Over the next few months, I am going to be busier in my garden than I thought I would be at the start of the year. While I think that this is actually a positive thing, I am going to have to be organised with my time as I have a lot going over the next two months or so-from studying for exams at the end of the month, a trip to Vietnam and a the usual working, housework and trying to find time to relax and sleep!

For about six or seven years, we have been getting meal boxes delivered, where they contain ingredients for five meals a week and we just have to cook them. We have decided to stop using these as we are finding they are no longer meeting our needs in the way that they used to. This is why I am going to be getting busier in my little garden.

While I know that it will be impossible for me to grow all the vegetables that we would get through, I will be able to have a range of different things throughout the year from the garden to be eating on our plate. Yes, I could go and buy everything from the supermarket, but I do prefer home grown food where possible because home grown food is tastier and I also know how it has been grown (something that you don’t always know with veg from the supermarket).

In terms of what I will be growing, there are a couple of things that I am insisting on. The first thing is that anything I grow has to be able to be used in several ways-tomatoes and onions are two examples, both can be used in sauces, as garnish, in salads, quiches, all sorts. Veg also has to be tasty-what’s the point in growing food if you don’t like eating that particular thing? My husband has made a particular request in what I don’t grow-carrots, zucchinis and leafy stuff like rocket or lettuce. While he doesn’t hate them, he is just sick of eating them!

Thankfully, I made my spreadsheet list of seeds. When I get chance, I will develop more of a proper plan from this list of seeds, but that may not be until sometime next month, due to the fact that this month is fully busy from now until the start of next month. Until I have my plan, I am going to just have to have a look every couple of weeks to seek what I am able to sow at that particular point. I am hoping to have as long a harvest of everything I grow as possible.

One of the advantages of growing things from seed is that if we get sick of eating something, we can stop growing it and replace it with something else we fancy trying. With seeds, there is such a wide range of varieties that you can grow compared to what you can buy in the supermarket that its often hard to choose what you grow and what you don’t!

Further plans

There are other things I have plans to do, but will have to wait until after my exams, as all of these involve plenty of reading or time, possibly both.

As I have to use pots to grow all of my veg, due to a lack of an actual garden, that means I have to use potting mix to grow them. While this stuff is so common, we don’t think much about it, with the products in individual countries will vary widely, I am going to look at what’s in the stuff in Australia, and just generally find out how its made, and whatever I can about it. As it is also something that could easily be thrown away after the nutrients have been used, I am going to find a way that I can add nutrients and and keep structure in it to get longer use out of it, as much as possible. I don’t really want waste in my garden.

Pots is another issue. While I use plastic pots at the moment, I want to move away from plastic eventually, as these pots come to the end of their life. I am going to look into what is a suitable alternative to what I have now. The pots are also wicking pots, where water is supposed to soak into the potting mix from the bottom up, but they aren’t always that great at doing so-again, is there anything better or more effective?

Lastly, I am also going to compare the cost of growing to compare the cost of home grown veg compared to supermarket bought veg. This means keeping records of the cost of seeds, growing media, pots, the weight of veg produced and compare this to the same veg that we buy in the supermarket, as a cost per unit of weight (either kilo or grams). Of course, we will consider taste as well. I’ll be doing this mainly out of interest of how the two costs compare and an interest in the amount of food I can actually grow in a year on my patio. While my husband will probably have a laugh at my expense, because he thinks I’m a bit of an oddball, he will benefit in the long term.

This should all keep me busy for a while and hopefully out of too much mischief!