Making a vegetable garden the easy way

  1. Find the sunniest spot in your garden as close to the kitchen as possible. If you can’t see it from the house you probably won’t use it. The sunniest spot will be where your grass is growing the best.

  2. Mark out your vegie patch using your garden hose. A garden 2.4m x 2.4m is a great size to get started. If you have success another garden this size will keep you in fresh vegetables all year.

  3. Spray the existing grass with Zero or Round Up. Spray twice at 7 days interval. If you don’t kill the grass roots and all it will be a bane for ever more.

  4. Use timber or concrete blocks to make a border. Pine Sleepers are the easiest 2.4m x 150mm x 75mm are perfect. Make sure they are not treated with arsenic. Buy 5 sleepers. The 5th one will be used as your path so you can service the garden. Make a box using the sleepers on their edge. Nail them together using 120mm galvanized nails. Now dig a trench so the timber box goes 30mm below ground level. This will stop the grass growing into the garden.

  5. If you have a dog fence off the garden with chicken wire. We will be using blood and bone fertiliser so you will need to keep the dogs out.

  6. Fill the garden with Tim’s Magic Mix. You will need one cubic metre of this premium garden soil. Rake level then put your 5th sleeper down the middle.

  7. Dig in 4 bags of Tim’s cow manure and 1.25kgs of Blood and Bone.

  8. Cover the soil with Sugar cane mulch. You will need the big bag. Water well so the mulch doesn’t blow away. Now you are ready to plant your seedlings.

  9. Choose vegetables that you eat often. To plant seedlings simply poke a hole through the mulch. See label for recommended spacing. Plant taller growing varieties on the southern side of your garden e.g. Tomatoes and sweet corn. So they don’t block out the sun.

  10. Water daily for the first week then twice weekly should be ample. At the end of each season repeat step 7 & 8.

How to prepare a Vegetable Garden

Controlling Pests and Diseases without killing you!

  1. Holes appearing in leaves? Spray with Yates Success.

  2. Black spots on leaves? Dust with Yates Tomato dust

  3. Aphids on new growth? Spray with Eco oil.

  4. White fly or mites on beans? Spray with Eco oil.

  5. Snails or slugs? Treat with Multiguard Snail & Slug pellets. Kills snails without killing your pets.

  6. Fruit fly in tomatoes? Grow “Sweet Bite” it’s resistant to fruit fly. For other varieties use Naturalure regularly during growing season.