Fruit and vegetables - growing your own favourites

Planting fruit and vegetables can bring your household so many benefits. You and your family will be healthier, save money, help the environment – and enjoy fresh-taste sensations that can’t be replicated from supermarket produce.

Having fresh home-grown vegetables gives you a natural larder to harvest as you need it. Your grocery bills are lower, and you can save even more by preserving any surplus. Adding herbs fresh from you own herb garden makes your produce even more flavoursome.

Home gardens grow best with regular attention – a little tending each week is good after initial preparation and planting, rather than irregular bursts of activity. The work is good for your health, and can be fun and educational for younger family members. A vegetable garden is a good way of making productive use of any compost you make from organic food and garden waste.

For the city dweller, gardening provides a natural escape from a mainly human-made environment. Growing your own garden means you can control what goes into it, keeping it chemical-free if you wish. In terms of benefits to the environment, growing your own fruit and vegetables reduces the transport fuel and packaging associated with buying supermarket vegetables and its freshly harvested.

Past generations gardened traditionally and out of necessity during the Great Depression and war years before home gardening tapered off with 1950s post-war affluence and consumerism. But vegetable gardening is making a comeback throughout the developed world as environmental awareness grows.

Getting started – tips

• Don’t take on too much – start with a small plot and manage it well, adding to it later.
• Dig in some of your home made compost a few weeks before planting
• It’s good to sow seeds initially in pots. Place them in a sunny, sheltered area, then plant seedlings out in the garden when larger and better able to cope with wind and rain.
• Most crops should be planted in mid to late spring after the frosts.
• Water well – check the moisture of the soil first. Fruit and vegetables will need more water over summer and don't drown winter crops by heavy watering unless drought conditions apply (both evaporation of soils and evapotranspiration of plants is lower in winter).
• Control weeds by using mulch.
• Control plant diseases by rotating crops seasonally.

What to grow?

• Easiest - lettuces, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, radishes, spinach, tomatoes and climbing beans. Apple and lemon trees are easy fruit options.
• Fastest (within two months) - beans, spinach, courgettes, peas, bok choy, lettuces, radishes.
• Slower maturing - potatoes, Brussels sprouts, sweet corn, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes.
• Indoors or in tight spaces - tomatoes, lettuces, beetroot, spinach, carrots, herbs.

Further information

New Zealand’s variable climate and local conditions means it’s best to seek advice from local sources. Council websites often have some good gardening ideas, as well as information and links to online resources, library books and community initiatives such as community gardens and services or courses you can do.

The Sustainable Living Programme offers courses through partnerships with local councils throughout New Zealand. Gardening is among the many practical sustainability topics covered in these courses.

If you’re interested in courses with a particular focus on composting the Create Your Own Eden programme is available through Auckland, Manukau, North Shore, Papakura, Rodney, Nelson and Southland councils.

External Links

Check out the following websites for further information:

• bestgardening.com
• Garden NZ
• Garden NZ - Tips on growing specific varieties
• My Garden