We had a very dull front garden, mostly half dead lawn, a few trees, some overgrown areas and a massive hedge that blocked most of the light in winter. Last year we made the decision to transform the garden into a beautiful edible garden and now have 5 raised beds, a large hedge has been removed and replaced with citrus trees; we have a herb, flower and perennial veggie bed along the boundary where the hedge was. A pumpkin patch and a berry bed. It’s still a work in progress, with a huge learning curve on a daily basis.
As a personal challenge I have grown everything from seed other than berry and fruit trees. The beds were finished 5 months ago and we’re harvesting a kilo of tomatoes a day, more beans than I know what to do with. Chillies, beets, cucumbers, carrots and many others are producing and feeding us.
As we have limited space we have built a cage around our three main beds and are growing everything possible vertically. This being the first year it’s a bit of an experiment, at this point the tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and pumpkins have made their way to the top of the cage and are growing over the net roof. The next few months of our journey to urban veggie self sufficiency will be exciting to be sure.
