Anytime is a good time to plan a backyard vegetable garden. Photo: Filip Urban
While the summer growing season for vegetables might be midway, now is a good time to start planning - and ploughing - if a vegetable garden is in your dreams.
Growing your own vegetables could save you hundreds of dollars a year, not to mention providing the soulful satisfaction of harvesting and eating something that you nurtured from seed or seedling. And spending time in green spaces, AKA nature, is proven to relieve stress and anxiety.
Permaculturalist Kath Irvine is behind the popular Edible Backyard guide that helps novices turn their under-utilised garden into a thriving food basket. She spoke to RNZ's Saturday Morning about how to start a vegetable garden from scratch without it costing too much.
"It is never too late to start. You can start at any time," said Irvine.
Kath Irvine. Photo: Supplied / Catherine Cattanach
Here were her tips for those ready to get their hands dirty:
Preparation is key
Taking the time to plan your garden - where to put it and preparing the soil - could mean a more bountiful harvest and less financial investment.
"Take a little time at the beginning because how you set up your garden has a huge impact on your workload and it also has a huge impact on the amount of fertility - bought fertility like compost, fertiliser - that you need to buy to support your garden to grow well."
Edible backyard - November vegie patch Photo: Kath Irvine
Consider the Sun
Getting to know your land is key. Pay attention to where the sunny spots are in both summer and winter. If your proposed location was sunny between 10 am to 2 pm in winter then you've likely picked a winner.
"Winter sun is so important to make sure you can continue to grow your crops," said Irvine.
Do you get frost in the winter?
Frost could mean disasters for many vegetables but their impact could be avoided or reduced. If your backyard was prone to frost then pick an elevated spot.
"Frost is like a thick syrup. It sort of moves across the landscape and it is always going to the lowest point."
Half-pruned Hetlina apple Photo:
How is soil drainage?
"Nothing thrives in wet, poorly drained soil," said Irvine.
Often this occurred in low-lying areas or when there was a large amount of water run-off from something like a road.
"It just means that all the spaces in the soil fill up with water and when they do that, it displaces the air and the air is absolutely crucial to keeping your soil healthy."
Growing your own vegetables could save you hundreds of dollars a year. Photo: Kath Irvine / Edible Backyard
Test your soil
No, you don't need to send it to a lab. Get a shovel, put it in the ground and lift out some soil. Was the shovel hard to get into the ground? How many worms did you find? How did the roots of existing plants, such as grass, look? (something like the appearance of dreadlocks is good.) Do those roots stop or veer off because that could mean poor drainage?
"Squeeze it in your hands. Give it a shake. Good growing soil loosely sticks together with a few clumps that fall away."
"If it is too dry, it slips through your fingers and if it is too wet it will retain the shape of your fingers."
What about raised beds?
Irvine was "not a fan" of raised garden beds unless you really needed them. The topsoil needed to be constantly refilled and the soil tends to dry out faster.
Raised garden beds were an option if you have poorly drained soil that couldn't be fixed or if your backyard was a mass of impenetrable rock, said Irvine.
Preparing your existing soil was "much healthier and easier to keep moist."
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