugget pumpkins - bush variety that don't take over the garden
• Turnips
• Beetroot - Perfect 3 - to eat fresh and for preserving
• Marketmore cucumber - to eat fresh and for preserving
• Chilli Shake - a mix of heat levels and colours
• Bee and butterfly mix of flowers to attract pollinators 
• Welsh onions
• Kale - curly kale, Hanno's been eating it all his long life
• Garlic - to be planted from cloves saved from last year's crop

  Old sandpit:  

• Parsley
• Sage
• Welsh onions

We'll grow Welsh onions (also known as Japanese bunching onions) in the garden, the bush house and in the old sandpit. They're important. If you divide them and plant them in their own space and not in a clump, the bulb grows well, like a shallot, and it's got a good onion flavour. I use them in almost every meal - either for their flavour and nutrition or as a garnish. I removed all the Welsh onions from the garden about a month ago because I was scared we'd lose them.  We've been growing this herb for 15 years from a small clump we were given by a friend in Nanango. They're so hardy and prolific I don't want to be without them. I had to BUY green onions on the weekend and almost choked when I had to pay $3 for them. These onions are perennial and will produce new onions on the side of the growing ones, increasing the size of the onion patch considerably over the season.  They grow well in both hot and cold climates.  If you know anyone growing them, they might give you a few to start or you can buy the seeds at many heirloom seed businesses like Green Harvest and Diggers.

The bush house need a good clean out and then I have to clear the bench so I can put all my poly boxes along that side. 

These herbs will be moved and another growing area just outside the shade of the bush house will be created for plants that need a bit more sun.

If, like me, you use a lot of herbs in your cooking, you're much better off growing them in your garden if you have one, or in a pot or polystyrene box in your backyard. As long as they're in good potting soil and they are watered, they're reward you. Some will need shade, others will need full sun so make sure you position them where they'll thrive.

And some good news! Our metal water tank was down to the lower two ridges but after a light shower of rain, and drizzle overnight, the almost empty tank is up to one third full.

Now we're collecting small polystyrene boxes which we usually get at the back of our local Chemist Warehouse. They transport various drugs in them so they're very clean. We also have to buy manure and mushroom compost.  We've decided to do a small amount of work every day so we don't have a couple of weeks of intense work. I'm pretty sure it will all work well for us, although it will be hard work at times. We are both aware that it is through work that we harvest not only fresh organic food but also the feeling of independence and accomplishment that no amount of money can buy.