A while ago in Australian Regional Food - Looking Back 2: The Home Garden I described with a degree of nostalgia the old style home garden. With international food prices rising to record levels, I thought it time to return to this topic.
I fear the old style home garden is no longer really possible in most metro areas. We live in flats or build huge houses on small blocks, with little room for home agriculture. It's not just space. Hear the neighbours complain if you keep chooks!
Yet this life style is still possible in most parts of Regional Australia. Of course there is a time cost. Yet the effort really pays back in terms of health, fresh food and lower food costs.
How long does it all take? Well, that depends on what you want to achieve. If you simply want to add your own fresh food to your diet, a couple of hours a week will do. For that, you can have a constant supply of fresh herbs and greens, with some tomatoes and other specials. I could not do without my own rosemary, oregano, mint, sage and marjoram. And that is just a start.
If you have more time, you can expand. Mind you, expand past a certain point and you need to start preserving or selling the surplus. Then you have fresh food the whole year round.
Over the next few posts I will outline the lazy person's approach to the home garden.
Posts in this series
- Regional living - the lazy person's approach to gardening 2: planning the garden
- Regional living - the lazy person's approach to gardening 3: the importance of a good compost heap
- Regional living - the lazy person's approach to gardening 4: the importance of a good herb garden
- Regional living - the lazy person's approach to gardening 5: digging your first plot
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