I came to the conclusion that starting my own veggie patch was the go, so my family can eat that bit healthier and hopefully we can grow some better tasting food too.

I found a spot in the yard that has three retaining walls around it, and purchased some straw-bales to lay across the front to act as another retaining wall. After filling it with organic loam we now have a raised bed. For the past two months I have been composting all of our organic waste with some straw and soil and that is going quite well. Unfortunately the rain got into it over the past few days but I have since sorted that out to keep it a little drier and warmer during the heavy rain season. While a slow process, composting your scraps will produce a great organic fertilizer for your plants and is well worth the effort.

Last week I bought some seed trays and planted broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts in it. After just one week I have some very strong looking seedlings. After another couple of weeks I will transplant these into the vegetable garden. Direct into the ground I have now sown carrots, lettuce (mixed), silver-beet, spinach and snow peas. I will encourage the snow peas to climb up the fence using wire.

My tips for starting a veggie patch are:

• Unless you have great soil, starting with a raised bed is much easier. Buy some organic loam to get you started.
• Compost all of the organic waste you have. It’s free fertilizer and is made by nature. It’s the best for your crop!
• Do some research as to what to grow and when. Gardenate is a great website for this.
• Start small and enjoy the process rather than feel the burden of a massive veggie patch. Go bigger when you are ready.

Sort of following on from my post the other week, “The Great Outdoors”, spending the time outside in the garden has been really enjoyable. Maybe because as a kid I was always outside – my dad was a landscaper and loved working in the garden – I would always be outside helping my parents in the garden.

Working with the environment just charges me up and gives me so much energy. Watching the plants grow is an exciting process and very rewarding too. It’s little “wins” like this in life that makes me a happy person. Try it for yourself. It’s a bit of work getting setup but well worth the effort.

Post from: r0dman.com

Starting a Veggie Patch

Doing some research on the net this morning I have found that I’m not the only one that believes spending time outside makes you happy. It’s always been something that puts a smile on my face. Doesn’t matter if it’s the rain drops falling, looking at the clouds on a summers day, or bush walking and coming across interesting cliff faces or plants. There’s always something out there that makes me happy, as obscure as those things may be.

It’s well documented that in order to live a healthy life, you should try and get a good dose of sunlight and fresh air each day. Many believe that when you are outdoors, you get an endorphin high, which makes you instantly happier. When you spend a good deal of time outside, it is more likely that you will sleep better that night too, and better sleep means that the next day you will feel more refreshed.

In nature, most people realise their purpose. It’s hard to clear your mind in an urban environment surrounded by darkness, pollution, electronics, and all sorts of other stress. When you are closer to nature, you can clear your mind and feel connected to the world surrounding you. Like any other species, we are “just living our lives” too.

I don’t believe in any higher meaning, I believe that we are on this earth to eat, sleep and procreate. This is very hard to see sometimes, especially when you are planning for a 3 o’clock meeting, need to reply to a stack of emails, and then pick the kids up from school afterwards. Escape to nature and it becomes so much more obvious that the “something more to life” is actually less. Less stress, less frantic living, and so on. This is hard to escape at times, but the simplest escape is to spend a small amount of time outside.

Plants flourish outdoors, put them indoors where they can’t get any light and they will die. We eat these plants, and we are meant to live in the same environment as them. It’s no wonder we are so negative sometimes, we need our dose of outdoors too.

If you do one thing today, go outside and find something interesting. Look up at the clouds, look at the green grass, close your eyes and breathe in the fresh air or listen to the birds.

Post from: r0dman.com

The Great Outdoors