At our place, as we left the worst of winter behind, we sowed the seeds for our spring and summer vegie garden. The varieties grown in trays popped up in abundance, so much so that I even had quite a few spare to take into studio for my fellow radio presenters, Joh Griggs and Fast Ed.

Once the remaining seedlings had reached a suitable size I removed them from their trays, gently divided them, selected the strongest individuals and planted them out in the new beds. All of the seedlings were then watered in with a gentle solution of Seasol seaweed tonic, which provides nutrients that help seedlings grow healthily.

The rest of our planned crops, including beans, watermelon and corn, we had sown straight into the soil -- this is called direct sowing. Naturally my faithful gardening companion, our little girl Amber-Rose, had helped out digging furrows and individual holes for the various seeds. As we covered the seeds over Amber invented a funny but very appropriate way of describing using your fingertips to pull a light covering of soil back over the seeds -- the process is now formally know at our place as 'crabbing the soil'.

In preparation for the direct-sown climbers -- snow peas, a couple of bean varieties and Japanese climbing cucumber -- I needed to build a climbing frame. For a bit of a different look, I used thick bamboo stakes bound together with galvanised garden wire. I also ran the wire between the stakes to form a trellis.


You can buy bamboo stakes in various lengths and thicknesses at Bunnings or you local garden centre. The ones I used were 1.8m long with an average diameter of around 30mm. I held the uprights in place by putting copper plumber's pipe-saddles over them and then screwing the saddles to the timber garden bed edge. The copper saddles are great as they will last for ages in the landscape and when the screws (galvanised button wafer screws are best) are gently driven in, the saddle will mould to the shape of whatever it is holding. From there it was slightly lengthy but not too difficult process of drilling the bamboo and wiring the pieces together and adding the wire lengths for the trellising. When the frame was finished it was just a case of nurturing our new beds and waiting patiently.


Once everything had germinated and grown on a little, or established in the case of the transplants, it was time to give all of the vegies a helping hand. We side-dressed (spread between the rows) and then dug in a generous helping of the fabulous new Yates Professional Blood & Bone for a quick organic-based feed. It's one of the best blood and bones on the market -- 90% pure blood & bone with added potash to improve plant growth, flowering and drought resistance.

To this we added the controlled release fertiliser Osmocote Plus For Garden Beds to ensure a sustained six-month fertiliser supply. Then we carefully spread a fine chaff lucerne straw. This not only helps to retain moisture but it breaks down quickly adding nitrogen (this aids leaf growth) and organic matter to the soil.


Now, around a month later, we are reaping our first fresh vegies -- succulent crisp snow peas, unbelievably flavoursome beans (with exotic names such as Climbing Rattlesnake, Lazy Housewife and Sex Without Strings), lettuce like nothing I've ever tasted before and an abundance of mouth-watering leafy greens. And that's just the start! Amber just loves plucking off and nibbling on a snow pea and checking on her strawberry plants, waiting for fruit to ripen.



Here are a few figures to put the time-frame and costs in perspective. We were plucking our first beans and snow peas around 2 months after planting the seeds, with the first leafy greens less than a month after transplanting and likewise for the lettuce.

The total cost for seeds for around 18 different varieties of vegies was under $60 from Diggers.

To that we have added a few store-bought advanced plants, mainly strawberries, and a mix of our own stored seeds and plants given by friends, most notably Hungarian tomatoes and paprika from Fast Ed. That's one of the many wonderful aspects of gardening, the whole process can be shared and enjoyed in so many ways.

I'll be back with an update once we have our next harvest -- the corn is flowering, tomatoes are forming up and the beetroot and carrots are looking good, so I don't think it will be long! And I can't wait to report on the watermelon and rockmelon once they get moving.