Extract from ABC News
Access to community gardens could be a solution for those short on backyard space. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
In short:
There has been a resurgence in home gardening as families find ways to mitigate the increasing cost of living.
Home gardeners say growing your own food makes financial sense in the long run and can shave hundreds of dollars a month off grocery bills.
What's next?
It's not too late to start an autumn-producing vegetable garden, with No Dig garden beds an economical way to get started with little up-front cost.
As more Australian households look to save money on groceries as the cost of living increases, interest in growing food at home has surged, especially among beginner gardeners.
But where to start? What to plant first? And will tending an edible garden eat up your free time?
Home gardener Sara Chugg says growing your own food makes financial sense, once you are established.
"You're not buying a bunch of something that goes bad in the refrigerator before you can use it; you can pick as you need,"she said.
"Everyone should give it a go."
Sara Chugg says there is less food waste if you grow your own crops. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
Louise Sales, a veteran market gardener at Tasmanian community hub and charity The Material Institute, agrees.
"The mental health benefits of setting up a garden are worth it in themselves, but it's also a really good way to save money as well," she said.
Ms Sales estimates most families could save about $50 a week on groceries by growing some of their own fruit and vegetables.
Gardeners can save on the cost of plants by propagating seedlings or dividing existing plants. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
The good news is it's not too late to start an autumn-producing veggie garden.
"I'd really focus on growing herbs and salad greens to start, because they're quite expensive [to buy] and you can just go out and pick what you need," Ms Sales said.
"You can actually save yourself a lot of money from relatively little effort."
Louise Sales is a veteran market gardener. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
Easy beginner food plants
- Broad beans
- Garlic
- Fast-growing greens such as winter lettuce, pak choy and kale
- Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and mint
Fast-growing greens such as winter lettuce, pak choy and kale are good choices for beginners. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
Start small
Kerryn Martin runs a heritage seed bank in Tasmania's north-west that saves and distributes hard-to-find and open-pollinated vegetable seeds.
"As soon as the petrol prices went up, we were just inundated with orders, probably about five times as many orders compared to normal,"Ms Martin said.
Her advice to novice gardeners is to start small.
"Just make a start, and get going, because you'll find that you learn by doing," Ms Martin said.
Kerryn Martin and her daughter Akiera Martin grow vegetable seeds and seedlings in Ridgley, in Tasmania's north-west. (ABC News: Meg Fergusson)
She suggested starting with seedlings.
"Then, if you get further into it, buy the seeds," she said.
"The excitement will come when you start harvesting, and all your hard work's paying off. Then you'll get the ball rolling."
She said seeds can be started off inside or in a greenhouse before transplanting the seedlings into garden beds.
How to start a garden on the cheap
The No Dig method is a cheap way to start a garden without the expense of bringing in outside soil.
To do it:
1. Lay compost on a patch of grass or bare dirt
2. Cover with cardboard to suppress weeds
3. Add layers of mulch such as pea straw, aged grass clippings, aged horse manure (well-composted), coffee grounds or food scraps
4. As you wait for the no-dig bed to break down into nutrient-rich soil, create small pockets filled with aged compost and plant directly into them
"It can be done very cheaply,"Ms Sales said.
"There are lots of free resources around. People with horses often give manure away for free. Coffee shops are happy to give away coffee grounds, and composting food scraps is another great free resource."
Allow the dark soil to absorb what little sun there is in winter.
Planning for the seasons
Ms Chugg discovered her love of gardening during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Years later, that spark of interest has grown into a carefully planned passion.
These days, she confidently follows the "shoot, fruit, root and legume" method to guide what she grows each season [see below].
"I started with seedlings, which were more expensive, so we invested in a small greenhouse and started doing seeds from that," she said
Since then, the keen home gardener has begun keeping a garden diary, which she says has become an essential tool.
Growing from seed allows gardeners to try uncommon varieties of herbs, fruit and vegetables. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
Keeps pests, diseases at bay
For new gardeners — and for those short on space — the "shoot, fruit, root and legume method" is recommended.
The straightforward crop rotation method helps to keep recurrent pests at bay while also replenishing the soil after a season of growing nutrient-hungry plants.
After each growing bed is harvested, rotate with a new crop in the new growing season.
Shoots: lettuces, cabbage
Fruits: tomatoes, eggplants
Roots: carrots, beetroot
Legumes: peas, broad beans, or green manure
"First, you're growing shoots, so things such as lettuces, cabbages; then follow with fruits, such as tomatoes, eggplants; then roots, so things such as carrots, beetroots; and then you follow with a legume, such as a pea, broad beans, or a green manure crop," Ms Sales said.
For those short on space, Ms Sales recommends starting with a few pots.
Will gardening take up all my free time?
If you are worried about the effort needed to maintain a garden, relax. It might be less than you think.
"[In] a couple of hours a week, you can have a really good garden and produce a lot of produce,"Ms Sales said.
"It doesn't have to be completely weed-free; that's certainly not what I do at home."
And while vegetable growing is certainly more involved than putting food into a shopping trolley, Ms Chugg says the effort is worth the reward.
For her, the motivation ultimately came down to one thing: flavour.
She gives the "taste of carrots" as an example.
"I wouldn't even bother buying them from a big supermarket anymore because they don't taste like carrots.
"It's a shame a lot of people don't know that."
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