And It’s All About The Big Four! 

Soil. Mulch. Compost. Sunlight. 

The perfect combination of those four elements will almost certainly create the right environment for your Southern Highlands veggie garden to thrive, according to the wonderful Michael of Turf 2 Trees Horticulture.

Look, we love bumbling about with our veggie patch but that’s kinda what we do…. bumble about.

So we wanted to get on the front foot for spring and find out what we need to do to create a thriving [+ surviving!] veggie garden. 

The more we can eat from our own gardens, the better, right? Especially with food prices and supply chain shortage being what they are at the moment.

So, we asked our gardening guru, Michael from Turf 2 Trees Horticulture to help us out and considering he’s got a whole lot of surplus lettuce and rocket going on right now – local restaurants, you should get in touch with him if you need any!! – he is definitely the guy to give solid advice about how to create an awesome veggie garden. 

Here’s his tips! 

1 :: What materials do you need to build your own vegetable garden?

You can use whatever materials you wish!

Mine are steel [thankfully I made these before the price of steel went sky high!].

You can use specific treated pine. There are specially manufactured ‘veg bed safe’ treated pine sleepers to use now without the nasty chemicals. 

Hardwood is good but just be careful of the old railway sleepers…… trains used asbestos brake pads way back when and I’m not sure what they used to spray the weeds on railway lines but it’s funny,  you never see weeds growing in between them! 

If I was building veggie beds out of hardwood, I would us hardwood rails used in rural fencing. 

You can also use Colorbond – pre packed from the large hardware stores. These aren’t too bad, I must admit!

And there’s nothing wrong with in-ground veg beds. If you have good soil, use that…or simply mound them up!

2 :: How big or little should it be?

I prefer thin veg beds at about 1m wide.

This allows you to reach to each side easily without difficult bending.

I also recommend having access to all sides so you can maximise the space. If your bed is wide so you can’t reach easily the middle, think about laying a plank of wood through the centre for access

Michael’s vegetable gardens – talk about veggie garden goals!!! 
 

3 :: What soil should you use and how can you maximise soil health for the veggie garden?

Soil is key – the success to any green venture is good soil!

The best soil for veg gardens is a sandy mix [with heaps of manure and compost] with minimal clay content.

The clay may be okay for a lot of above ground crops, however the root based vegetables will struggle to produce nice straight thick veggies in clay based soils…..  ever wonder why your carrots are forked? This is the carrot growing, hitting a large piece of soil/clay/rock and bending/forking to go around it!

4 :: What veggies grow well in the Southern Highlands?

The great thing is just about all veggies grow well! You just need to pick the right time of year to plant them.

The best resource I’ve found for this one is via The Diggers Club… they even have month by month calendars available to purchase for each region of Australia – pure gold! If only I found this before I spent the day making my own for my customers.

These are fresh from MIchael’s garden – oh my gourd! 

5 :: What bugs, pests and nasties should you stay on top of and how?

This is very season dependent. 

Right now, caterpillars are the main culprits. There are naturally derived products of controlling just about all these guys now….I never spray chemicals in my veg gardens!

I also find if you can get your seedlings to about 8-12 inches high, they usually take care of themselves most of the time. Remember one sick broccoli out of six is still a good result.

There is nothing wrong with allowing the pests to ruin a couple in the bunch to save the use of a spray. 

The key here is check frequently every couple of days and keep on top of it.

6 :: Tools of the trade! What’s your best expert tip about veggie gardens?

Look after your soil and the soil will look after you! Good horticulture is working from the ground up.

Crop rotation and companion planting is an awesome tool to use. Do things like planting garlic next to your tomatoes to keep the aphids away, planting calendula/ marigold in the veg patch to help with pollination, rotation of crops so you’re always moving your different plants every year. 

And always plant leaf producing crops after your beans or legume crops as the legume fertilises the soil with nitrogen or the leaf crop. 

Use beer traps – that’s the best way to tackle snails! It was also a hard one to explain to the accountant. 

Look for the microclimates within your veggie patch, and look for sun baked walls to maximise the heat for your tomatoes, and sheltered corners to plant the corn to stop it from getting trampled!

Oh wow – that is awesome, Michael. Thank you! 

We’re so pumped to get our veggie patches thriving now! 

And gang, this is a pic of all the veggies Michael harvested from his own veggie patch a couple of months ago so yeah…. he DEFINITELY knows what he’s talking about, right?

Turf 2 Trees is a Landscape and Estate Management business specialising in acreage, formal gardens and show gardens with over ten years of horticulture and turf management experience. A local business who has mastered the art of their craft in the unique Highlands climate, the team at Turf 2 Trees Horticulture focus on efficient and high-quality property maintenance. 

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