The Patch

There's something really rewarding about growing your own fruit and veg.
For me there are several reasons:
* It's all organic
* I put the time and effort into planting each little seed/ seedling
* It's fun to pick fresh fruit and veg from your own patch, with a little helper (in my case it's Miss 3)
* It's way cheaper then buying it from the shops.

This is what my dream patch would look like:

If it looks familiar it's Meryl Streeps garden from "It's Complicated". 

Ok.. so a lot of that is TV magic and not actually real. 

So I'd even settle for something like this:

I Wish!

My veggie patch is a far cry from both those pictures, but I'm slowing building it up and hoping for a little something... my "pièce de résistance" but more on that later (maybe next year for a special birthday present), you'll have to wait and see.


This is my veggie patch when we first made it (behind the fence) and it's brand new so nothing was growing just yet. So far It's 4 simple plots (but we plan to expand) 
I used stacked Kiwi Collars (http://www.kiwicollars.co.nz/AUSshop.html), stacked 2 high (8 in total). We put crushed rock down between the beds so in winter you don't get muddy shoes.

The only fertiliser we use is.... Chicken Poo, our chickens produce it for free and the veggie garden loves it.

The old icky chicken hay that we replace with fresh hay goes onto the veggie patch as mulch.

Currently in the patch I don't have a lot growing, it's actually very minimal:

- Desiree Potatoes

- Little Devil Chillies (very very hot!)

- Mint

- Spring Onions

- Garlic

- Pumpkin

- Lemons

- Oranges

The Lemon Tree is in our front yard. Miss 3 and Mr. It picking our 1st crop.

The Lemon Tree has been in for 3 years and is finally producing a crop this season. I've been making Lemon everything and hubby has been doing his part by drinking Corona... I'm sure that's been real hard for him. ;)

If you haven't tried Julie Goodwins recipe for Lemon Diva Cupcakes, I highly recommend it! 

The Potatoes, Chillies and Spring Onions have by far been my best little crops, the more I neglect them the more they produce. 

The Spring Onions I bought as seedlings about 2 years ago and the Chilli tree was a little bush when I bought it. They both get full sun all day and produce really well (even with a strawberry bush trying to take over the entire plot). 

The Potatoes I bought as a kit (from kmart or Bunnings), I grow Desiree potatoes. 

It's really simple to do, if you do it right you only need to buy 1 kit, so far 1 kit has given us at least 100 potatoes. You can grow new potatoes from the potatoes grown in your garden. For every 10 potatoes you pull out keep 1 aside and let it grow eyes (those white nobby things that grow out of it). I keep mine in the laundry, it's warm and gets sun now and again. The crop you want to eat keep in a cool, dark place. 

This is what i pulled out in 3 spare minutes on Thursday:

 All clean and ready to eat store:

Because I have such an over supply of Eggs and Potatoes I'd love some suggestions as that what you might cook with the ingredients I grow in my veggie patch.


I love to make Placki, you may know them as Plutski, Polish Potato Pancakes.
Meringues - for the kids (and the big kid)
Cakes/ Cupcakes 
Chocolate mousse
Pasta (we make it fresh, yum!)


I'll upload some more pics of the chickens and veggie patch soon.


Natalie