Gardening the easy way

A mini organic garden can give you wonderful vegetables, which are pesticide-free and delicious. Here's how you can do it, easily as long as you put in a bit of planning and organization.

It is not really necessary to have a large garden area to grow plants of vegetables and the worry and concern about illnesses caused by pesticides can be a thing of the past.

There are usually a few good reasons why more people don't grow things these days. Some of these are:

• Time
• Room
• Lack of gardening facilities

Put these ideas out of your head, think positive and start planning to "grow your own food". Even in small area, it is possible to grow all you will ever need of some vegies and still have enough to give to your friends and family. It's amazing how people will tell you how wonderful you are and thank you profusely for these lovely wares. You'll probably find you are so motivated that you will increase what you grow and where and how you grow it.

So, do you believe me? Want to give it a go? Don't know what to do? Well, here's the answer, read on.

Even if your whole yard is concrete, this garden will work for you. It's the no-dig garden method that has proven so successful all over the world. What you need to do first is to identify the area where you would like to start. Choose an area where there is sunlight, with access to water, mark it out and you are ready to start planning. What you will need to start:

• Pieces of wood or something to use to box in the area chosen
• A bale of Lucerne hay
• A bale of straw
• Some old newspapers
• A load of compost
Manure or fertilizer like blood and bone
• A rake
• Gloves
• A bit of energy and enthusiasm
• And motivation to get started

Be thorough with the planning and preparation. Put some of your time aside for it, and have a look at a few different design plans before you start. Don't make it too big to start, say 10 feet (300 cm) by 5 feet (150 cm) and look at what vegetables you would like to grow that are in season. Good choices for this type of garden are lettuce, beans, tomatoes, silver beet, and radish but there are lots of others you could decide to grow. You can plant seeds or seedlings, depending on how ambitious you want to be.

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