Imagine picking freshly grown vegetables and herbs from your own garden to toss into a salad or pasta. Sounds nice, right? Well, growing your own vegetables is easier than you think, and you don’t need a large backyard for your veggie patch, you can even develop a green thumb in an inner-city urban home. Vegetable gardens are fun, cost-effective, and you know you’re getting the freshest ingredients in your food. Robina Group’s CityVillage Terraces and Paddington Terraces are the perfect locations for getting a small vegetable garden going, and we’ve put together some tips to get you started.
Getting your veggie patch started
Your creativity is your only limit when choosing where to put your veggie patch. Plant pots are popular choices, but you can use anything from metal buckets, to an old drawer.
When deciding which vegetables to grow, consider how much space your vegetables need. Dwarf varieties are mostly fine in the smallest of spaces, but surprisingly, most other vegetables will be happy in a decent sized pot (around 18 inches deep) – except for vegetables like corn and pumpkin. Do your research on how much space each vegetable needs, so you can work out how many you will have in your patch.
First, ensure you leave enough space for your vegetables to grow. Put a layer of stones (or polystyrene packaging works too) at the bottom of your pots, then add compost. Firm the compost down with your hands or a spade. Now you’re ready to plant your vegetables!
Vegetables grow best in locations that get around 6 – 8 hours of sunlight per day. Every CityVillage Terrace home has a private sun-drenched courtyard, great for growing vegetables.
A common mistake veggie patch owners make is overwatering. An easy way to tell when to water your vegetables is by poking a finger into the compost. Water when the top inch of soil is dry.
Be creative with your veggie garden
You can be as creative as you wish with your veggie garden. Brighten up your garden by using bright pots or containers, or use recycled containers like old wine crates or drawers. Growing edible flowers will add colour and cheer to your garden, and contrasting textures can also look really nice. You can even hang your veggies. Complementary colours can make a hanging basket look really interesting – a good combination is tomato and basil.
Where you can buy vegetable seeds and gardening equipment in Robina:
Kmart, Robina Town Centre
Masters, coming to Scottsdale Drive, Robina in April 2014
Thrifty-Link Hardware, 38 Commerce Drive, Robina
Plant Mart Australia, 34 Berrigans Road, Mudgeeraba
Birdies Garden Products, 35 Alex Fisher Drive, Burleigh Heads
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