My previous experience with 'Veggie Patch' has been mostly traditional. The old 6' x 4' rectangle, dug into the lawn somewhere reasonably close to the back door. It's usually down flood stream from my trusty compost heap.
Nothing so big as to be called sustainable, but then I've got a job. At this point, 'sustainable' is just a muddy, tough pipe-dream, within the grasp of only the truly dedicated, the retired or the long-term unemployed.
At present, my experience of 'Veggie Patch' is veggies in patches. How big the patch becomes often depends on how well it disguises itself from 'family' as a garden plant. For other reasons unknown, it is a plant whose taste also lies beyond the culinary delights of the wallaby pallate.
The only piece of good practical gardening advice you are going to get from me is this. If you want to grow vegetables that survive no matter what, then plant these. Ornamental Chili, Kent Pumpkin, Cherry Tomatoes, Parsley, Basil and Chives. Just don't plant the Basil in the same pot as the Parsley. They hate each other. Neither will die but neither will either of them thrive. Give them separate homes.
At my house, there is a chili bush beside the drive way that lives because it has lovely green and purple leaves and is called 'ornamental' at the nurseries.
There remains an independent pumpkin vine on the other side of the driveway because it happened to take hold when 'family' was desperate for anything to grow in a place without topsoil.
Until recently, there have been armfuls of cherry tomatoes gate crashing the compost heap out the back. Now it appears tomato seedlings seem to be forming in the fruit tree patch down flood stream from the compost. I suspect they may not survive our winter. But I'll wait and see.
I bought some fruiting trees and 'family' in the spirit of hoping I would help him do more gardening planted them. An avocado, a kumquat, a macadamia tree and a lime tree. The kumquat is beginning to fruit and I am waiting to make my first batch of kumquat jam.
I bought two strawberry plants at the Beaudesert market on the weekend and they were planted between the macadamia and the lime tree with placating statements of "Don't worry, trees are deep rooted and strawberries have shallow roots". I hope my theory works true. I threw in another couple of independent pumpkin seeds for good measure.
I also commandeered a tiny patch of ground in front of the carport. I planted peas and radish and broccoli. I am not the most amazing gardener in the world so I'll see what happens.
At the laundry door I have basil and parsley in separate pots. At the dining room window I have chives. I am quite excited about my patches of veggies.
Photo by Simon Howden http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=404
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