Mini Makeover Veggie Patch for Tony and his daughter

This week we made over a Veggie patch for Tony and his daughter, Lynne of Langwarren. They were lovely people. Tony has been a merchant seaman for 37 years and before that he was in the Royal Navy and is a veteran of D. Day. These days he keeps an immaculate garden and his hobby is growing tomatoes in his veggie patch.

What we did was to fork the garden over and give it a weed. Then we spread a few kilos of dolomite lime and several bags of Surecrop compost and forked over again. I dug the 2 ½ x 3-meter patch into three beds, with two paths, about 2 meters long through the centre. Tony had some nice hardwood slatted paths for keeping your boots clean. I placed these, one for each path. They’re a good idea because you can kneel or walk and not get you feet too dirty. They were painted white – an old skill Tony had acquired in the Navy.

All of these veggies will do well planted now and the garden will be producing before spring
We then planted a row of seed potatoes, Nicholas, which is their favourite. Then on either side of the potatoes we planted lettuce and spring onion seedlings. We planted everything from punnets, as seed is slow to germinate. In the next bed we planted onion, cabbage and bok choy and cauliflower. Then we planted Leek, Carrot, Broccoli and Beetroot (just a little of each). The last bed was a bit dry and full of roots from the neighbouring Pittosphorums, so we planted, across the top of the patch, Silver beet, which is the toughest of all the veggies. Near the fence we planted a row of popular and hardy herbs, such as Parsley, Mint, Thyme and Rosemary.

Tony and Lynne were very appreciative and made us afternoon tea. Tony offered us a shot of Rum, It was pleasant and sunny in the yard and I was sorry I didn’t take him up on the offer, as I still had a lot of work to do that afternoon.

What is interesting about the makeover is that a lot of people don’t plant their veggie gardens until spring, but all of those veggies will do well planted now and the garden will be producing before spring.