Sharing Plots and Finding Solutions
Most home growers of fruit and vege will more than likely be faced with a common problem. Space. Unless you have acreage of space, trying to grow enough food and plenty of variety to be self sufficient is difficult, if not impossible. If you start to consider gardening aspects such as the number of available spots in full sun, crop rotation, companion planting and succession planting, the small backyard plot tends to fill up pretty quickly. When we start out growing our own produce we are excited and eager and we try to grow lots of different plants in the minimal space we have in order to get the most out of our gardening efforts. This often leads to bad planning, poor crop and harvest return and a quick burn out of motivation. I know this because this has been my reaction and result in previous years but this year though, I was determined to think outside the plot and find a creative solution for these problems.
We got together with some friends who lived up the road who were also keen to set up some veggie plots and were looking for my guidance on how to get this started. After surveying their backyard, it turned out that they had an abundance of space in full sun which sets the ideal growing conditions for crops. I was clearly envious of this space and my own jealousy lead to finding a solution to my gardening problems by taking advantage of the good parts of both our backyards.
The suggestions was put forth that we would collectively build a number of plots in each of our backyards and split the initial set up costs, help each other plant out the gardens and help keep them maintained. This option allowed us to grow a larger variety of crops, plan succession planting so that we had a continuous supply of a single crop throughout its growing season, encourage great growth with companion planting (which plants grown best together) and also consider crop rotation so that the same veggies are not depleting the soil of the same nutrients every year.
The result is 5 plots over two backyards with the following crops being planted for the spring season:
- Tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, beans, peas, corn, broccoli, dill, parsley, basil, coriander, chives, parsnip, carrots, Bok Choy, lettuce, Chinese broccoli, green shallots, leeks, potatoes, capsicum.
A perfect, sustainable solution that brings friends together and food to the table all year round!
