Vege growing at home

As a new gardener herself, Otago Daily Times reporter Edith Schofield spent a couple of fruitful hours chatting to long-time Otago vegetable gardeners, discovering not only why her runner beans were not producing beans but picking up other great ideas for those starting their own vege patch.

• Family takes pride in growing their own

Here are the the top ten tips from the sage advice she gathered.

1. Start simple

Stick to vegetables which are easy to grow and remember a small garden can provide as much produce as a big plot if it is carefully planted and managed.

If you are breaking in new ground, potatoes are a great crop to start with, as the growing tubers break up the soil and it is disturbed again when the potatoes are dug.

2.Timing is everything

Some vegetables are ready in weeks, while others take up to eight months to mature.

If you plant vegetables at the wrong time, they either won't germinate, won't grow or will rapidly bolt and go to seed.

Some traditional gardening dates include planting onions on St Patrick's Day, in March, broad beans on Anzac Day in April and garlic on the shortest day of the year in June.

Labour weekend is generally the right time to start planting most of the garden in spring.

If crops are started early, you may be able to double-crop.

St Leonard's gardener and former Otago Daily Times garden columnist Dick Turvey plants his first potatoes in May, digs them in about November and plants a second crop to have more new potatoes ready to eat again in Easter.

3.Winter gardening is great

Many people miss out on winter gardening, yet this is the time when vegetables are often at their most expensive in the shops.

Plant the right vegetables at the right time and your garden can be providing you with cauliflowers, cabbages, silverbeet, leeks and brussels sprouts throughout the coldest months of the year.

Winter vegetables should be planted in January.

4.Little and often

It can be disheartening to be throwing good veges in the compost bin because you can't eat everything when it is all ready at once.

Small, regular sowings or plantings can be more successful, and when you take one crop out, put another one in.

If you only have a small family, consider buying mixed punnets of vegetables, rather than six of everything, and if using seeds sow a small pinch - you don't need to use the whole packet in one go.

5.Feed the soil

Organic matter is great for the garden to renew and replenish the soil, and a lot of it can be collected for free.

Seaweed, which is full of minerals, animal manure and pine needles are just some examples.

Making your own compost is a great way to recycle kitchen scraps instead of sending them all to the landfill.

Compost is made by bacteria and fungi and the three key points to remember are that they need air, moisture and nutrition to do their job.