Fresh and full of flavour, backyard vegetables are some of life's great pleasures and heirloom vegetable varieties offer high yields and wonderful flavours.

The average person eats about 160kg of vegetables per year. According to the Digger's Club of Victoria, its deluxe heirloom vegetable garden, called the `Mini-plot garden', can yield up to three times this amount. That's about 500kg for the year; enough for a family of three for 12 months.

The plot takes up 42 sq m of space. For a year-round vegetable crop, sow in spring and autumn.

• Choose a site which gets at least six hours of direct sunlight each day.
• Lay out garden beds. Use treated pine to enclose and raise the beds, then dig in composted chicken manure to improve the condition of the soil.
• Maximise sun by planting the tallest vegetables - sweet corn and tomatoes - at the back, so shadows fall away from the garden. Smaller vegetables, such as lettuce, carrots and silverbeet are planted in front.

Seeds

Sowing seeds is the next step. It's easy if you follow these tips.

Sow large seeds, such as corn, beans, squash and silverbeet, directly into the soil bed, at a depth three times their width.

Sow slow-growing seeds, such as tomato and capsicum, into Jiffy Pots. Made from compressed peat, the pots swell when watered, creating the perfect environment for germinating seeds. Drain excess water after sowing. Place in a sunny spot until seedlings develop, then plant, pot and all.

• Don't overcrowd your vegetables; always check the information on the seed packet for accurate seed-spacing details.
• Keep newly sown seed beds moist for up to three weeks. Water with a fine mist.
• Add a decorative touch to a backyard vegetable garden by planting lettuce seedlings as an edging, about 25cm apart.
• A vegie plot sown in spring yields vegetables through the summer and early autumn. Then it's time to pull out finished vegies and sow your winter selection.
• One of the advantages of heirloom vegetable varieties is you can save the seeds for replanting the following year. You can't do this with modern hybrids as they often revert to a parent variety.

Growing vegetables for each season

Spring planting

Bed 1 (top): potential summer yield 244kg
6 Tomato Tigerella (123 days)
2 Cucumber Armenian (86days)
4 Pumkin Delicata (120days)
6 Silverbeet Five Colour (60 days)
6 Capsicum Heirloom Mix (160 days)

3 Squash Crookneck (71 days)

Bed 2 (middle): potential summer yield 98kg
100 Carrot Western Red (80 days) 10 per sq m.
100 Dwarf Bean (75 days) - 10 per sq m

100 Beetroot Globe (55 days) - 10 per sq m

Bed 3 (lower): potential summer yield 38kg
33 Lettuce Oakleaf (56 days)
33 Sweet Corn GOlden Bantam (98 days)

33 Beans Climbing Blue Lake (84 days)

Autumn

Bed 1: potential spring yield 43kg
100 Pea Sugar Snap Climbing (48 days)
50 Broad Beans Aquadulce (66 days)

25 Broccoli Green Sprouting (50 days)

Bed 2: potential spring yield 37kg
100 Onion Barletta (148 days)
33 Lettuce Oakleat or Mizuna (56 days)

66 Parsnip Hollow Crown (120 days)

Bed 3: potential spring yield 83kg
33 Cabbage Mini (53 days)
50 Broad Bean Aquadulce (66 days)

100 Pea Sugar Snap Climbing (48 days)

Small-space option

Spring planting
8 Tomato Tigerella
10 Capsicum Herloom Mix
20 Silverbeet Five Colour
50 Carrot Western Red
16 Lettuce 0akleaf

15 Sweet Corn Golden Bantam

Autumn planting
50 Pea Sugar Snap Climbing
25 Broad Beans Aquadulce
12 Broccoli Green Sprouting
33 Parsnip Hollow Crown
15 Cabbage Mini

15 Lettuce Oakleaf

This compact vegetable plot, requires a single garden bad of 5 x 2m, perfect for most backyards