One of the key components of any Permaculture course is about learning how to grow some of your own food from your own garden.
It is possible to supply approximately 80% of your annual food requirements within 50 metres of your home.
Think about that, 80% of your food would be organically grown, chemical free, herbicide free, pesticide free. You would be regenerating the soil, creating new life where once only lawn, weeds, cement, concrete or paths existed. That has to be good for the environment and importantly good for you and your family.
Conventional agriculture provides most of the food people in cities and towns consume these days and the cost to the environment is immeasurable. Mining for oil, truck emissions, deforestation, damming of rivers, oil leakages along coastlines, serious chemical overuse to name just a few.
It’s one thing to be well intentioned but quite another to actually take some action and start to create your No Dig Garden. There are a variety of items to consider and each has to be carefully incorporated into your design so that you are gaining the intended benefits.
* How much soil can you use?
* What sort of pests might you have a problem with and how can you organically take care of that?
* How much water will the garden use?
* How can you reduce the water usage by enhancing your design elements?
** What foods can you grow in your area?
* Where will you source your seeds or seedlings from? Will you use heritage seeds, if so, where can you obtain them as it not always easy to find authentic seed suppliers.
Make sure you grow food that you enjoy eating as you really don’t want an abundant supply of foods that are wasted. Take walks around your local area and see what other people are growing, that will certainly help you decide which plants thrive.
One of the main things to consider is the concept of companion planting. This is where the plants you choose can offer assistance in some way to neighboring plants. This assistance can be in the form of shade, nutrients, depth of roots, water requirements, pest control and the list goes on.
I have gone through the exercise of choosing 17 different varieties to plant in my own garden. I have drawn up the actual plan that I have used and provide this for you. You can have a free copy of the garden plan with color graphics.
This free plan shows you exactly how I companion planted my own garden with 17 vegetable varieties.
I managed to plant tomato, beans, peas, carrots, beetroot, celery, ice lettuce, cos lettuce, capsicum, eggplant, spearmint, mint, onions, cucumber, corn, marigolds and viola.
Have a look at the plan, see for yourself, this is a small space in a suburban garden. Please feel free to copy the plan for yourself and have a look at the No Dig Garden component of the site.
There are four free vegetable companion planting designs here. I have grown these combinations myself so do know it works well.
Happy gardening
