FROG:
Ribbit! Ribbit!
NICK HARDCASTLE:
I reckon that vegies taste best straight out of the garden. They're still full of vitamins and minerals that they gradually lose in storage and in transport from the farm to the shops. And it's easy to grow your own vegie patch. You don't need much space. Remember, it's best to start small and build up. Different vegies are planted at different times of the year. If you get it wrong, they just won't grow properly. Check out the vegie section at your local nursery and look at the seed packets for when you should plant them. The warmer months of spring are the busiest harvest time. Many carrots will be just right for picking. Potatoes grow in clusters under the nice warm soil. Summer is when the soil is at its warmest. The cobs of sweet corn soak up the sunlight, and tomatoes also need the warmth to ripen. During autumn, the soil cools and things start to slow down. Pumpkins need a lot of room to grow. Winter is a quiet time in the garden. Many types of cabbage can be cut at this time and so can cauliflower. Then along comes spring and it all starts again. Planting seeds is easy. A simple rule - the bigger the seed, the deeper in the soil you have to plant them. So with these fine, little carrot seeds, all we really need to do is make a drill in the soil, which is like a shallow furrow, and spread them out... ..then just backfill the soil. Like so. And water them every few days when they're first starting out. With seedlings - this is a lettuce - all we have to do is make a hole in the ground with our fingers, pop them in, cover them back up - again, they need some watering - and make sure you leave plenty of space for them to grow 'cause those little guys are gonna end up big and juicy. Like him. When we eat vegies, we are eating many different parts of a plant. We eat the leaves of lettuces, the roots of a carrot, the stems of the celery, seeds of the pea plant, the fruit of the capsicum and the flowers of the broccoli. And if you haven't got a whole lot of room at home, the great thing about most vegies is you can easily grow them in pots. See, I told you, you didn't need much space for a vegie garden. Bella and Grace have been hanging out with me making this one in a box. Why are we using a box?
GIRL1:
We live in a unit and we don't have much space for a garden.
GIRL2:
So we're gonna put it on our balcony.
NICK HARDCASTLE:
Aha! Great idea. If you're putting it on a balcony, though, remember, your box does need holes in it for drainage. So when you're watering it, you wanna be careful there's not muck going downstairs if you've got people that live below you. Or if you've got a wooden deck, you might want to raise your box using some bricks and that way, it's not going to rot the wood underneath it. OK, so we took our box, which we got from a supermarket for free - they're practically throwing them away - and we filled it up with potting mix. You can charge it up with a bit of compost as well, which is really great. Then the first thing we put in was our lettuce. And why is it there on its own?
GIRL2:
Because it grows very big so you need space.
NICK HARDCASTLE:
Yeah, that's it. So you've got to kind of look into the future and see how is this all gonna be in a few weeks' time when it starts to grow? Then we put in our beetroot, which are big, too, but not as big. They're over here. And what are these ones?
GIRL1:
Spring onions.
NICK HARDCASTLE:
They are spring onion. And you might have noticed that we laid them down in the drill, and, already, they're starting to spring up all on their own. Fantastic. Oh, now, we do have these fantastic little 'labely' thingies that came with the seedlings. We're gonna put them in with our vegies and this way, when we're tending to our garden, we'll have all the information we need to look after them properly. Here's a red cabbage that we planted in a pot, and that's because it's going to grow really large, and also, because cabbages can attract pests, so we wanted to keep it separate from the other vegies. But if you are getting pests or creepy-crawlies in your vegies, you might need to use something - a garlic spray is a good idea - but whatever you do use, make sure it's organic because that's better for the vegies and it's better for you. Now, have I forgotten anything?
GIRL2:
Watering.
GIRL1:
And fertilising.
NICK HARDCASTLE:
Oh, yeah. Vegies love their water so don't let the soil dry out. And you can use a liquid fertiliser every two to three weeks. Other than that, keep an eye out for weeds. Oh, and do you think the box looks a bit daggy?
GIRL2:
Yeah.
GIRL1:
A bit.
NICK HARDCASTLE:
Well, you can add some colour, paint it, add some decorations, make it your own. There you go. Vegies in a box. Why do you need all that?