Harvest from the Toddler Organic Vegetable Garden

Have you been ‘conditioned’ into believing organic vegetables can never look as good as regular ones in shops? Well if you have, then take a closer look at this picture. There’s a bit too much reflection coming off the packaging, but there’s no denying the cos and dark frilly oak-leafed lettuce is as good looking as any, anywhere! The only reason organic vegetables look so unappetizing is because they are not fresh. And the reason other vegetables keep their ‘fresh’ look is because of the harmful chemicals placed inside the plastic wrappers which give them a longer shelf live.

These vegetables were harvested from Squirrel’s Landing Organic Garden last Wednesday, and sold to a few lucky shoppers on Thursday. They were still crisp and beautiful and caused many ooh’s and aah’s from admirers. If you’ve been watching Cabbages and Cream since its inception, you’ll remember it all started at the beginning of March, and this is what has come out of the garden two and a half months later. You can track progress of the lettuce by clicking Organic Vegetable Garden Progress on April 22^nd.

Our beetroot doesn’t show up in this picture, but you can be sure it is utterly delicious, with strong, healthy leaves – nothing like the limp stuff in the supermarkets and big vegetable stores.

Read more on the topic: We want real food

Keyword=v_g

Birth of an Organic Vegetable Garden

A brand new organic vegetable garden was born recently at Squirrel’s Landing. There’ll be frequent postings to keep you up to date on how it progresses, so make sure you visit us again soon. This is how the early preparation went in order to put minerals back in the sand and soil:

Our topsoil was thick with invasive grass roots, making it impossible to dig over, and we had to bring in a Bobcat to chop off the matted and dead topsoil which has been hijacked by invading alien grass for three generations

• Then we cleared out bits of stone and some deep sunken roots which would have sent up more grass shoots within days


• A thin layer of loose soil was exposed, under which hardened clay has made it impossible to fork over. We tried sinking a stake in to hold up a fence but it was useless, the prongs of the fork just bent! This was when we realized just how much work is ahead of us.


• We have to manufacture top soil from scratch in order to make it arable!


• A layer of well rotted manure went down first followed by some dried grass clippings taken from the plot next door where a team of workmen recently spent the morning mowing. It will help make a base for our new topsoil and the remains have been set aside to feed our new compost heap


• After that a layer of good topsoil was salvaged from the boundary which is where a natural stream runs, and the soil looks quite healthy


• Then another spreading of manure and some of the so-called 'compost' from the local nursery came next, and a hefty dose of organic chicken manure in pellet form to add concentrated nitrogen into the mix


• Lots of watering followed, after which there was much digging and forking over and leveling of the whole area


• This new topsoil will lie quietly for two weeks, with a little tilling and lots of watering in between, when we will be ready to set the paths and plant some seeds

We’d love to hear from you so visit us soon for further news of our brand new organic garden, and we’d love to hear from you about your ideas on growing organic vegetables.

Don't forget my Organic gardening DOs & DON'Ts

Keyword=v_g

Organic gardening DOs & DON'Ts

Everyone’s going organic these days, which is very good news indeed. But there are varying degrees of ‘organic’ and if we want to achieve the results we envisage we’d better do everything we can to get it right from the start.

One aspect of the organic growing of vegetables we don’t hear enough about is soil management, and this is pivotal if we want good nutrition from the food we grow. People who instinctively know that the food they eat builds good or bad metabolisms will be sure that their soil contains as many of the trace elements and minerals which are needed for the plant to synthesize inorganic minerals in organic nutrients that our bodies can process.

So when you begin work on your allotment or just a small area of your back garden in order to grow real food*, have the soil tested for its mineral content, and if necessary, check with your nurseryman as to how to feed your soil before you begin planting.

Here are a few tips to get you going:

• Read as many articles you can find on feeding the soil first
• Make soil care a priority
• Make compost and leaf mould to feed the soil
• Make local sources your first choice
• Manage the whole garden organically - not just the fruit and vegetables
• Use organically grown seeds
• Control weeds without herbicides
• Consider the environmental implications when choosing materials for hard landscaping, fencing, soil improvement and so forth
• Say 'NO' to genetically modified varieties
• Make the garden 'wildlife friendly', encouraging natural creatures to control pests.
• Learn to distinguish pests from predators
• Collect rain water, and reduce the need for watering by improving the soil and growing appropriate plants
• Reuse and recycle, to cut down the use of finite resources and reduce disposal problems
• Play to your garden's strengths, capitalising on its particular characteristics
• Stop using slug pellets!
• Avoid the use of preservative treated wood

Keyword=v_g