How can I grow the perfect garden plants?

How can I grow the perfect plants?

Having a great garden, especially one that produces food is something that everyone can the perfect garden plants achieve.

A kitchen garden is something that can provide healthy food for the family more cheaply than buying the food from the supermarket.

An apple tree purchased in winter for around $25 will produce kilos and kilos of apples for as long as you need them.

One tomato plant bought for around $4 will provide you with enough in-season tomatoes to make soup, salads and still put some in the freezer.

 

the perfect garden plants

Ten tips for great edible gardens

1 - Buy plants in the right season. See our 'what to plant when' section.

 

2 - Buy plants that are suitable for our climate. Just because a nursery sells a plant, it doesn't mean that they are the best plants for Tassie!

 

3 - Give your plants the conditions that they desire - if they need sun, don't plant them in an area where they only get sun in the late afternoon.

 

4 - Develop a compost heap - see how to make a compost heap section.

 

5 - Use lots of seaweed-based liquid fertilizer - fill up a pressure sprayer and spray this onto the foliage of the plants - they will love you for it!

 

6 - Mulch around everything. It is amazing what a difference this makes to the watering the perfect garden plants requirements. Use compost, manure, straw around veggies and herbs. Use this and more substantial mulch around trees, such as pine bark and gum bark.

 

7 - Water your babies. For trees a deep watering once a week. Veg and herbs need this a couple of times a week. This guide is for a summer where it doesn't rain. Obviously, if we get a good rain, then no need to water. New seedlings will need more water, almost every day, especially if the days are warm. Anything needs extra water as the fruit or veg is forming and maturing. Like a pregnant lady needs more sustenance to support the baby, an apricot tree laden with fruit needs more water to support the growing fruit!

 

8 - Protect fruit from the birds. Unfortunately, things like strawberries, raspberries, apricots, peaches, grapes are not just enticing to our palates, but also to the nuisance birds. You have to net these plants, and others, to ensure you get to eat the delectable fruit.

 

9 - Keep the weeds away. Probably the least desirable activity in the garden is weeding. Tedious, but necessary. Weeds compete with desirable plants for water and nutrients, and they usually win the battle. That is why they are a weed. A plant that is rampant, strong, and the perfect garden plants suffocating, but without redemption! Don't let them win the battle. Mulch helps in this constant struggle.

 

10 - Probably the most important tip of all - Love your garden. Revel in the senses that are the perfect garden plants stimulated - sight, smell, touch, taste - connect with the earth and nature. Our modern western society is so removed from the earth, we have forgotten where our real food comes from. Involve your children and teach them that a potato comes from the ground and not the freezer in Coles, pre-cut as a ready-made chip!

 

 

What exactly is Gardening for Groceries...What exactly is Gardening for Groceries….

I’m sure if you’re visiting our tiny corner of the blogging universe, you are looking for the perfect garden plants. I would be! Gardening for groceries is focused on using gardening to extend your grocery budget. It is interesting for me to drive around my small town now and see so many people beginning a garden. 

The economic downturn, while devastating to our economy overall, has had some positive benefits as well within my own life. It has re-focused me and led me back to skills that were possessed by my grandparents and my great-grandparents. As my grandmother has reminded the perfect garden plants me repeatedly, “We didn’t have all this stuff….we couldn't just go to the store to buy whatever we wanted. We made it or we made do without it.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all of the technological advances of the past century are horrid. I use and love electricity and the radio. I even watch t.v. sometimes (though not often). However, there is nothing like a crisis to show you where your skills are lacking and should be shored up. Growing my own food is like that for me.

As a mother of four grown children and a husband (who eats like he’s still growing), I pay attention to grocery prices. In case you have only focused on gas, you’re missing the rise in the cost of your food. If you haven’t stopped to look, take a few extra minutes the next time you go to the store. Save your receipts over the next few weeks to see the change in prices that will occur. If you have old receipts lurking somewhere, check them against what you’re paying now. I promise you’ll be surprised.

Here we will be focused on tips and tricks to the perfect garden plants stretch your grocery dollars through gardening. Don’t worry if you don’t have a huge backyard, or if you live on the 25th floor of an apartment in the city, or if you live in a desert climate for that matter…growing your own food is very doable and these days every little bit helps! Stay tuned!