Episode #15 - 8 Simple Ways To Grow Food In Your Backyard 

A while back I asked a gardening community what was something they wished they knew before starting their own food garden. I had many responses including when to plant, water, fertilise, what grows well in their area and how to deal with pests and diseases. These are all pretty common questions for a new gardener and for a well-seasoned one too. 

One sentiment that came up was I wish I knew about different methods. It sparked a lot of conversation and it was really interesting to see just how many of us start our journey not knowing what our options are. We research what we want to grow but not how we want to grow it. 

In this episode, I want to highlight 8 simple methods that are suitable for the most backyard, or front yard gardens and that are easy enough for any gardener to learn a little about and get going. I will go through the pros and cons of each to help you understand what method or methods will be best for you. 

I have personally tried all of these methods at some time over the last 20 years and have settled on a few favourites. I have however been as unbiased as I can.  

Containers

Container growing is so easy and super convenient especially if you're renting or have a hard surface backyard like a paved courtyard. When you think of container growing don't limit to just pots. Think about anything that you can put soil in and that either has or you can create drainage.  I've grown food in tubs, old buckets, kids paddling pools, old bathtubs, grow bags or old stockfeed bags, direct into potting mix bags and used food containers like soft drink bottles, yoghurt tubs and take away coffee cups. 

You will need to choose the right size container for your plant. For instance, you won’t grow potatoes in an old yoghurt container but you can grow lettuce or herbs. 

 

Pros

Convenient - you can put them just about anywhere

Cost-effective - you can find something to grow in for free around the house or pots are very cheap to buy

Temporary - If you move you can take them with you

Fewer weeds - Containers can get fewer weeds in them and are easy to remove if they do

Easy to protect - Easy to cover up f you have issues with pests or animals eating your crops like a hungry possum

 

Cons

You have to add your own soil - This may bump up your budget

You have to improve the soil yourself - The plants will deplete the life of the soil fast in pots so you need to stay on top of adding more organic material like compost regularly

You will have to feed the soil - you will have to fertilise on a regular basis

Water - They require more water more regularly than any other method as they can dry out through heat very fast. When you water a plant in a container the water moves through quite fast.  The plant only has a very limited time to take as much moisture as possible after you water it. Once the water drains through the container the plant doesn’t have a water source until the next time you water. On the other hand, if you don’t have enough drainage you will drown your plants. Roots need moisture, air and nutrients. An imbalance in any of these will have your container veggies begging for attention.

 

Raised garden beds

Raised garden beds have been around for a very long time and are a favorite of backyard gardeners around the world. There are tonnes of styles, varieties and designs of raised beds. Raised beds are a simple solution to just about any garden and you can set one up pretty easily using reclaimed materials like recycled timber, old roof sheeting, or anything that you can put together that will hold soil. Or, you can buy a raised bed system to install. 

 

Pros

All the same pros of containers plus a few more

No bending - raised beds are great for people who find bending down challenging

Great for urban areas - Many Urban areas are susceptible to soil contamination from heavy metals. if you don't know if your soil may be contaminated a raised garden bed is a great alternative

No tilling -  with raised garden beds it's easy to add compost and soil to the top of the bed each season without the need of turning over the soil

No compaction from walking in the garden -  remember I mentioned that plants need moisture, air and nutrients. Compaction from us walking back and forth on our gardens can deplete the air pockets, a raised bed can help overcome this. 

Cons

Again, all the same cons as containers plus a few more

Cost- I know I said earlier that it can be very cheap or maybe even free to build a raised garden bed but if you want to put in a whole Garden of raised garden beds it's likely but you're going to have to outlay some money. As with containers, you're going to have to import soil to fill up those raised garden beds.

Productivity -  If you have great soil and have all the elements of the 3 key ingredients right then this won’t be an issue however, getting the right balance across the growing season is tricky and this will affect the productivity of your garden. 

Overcrowding - It is much easier to overcrowd a raised bed, even with best-laid plans. Often when we plant out our raised garden bed to maximize the space with plant flower seeds or seedlings close to the edge. Unfortunately, their roots don't take nutrients from the hard edge so their roots are pushed back in towards their neighbours, creating competition.

You need some skills - you have to be a little handy to put them together and maintain them. They won’t last forever. 

Conventional garden beds

When I'm talking about a conventional garden bed, I'm talking about the old school style bed where you would dig or till a section of your garden, remove the weeds and maybe add some gypsum if on clay soil or import soil and compost if you are on sandy soil and plant into the ground. This is the standard method for most garden market and large scale farmers.  

 

Pros

No Cost - it’s pretty much free, pending any soil improvement you may need to do

Access to greater nutrients - Without the restriction of walls the plants roots can go deeper and wider accessing a greater level of nutrients and moisturiser

Beaks up compacted soil - tilling a garden bed can help to break up any compaction that will allow air and moisture to penetrate the soil.

Cons

Disturbs the soil structure - The soil is a web of life and when we turn the soil over we are turning that structure on its head. This allows dominant weeds to access sunlight and grow and causes helpful underground critters such as earthworms to go deeper in all moved undisturbed areas. 

Causes crusty bits - When we till the soil we expose a greater surface area to air and sunlight while reducing moisture retainability. This causes the earth to crust over and causes water to be repelled rather than absorbed. 

Can cause erosion - when we till we loosen the topsoil and when it rains or it’s windy, there is nothing to hold the soil together causing erosion. 

 

No-dig or Lasagne method

I did say at the start that I would be as unbiased as possible, I do have to say however this is one of my favourite methods.

A no-dig or lasagne method is where you layer a mix of carbon-based materials and nitrogen-based materials.  Carbon material is anything like straw, woodchips, cardboard or wet newspaper, leaf litter, sawdust and rotten timber.  Nitrogen is anything such as grass clippings, weeds, worm castings, compost, vegetable scraps, animal manure, animal bedding and coffee grounds.  Often carbons are referred to as browns and nitrogen is referred to as greens, but this colour identification isn’t always accurate.

As the name suggests you layer these items on top of each other starting with the bulkiest item of carbon followed by the bulkiest nitrogen layer followed by another carbon layer and so on. A good tip is to add some compost as you go to help maintain the structure and kick start the microbe process. Water each layer as you go

This bed will heat up and over a few weeks, start to break down. Wait for the heat to go out of the garden bed. You can plant directly into it or put a thicker layer of compost and soil on top and plant shallow rooted veggies like leafy greens and water well. 

 

2 big tips here is to 

1-Use a garden fork to ‘open the soil’ before adding the first layer. Put the fork all the way in and tilt it back without digging up or turning over the soil. 

2-Place wet newspaper or wet cardboard over the top of the finished lasagne garden. overlapping it so no daylight can get through, Then add a thick layer of mulch over the top. This will do one of two things first it will stop any weeds from germinating as they won't be able to access sunlight and secondly it will retain moisture like a boss. 

 

Pros

Retains moisture very very well - even though droughts

Natural nutrients are accessible at all times - No fertilising needed

Soil is alive - you will have created a living gar