Grow your own vegetables

Composting is a way of recycling your organic waste – such as vegetable scraps and leaves – by mixing them in a compost bin and leaving them to break down naturally. The end product is a brown-black substance that looks like soil and is rich in nitrogen. Compost helps build soil structure, retain moisture and provides nutrients for all types of soils.

You don’t need a huge yard to have a compost bin; some apartment-dwellers keep one under the sink. If your compost bin smells, just add more dry material such as newspapers or leaf litter. Avoid meat scraps as they attract vermin. To prevent rats from raiding a compost heap, place wire mesh over it and weigh it down with bricks. To accelerate the composting process, add air by turning it over with a fork.

Worm farms contain worms that decompose organic matter into worm castings, or vermicast, that gives soil a nutrient surge. You can make a farm by using polystyrene boxes (instructions are on the internet or check with your local council) or buy one from your local council or hardware store along with the worms. Keep the farm in a cool, dry space. You can add everything, from banana peel to eggshells, but not citrus and onions as they’re too acidic for the worms, and do not add meat or twigs.

Pesticides You can buy pesticides in hardware stores or at your local nursery. Pyrethrum is commonly used to kill aphids. Be careful if you’re making your own pyrethrum pesticide: it can cause allergic reactions until it breaks down under sunlight. Use beer traps or sawdust to repel snails, and ground chilli, garlic or espresso mixed with soapy water for other pests. You can also make your own white oil – for getting rid of scale and aphids – by mixing sunflower oil in diluted dishwashing liquid.

Chickens Keeping chickens is a way of getting fresh eggs every morning. You can even rent chickens; see www.rentachook.com.au in NSW or www.bookachook.com in Victoria. You will get the whole package – a coop, two hens, organic feed, waterer, food and straw – but will be given a deadline to decide if it’s right for you. Rent-A-Chook, for example, has a six-week deadline. It costs $360 upfront, which includes a $260 deposit that will be returned if you decide not to keep the chooks.

If you keep chickens, leave their manure out to dry or put it into a compost bin along with kitchen scraps and leaf litter, so it breaks down into organic, nutrient-rich matter.

Pest control

Companion or complementary planting groups certain plants close together so their natural properties help promote growth and control pests, such as growing climbing beans at the base of a sweet corn stalk. The stalk will support the climbing beans while the beans’ roots will transfer nitrogen from the air into the soil where it’s needed by the sweet corn’s roots. Likewise, onions and carrots boost the productivity of the soil beds as the roots of both plants use the nutrients at different soil levels. The pungent smell of onions is said to confuse pests drawn to carrots.

Companion planting acts as a natural pest control strategy. Planting tomatoes and basil together is said to help protect the tomatoes as the basil’s powerful scent repels sap-sucking insects called aphids. Crop rotation, or rotating what you grow in your garden bed, also helps break the breeding cycles of pests and soil diseases. Persistent garden pests can be controlled with homemade organic pesticides, such as chilli or coffee soap solutions.

To gain more confidence, there’s also the option of joining a community garden. These are on public land and anyone can join to grow, maintain and harvest vegetables, fruits and flowers. Check with your local council or online to find your nearest one (see Contacts).

Generally, each garden has a communal plot as well as individual allotments, for which you’ll usually pay more in membership fees, ranging from $15 to $100 a year. At most community gardens, members work together and share harvests from the communal areas, but each garden has its own unique culture.

At the Angel Street Permaculture Garden in Newtown, NSW, interested members are taken on a formal tour of the garden and its culture before they join the group. The Veg Out community garden in St Kilda, Victoria, has a more informal approach to new members, who simply have to register, turn up and help out for three working bee days (the first Sunday in each month).

Russ Grayson, a Sydney consultant who has been working closely with groups and local councils on community gardens since 1994, says keen interest in communal gardening has been expanding steadily in the past six years. In Sydney, he says, residents of Clovelly, Meadowbank and Epping may see community gardens around their area soon. “It’s record-breaking to have three such gardens planned to start in just one year. In NSW, we have seen only one new addition a year since 2000.”

You can also connect to a wide range of resources, from seed distributors to farmers’ markets, through a community garden. Veg Out, for example, organises a farmers’ market on the first Saturday of every month. “Globally, there’s a lot of distrust of the main food system,” says Grayson. “On a local level, it drives people to want to be in control of what they eat. More people are buying directly from the producers or growing their own produce.”

Randwick community organic garden

Like most community gardens, the members of the Randwick Community Organic Garden (RCOG), in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, incorporate time in the garden around their own schedule. They all meet there at least once a month – usually every third Sunday – when the harvests from the communal areas are shared. Members interact on an informal and open basis, sharing the harvests with one another.

Their website includes a list of what they grow, as well as notes for newcomers on what needs to be done at the garden, such as turning the compost bins. Membership costs $50 a year to join the communal group, and an additional $50 for those who prefer to have their own plots.

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network

www.communitygarden.org.au
Where you can keep up with news and events on community gardens.

Australian Community Foods

www.communityfoods.org.au
The one-stop site to locate community gardens, farmers’ markets and organic retailers in your state.

Diggers Club

www.diggers.com.au
One of the oldest and largest gardening suppliers in Australia. The 30-year-old organisation sells, online or by mail order, a large range of seeds for vegetable, herbs, fruits and flowers. There are free online articles, and check out its free seed catalogue, Garden Annual, to find out how to grow what and when, such as different species of potatoes, tomatoes and corn. Members receive quarterly catalogues and discounts on seeds.

Gardening Australia

www.abc.net.au/gardening
The online version of the ABC-TV program and is an indispensable and practical online guide for gardeners. You can find everything from how to make a no-dig garden to how to make your own organic pesticides and fertilisers.

The Vegetable Patch

www.thevegetablepatch.com
An easy-to-understand guide for beginners and has details on how to grow anything from beans to zucchini.

Yates Garden Guide

www.yates.com.au
One of the oldest gardening guides in Australia. Now in its 42nd edition, it was written in 1895 by Arthur Yates, who had left the UK to escape the damp weather, when he saw the need for a basic publication that answered gardeners’ questions.