Tips from 50 years of backyard vegetable growing

At the recent One Planet Market we were treated to a talk by Andrew Skinner.  I say ‘treated’ because it is always a delight to hear about how seasoned gardeners have gone about their passion of growing good, fresh, healthy food in the city.  Admittedly Andrew and his family have the benefit of a tennis court size garden but based on his talk they make good use of every square inch.  The chooks roam between the vege plots helping clean up the potential pests and fertilizing as they go.   The excess produce is shared with others or preserved for leaner times.

He shared a number of his gardening tips and his favourite tools and it was done with such passion and fun that you couldn’t help but be inspired ….. in fact my back is still suffering from my flurry in the garden the following day as I tried to implement all of his 50 years of tips in one afternoon… apparently it doesn’t quite work that way!!

Anyhow must back into the garden and tend my garlic and broad beans …. They are what to plant at this time of year … I can already taste the broad bean dip, seasoned with a little salt and pepper and home grown garlic!