The Veggie Garden

I've never been much of a gardener, in fact I've always been more from the "Bring a living plant into my home and I shall surely kill it" sect. When we moved into our house almost a year ago it came with a ready made garden, which was perfect for me and my equally brown-thumbed husband.

After a few months of living here we realised that even ready made gardens require maintenance, if you don't want them to die. We decided we DIDN'T want to kill our garden, because it looks awesome. In the process of watering, weeding and tending our plants, we discovered that we didn't really hate gardening after all. In fact, we kinda' dug it (OH SEE WHAT I DID THERE?! SNAP).

Our adventures in gardening have so far produced some fledgling herbs (it didn't exactly come naturally), some browning daisies, a thriving succulent garden (the one project not overseen by moi) and a hydrangea that so far refuses to flower. But we haven't given up! We are determined to become the Don and Donna Burke of our generation.

So began "Project Veggie Garden" this past weekend. We copied our friends (who are chefs and by no means brown thumbed, with AMAZING veggie gardens in both their back and front courtyards) and decided to build a largish planter box as we don't have tons of space. My talented husband built this with his BARE HANDS, what a legend.

The planter and its maker - materials from Bunnings

 We aren't quite at the point where we trust ourselves to grow from seeds, and are lucky to live close to a fantastic organic market where they sell tons of seedlings each weekend. Someone (not me) went a little overboard on the seedling purchase, resulting in a fairly crowded veggie garden, but I think it looks quite fab.

The finished product

I am actually really excited to see the fruits of our labour (PUN #2!) as these plants mature over the next couple of months. Not only will I feel really self sufficient, I will (hopefully) save money and not have to buy seedy Woolworths vegetables.

For me, the greatest thing about this veggie garden is it will limit the neccessity/temptation to buy vegetables based on convenience rather than health/ethical purposes. Undoubtedly pesticides, fertilisers and additives effect the quality and safety of vegetables bought at supermarkets and grocers, and it's not always easy (or cheap) to stock up at organic markets. I never thought much about this before becoming a mother, but lately it's been on my mind.

ANYWAY let's hope these suckers grow! NOMNOM.

Z xx