A great time to try it out: starting a vegetable garden

Being in lockdown can be a great time to try something up-to-date. In this series, we explore the basics of hobbies and activities to get started with as you spend more time at home.

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There is a long history of focusing on one’s own garden or compact farm when the weight of economic and political chaos becomes unbearable.

Since the first major depression that hit Australia in 1892–93, there have been calls for go back to the garden as a material response to potential food shortages and as an emotional balm that provides a sense of productivity and control.

Urban food production increased dramatically in the second half of the 19th century. It was common to grow a wide range of vegetables on compact plots of land alongside piggeries, dairies, and livestock farms in the crowded inner and outer suburbs.

Miniature-scale local production was the most convenient way to provide local communities with access to fresh food. But with the onset of a deep recession, calls arose to move people back to the land. A up-to-date generation of urban workers began to seek security, autonomy, and opportunity in rural or semi-rural self-sufficiency.

Modern Landscape Gardening

This move towards growing one’s own food was driven by enormous economic need, but it also became a symbol of a shift away from modernity, providing social and spiritual renewal.

For the early suffragettes, self-supply was deeply political. Ina Higgins, Vida Goldstein, and Cecilia John founded agricultural cooperative exclusively for women in the suburbs of Melbourne in 1914. Food production during the First World War was practical and necessary, and provided social and economic liberation.

By giving women the opportunity to escape the constraints of the home and factory, small-scale farming meant that they could transcend expectations of work, marriage, and motherhood and interpret production as physically beneficial, morally edifying, and socially responsible. It allowed women to take control of their own livelihoods in a way that had not been available to them before.

This 70’s hippies the conversation was reignited. Through a dedication to homesteading activities such as crafts, food preservation, and practical recycling, children of the post-war generation found solace in the “venerable ways.”

These were plain, domestic activities that also fulfilled their desire to set environmental limits and take responsibility for their personal operate of resources. Growing food was not just nostalgic, but reflected a distrust of advertising and commercial interests, and a general rejection of consumerism, work, and materials outside the home.

Today is not there yet another renaissance in growing, preserving, bottling and storing food on compact plots and home gardens.

Growing your own food at home may not meet all of your family’s nutritional needs, but the practice of harvesting, preserving, and cooking your own food gives you a sense of control and peace of mind.

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Read more: Anxiety and Depression: Why Doctors Prescribe Gardening, Not Medicine

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Tips for Starting Your Own Vegetable Gardening Business

Observe and interact

Look at the space you have and the resources at your disposal. Will you grow in pots or in the ground? Think outside the box: can you operate your greenbelt, balcony, or even a friend or relative’s garden (while maintaining social distancing)?

For those growing in the ground, your time is restricted as winter approaches, so start compact. Remove as much grass and vegetation from the garden bed as possible. Add some high-quality compost, such as mushroom compost, to improve the soil quality.

Gardens without digging they sit above ground and the layers of organic material create the perfect growing environment for vegetables and herbs as they decompose. They can be started with a very compact investment.

You may want to consider buying (or building) raised plant boxes which drain moisture from a reservoir built into the box. Raised garden beds are great for growing compact vegetable and flower plots. They keep weeds off the paths and away from the garden soil, prevent soil compaction, provide good drainage and act as a barrier against pests such as slugs and snails.

Never operate chemical pesticides to solve an insect, weed or disease problem. Enrich the soil. Add organic matter, fertilize with good compost, operate good organic fertilizers. If you devote as much attention to enriching the soil in your garden as you do to caring for your vegetables, the vegetables will practically grow themselves.

Check your garden every day. The more time you spend there – even if it’s just five minutes early in the morning – the more you’ll learn about it.

Search community

There are tons of Facebook groups, blogs, websites, and community organizations online that provide resources on the basics of vegetable gardening. Find one in your area that is suitable for the given weather, soil and conditions, and benefit from the experience of others.

Local networks will be able to advise you on the best things to plant, how to start a garden (if you’re renting), and even share seeds with you!

Even a compact box on the balcony can be satisfying

So what if the spacing is a little off, or you’re a week or two behind schedule with your planting? Or maybe you just started with one tomato plant? Vegetable Garden does not require perfection for food production.

Gardening can be a way to spend time outdoors, in nature, or just to get the break you’re looking for.