How to grow your own produce (no matter how much space you have)

Choose a sunny spot

Ideally, you want to start your garden in a spot that gets at least a few hours of morning sun. If you’re starting your garden indoors (in pots and baskets), choose somewhere that gets lots of natural light.

Get your soil ready

Whether you’re working in the ground or in pots, you want to make sure your soil is in top-notch condition. Pick up a few bags of organic potting mix and work it through your existing soil, or pop directly into your pots. When you’re handling soil, potting mix and compost, make sure you’re wearing gardening gloves.

Gardening in a small space?

If you’ve got limited space, work with pots and containers. Fill a few containers with soil and place in a sunny spot in your courtyard or on your balcony. No garden at all? Try hanging baskets in the sun, or deep, narrow boxes on your windowsill. Lettuce, spinach, radish, carrots and most herbs will grow wonderfully in a window box, while strawberries, cherry tomatoes and peas do well in hanging baskets.

Start with something easy

If you haven’t spent much time in the garden, start with plants that are easy to grow. Herbs like parsley, mint and rosemary are great if you don’t have much space (and flourish in pots), while salad leaves, beans, tomatoes and kale are excellent if you’ve got a bit more room to grow.

Seeds or seedlings?

Whether you plant seeds or seedlings depends on what you want to grow. Some veggies, like carrots, beetroot and beans, are easy to grow when you direct-seed, whereas crops like salad leaves and tomatoes do well planted from seedling. Chat to your local plant seller for advice on what will work best for your garden.

Water, water, water

When you’ve got your new plants in the ground, they’ll need plenty of TLC. And by TLC, we mean water. Give them a good soak every day for the first three weeks after you’ve planted seedlings, and a quick water twice daily for seeds (drop back to once a day when they sprout).

Harvesting your veggies

When your garden is flourishing and tomatoes are red, zucchinis a good size, and herbs looking leafy, make sure you pick them, cook them, and eat them! If you leave things on the plant too long, you risk woody veggies or pests getting in there first.

Here’s one of our favourite recipes featuring easy-to-grow backyard produce. You can grow almost everything yourself!