grow your own

Dig deep in the garden – not your back pocket 

“Getting back to basics” seems to be the catchcry for this year. Brought on by increasing financial pressures at work and home, more and more people are readjusting their lifestyle in order to save a little money.

One way to reduce your grocery bill is to grow your own vegetables. Not only will it save you time and money at the check out but also will give you a great sense of gratification when you next sit down at the dinner table.

Food that has travelled long distances from the grower to the store, then stored for months before being bought, can be robbed of valuable nutrients. Reducing the time between plant and plate will result in a healthier diet for you and your family.

The great thing about growing your own food is that you don’t need acreage to do so. With just a few simple resources, you can transform an unused deck, patio corner, or patch of ground into a

self-sustaining food source

.

Type in the words ‘

grow your own food

’ in a search engine like Google or Yahoo and millions of pages pop up with fantastic advice on how to get started. Gardeners living in the tropics of Far North Queensland will have different requirements from those living in

Tasmania

, but the key ingredients to a bountiful garden are:

1. Maintaining healthy soil through composting

2. Regular mulching

3. Growing crops suitable to the climate

Companion planting

– planting different species next to each other – is a great way to reduce your reliance on chemicals for pest control. For example, put mint near cabbage to deter the white cabbage moth and planting basil next to tomatoes will reduce insect invasion.

If you really want to enhance the flavour and quality of your food, then I suggest adopting organic gardening techniques. Growing without chemicals is better for you and the environment and, while the methods differ, it’s no more difficult than what you’re already used to.

WHAT IS ORGANIC?

According to www.organicfood.com.au “organic farming uses the earth’s natural resources for sustainability. It emphasises appropriate land management and aims to ecologically achieve balance between animal life, the natural environment, and food crops.” As such, farmers avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified (GM) foods, growth promoters or hormones.

To ensure that the food you buy has passed the organic test, there are a number of certification systems, including:

Australian Certified Organic

(ACO),

Biodynamic Research Institute

,

Organic Food Chain

(OFC) and the

Organic Herb Growers of Australia

.

For more information about the certification of organic produce, log on to www.australianorganic.com.au

By Veda Dante (www.vedadente.com)

View our Organic Herb & Vegie Planting ideas, tips & how-to video by clicking here, or on the the still frame below:

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