Very vegetable Sunday

"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust."

Gertrude Jekyll

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It's been a great Sunday although in truth most are. I got a few things done outside and with blue skies and 22°C what better place to be? I awoke and answered 13.5 million hive comments on the week 63 #weekend-engagement post and had nice chat with a friend on text message over breakfast then excused myself to go outside to work at a few jobs I've been neglecting for a few weeks.

As a kid I grew up in a small town and one of my fondest memories was helping my mum and dad tend the vegetable gardens. The family would all pitch in and help and whilst it was hard work it was enjoyable. I learned a lot and not least of which was the value of a reward for effort ethos which endured throughout my life. There was something deeply satisfying when we'd harvest our produce and, whilst I would often make rude jokes and gestures about the cucumbers and zucchinis, I generally took it pretty seriously.

There's a certain satisfaction that comes from eating food one has planted, cared for and pulled from the ground with one's own hands and in my opinion that food tastes better. But like most people I grew up and moved away from the large property on which I was raised and my life took me to different places - I never forgot those moments though and the enjoyment I found in the simple task of growing one's own produce.

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Vegetable garden beds

It's been many years since those good-old-days in that little town and I've not had my own vegetable garden for more years than I can count. I've had a small herb garden in a pot but nothing larger and I've been thinking for a long time that I need to get it happening.

I didn't want to dig up established garden areas or sacrifice my firepit area and that meant thinking out of the box, quite literally.

I came across this product not too long ago and did some research. It's a raised garden bed with a self watering base, top sprinklers and a mesh lid to keep the bugs out when required. It seemed perfect for the job and whilst reasonably costly I decided to get two which gives me a total of four square metres of garden bed area so enough to get started with. I have the room to add a couple more but thought I'd see how these went first.

The VegePods are an Australian patented product, owned and operated although, lamentably, are made in China. They need assembling of course but it wasn't too difficult. Like always I just unpacked everything, laid it out, looked at the picture on the box and set to it and didn't seem to have too many issues. Everything clips or screws together and a person needs nothing except what comes in the box, including tools.

It was a little awkward as I was working by myself although in about an hour I had one complete and the second took a little less time. Job done. OK, job not done actually.

Because of the volume of soil they take I had to place them on a solid surface which I do not have; not in the right position anyway. But I came prepared. I ended up setting some cement pavers into the gravelled area and the VegePods sit nicely on them because I measured up first folks.

There was nothing difficult about putting the VegePods together, or the stands, and once I'd done the first things went more smoothly with the second. I might have trapped my fingers under a cement paver and swore a little bit, but that's unconfirmed. Other than that alleged incident there was little to trouble an old fellow. Done in no time flat.

The containers are made from UV stabilised polypropylene and are designed as a self-watering system with overflow. Watering still needs to be done but the gardens beds could go a couple weeks without water if needed. The system also recycles water and nutrients back to the roots - Rather a good system actually.

My plan is to put worms directly into the soul of the beds as a nice little boost rather than using a separate worm-farm to gather the good juicy stuff. I'll probably use some pea straw to help retain moisture and from there it'll need just a little tending every few days.

There's various covers used to create microclimates but it comes with the white one which is suited to my climate - There's a darker one that provides more shade and I may go down that path in summer. It has a built in set of sprinklers so once plugged into water will be a nice little gardening system I think. I plan to plumb them both together so only one turn of the tap is required.

The hinged lid system will get left open sometimes of course and when closed will keep all those pesky things out including heavy rain and wind. The system promotes rapid growth, it's touted some two times faster than in-ground gardens. No grubs and insects eating my stuff, and more efficient use of water and nutrients. Seems like a winner.

From here I have to get the dirt in although I have to hook the trailer up to go and get it and I didn't have time today. Once done it'll be ready for planting, a post for another time.

It would be great to have the available ground space to have a larger garden but I simply don't. I also have some residual back issues from my past and so bending down isn't much fun. This is a nice compromise and will give the the enjoyment and satisfaction I seek. Something is better than nothing right?

I'm not sure I'll have enough produce to trade, but I think I'll have enough to supplement my shopping at the market. I have lemon, apricot, plum, white nectarine, apple, orange and grapefruit trees and get reasonable fruits from them. With some vegetables from my VegePods I reckon I'd be able to gather enough to trade for some eggs, milk or other things I don't have; Not a money-saving thing...Just a fun thing.

So...What did y'all do on Sunday, or what do you have planned?