How to get started with a new garden

For all people who sit on a block of earth, no matter how small it may be, and who are thinking about starting to produce food and veggies, the actual start might be a bit daunting. Making the most out of your space with the right motivation is a big goal, but making a small start is easy. Here are my suggestions based on my own journey.

1. Permaculture is a system about designing your garden that works and meets your needs as well as the needs of this earth. On the Permaculture WA website you find very useful info sheets on how permaculture works. I suggest you start by reading this one http://permaculturewest.org.au/resources/pw-principles-of-permaculture.pdf which gives you a good overview of the design principles and how it all comes together; or watch the video http://permaculturewest.org.au/resources/what-is-permaculture. To get more detailed knowledge you might want to sign up to a relevant course about permaculture http://permaculturewest.org.au/resources/education and then get the right system in place that match your location and your personal needs.

2. Improving the soil is imperative if you are on a sandy patch like most locations in Perth. Our suggestions are available here http://permaculturewest.org.au/resources/pw-soil-building.pdf

3. For getting good seeds you might want to contact Environment House in Bayswater http://www.envirohouse.org.au/ , also check out businesses linked to Permaculture West http://permaculturewest.org.au/resources/businesses, try your local organic food store or check out the GreenLife Soil Company http://www.greenlifesoil.com.au/seeds.htm, a good address for your gardening needs. PermacultureWest has seedsaver groups which you might want to join. More info here: http://permaculturewest.org.au/community/seed-saving-wa

4. Learn from the experts. The Perth Gardening Show is coming up shortly. Attend it and have a look at the opportunities available, from 3-6 April, more info here: http://perthgardenfestival.com.au/

5. Finally talk to your gardening friends and invite them to come to your house for a chat and a site inspection. Rather focus on a few little projects now and get their help in putting them into reality. 

6. Get yourself a few good gardening books. My favourite ones are:

 - Lolo Houbein - One Magic Square

- Readers Digest - Grow your own Fruit and Vegetable the easy way for Australia and New Zealand

Or simply start with the gardening books you already have at your home.

If you are interested in joining a Permaculture West local group, just select the one that you feel closest to from the choice here: http://permaculturewest.org.au/community/local-groups.

Best of luck and let me know how you went.

Winter rain and new seeds

Winter has come back and dumped a lot of rain down on Perth. It is very windy and quite cold around 15 degrees celsius only. Both watertanks have filled up and the earth is moist and in good shape. The lettuces thrive and the tomatoes needed to be tied better onto their stakes to withstand the wild weather. It's real winter in Perth, but it compares well to similar days in April in Europe.

But as is has not been raining all the time, I could pick a sunny time during the afternoon to seed some zucchinis, cucumber, capsicums, eggplants, basil and a few sunflowers to attracts birds and insects.

I used three plastic seeding trays, filled them with compost and inserted one or two seeds into each segment. The idea is to see how the plants go and eventually cut the weaker one to have just one plant out, survive and start off strong strong. I seeded four to eight seeds in one or two rows, with the intention to repeat this process in about two weeks time after the next new moon.

Last year I marked each row off with the initials of the seeds but to no avail, as I did not give them the intention the seeds deserve. This year I left it, feeling comfortable that I remember what I seeded when the seedlings grow.

Both rainwater tanks have filled again after I started watering last week during temperatures around 23-24degrees. The rainfall record this year is looking better than last year although we have so far not reached average rainfall in any of the 2011 months:

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2011	30.2	0.4	0	19.4	85	171.4	161	115.2	65.2				647.8
2010	0	0.2	40.4	25	88.6	51.4	142	63	43.6	20.6	11.6	17.4	503.8
Average	9.5	12.7	19.5	44.1	117.5	175.7	169.7	133.6	80.6	52.2	22.1	12.8	850

More details available here: http://www.watercorporation.com.au/R/rainfall.cfm

Pura Veda Seeds

My latest discovery and an enrichment to my breakfast choices has been a seed mixture of buckwheat, sunflower kernels, raisins, sesame seeds, millet, pumpkin seeds, linseed, poppy seeds, chia seeds and amaranth. This mixture is called pura veda seeds.  I add it to my musli for breakfast and love its taste. Alsio during the day eat it some joghurt and tinned fruit or steamed apples. I have come across thus stuff by accident through one of their promotion events at Manna Wholefoods in Fremantle about two months ago.

I have actually lost a bit of weight too without changing any of my diet. My naturopath who I visited last Friday said she rarely sees healthy people like me. A few friends of my are hooked too now. Give it a shot. I think you will like it. And the producer of this heavenly stuff don't even pay me to say this.