Even if you’ve broken all your other New Year’s resolutions, there’s still time to make another important one – to eat healthy this year.
An easy way to improve your health is to grow and eat your own delicious vegetables and herbs. The food you grow at home is healthier because it’s more true organic food. Especially when you avoid using chemical sprays and feed with organic fertiliser. With a low to zero carbon footprint not needing to be transported by road after they are picked, your home-grown food will be environmentally friendly as well as tastier.
Planning:
You might think that it is too early to be planning your new season kitchen garden, but now is the time to give some thought to what can be planted for harvesting in a few months’ time.
• Lettuce. This is such a good looking crop with such a wide variety of leaf colours and shapes to choose from, they can be ornamental and practical in one. Leafy types can be harvested within a week or two if planted from seedling size.
• Spinach. In modern gardens spinach has become the one source of home food that everybody wants. There are different varieties that can be planted to suit your cooking style.
Other crops suitable for planting this month are carrots, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.
Herbs:
Tips for success:
Follow these tips for setting up your own kitchen garden:
Herbs too have a change this month. Many of the annual herbs such as basil are coming to an end and the summer rain and regular watering will make some of the Mediterranean herbs look a bit tired or stretched.
• Choose a site in full sun to half day sun. Plant mixed in with your flower beds or in containers but if you prefer a traditional patch, 5 m x 4 m of usable space should be able to provide food for a family of five.
• Before sowing and planting, prepare the soil well. Dig over the soil in the beds with a fork, add liberal quantities of compost (half a bag per square metre) to the soil and work in a handful of fertiliser per square metre.
For more information go to www.lifeisagarden.co.za.
