Raised Vegetable Beds

What is more useful, this odd shaped piece of grass on a gentle slope which fits a guinea pig house nicely and takes time to mow every now and again?  Or a jungle of many different organically grown fresh herbs and vegetables?

The odd shaped piece of lawn before was not very useful

Raised vegetable beds, they look great plus they produce organic food

Let's take a look from another angle.  Here is the odd shaped piece of lawn again.  It was wasted space that took time and effort to mow.  The lawn clippings were useful in the compost and the weeds that grew in there attract beneficial insects, but other than that it had little use.  I took a photo before vegetable beds, then I stood in much the same spot and took a photo after the raised vegetable beds were installed.

A piece of wasted land

That same small patch of land overflowing with fresh organic vegetables

Let's have one last look, I stood in much the same spot to take both pictures for comparison purposes.

Guinea pig house protecting vegetable seedlings from birds on the odd shaped plot of lawn

The same plot with lawn killed, guinea pig house moved, and raised vegetable beds installed

Don't make any mistake here, it took some work filling the beds with soil, planting seeds and seedlings, watering etc.  All of that work is more than worth it.  The raised vegetable beds became very productive very fast.  Being raised beds means I don't have to bend as much, which is easier on my back.

If you read my blog you will see that I grow many rare vegetables as well as dabble in vegetable breeding.  I can still do this because we converted a wasted lawn into a reasonable sized vegetable garden.  These raised vegetable beds are great, they mean far less bending, less digging, less weeds and less work.

Planting seeds and seedlings

Look how neat and tidy they all look

Even at this early stage they were productive

It didn't take long before that worthless piece of lawn became a jungle of delicious organic vegetables, amazing berries, fresh herbs, and a few pretty flowers for the kids.

Many people have never eaten fresh food.  Some foods are too soft to transport, so they are picked not yet ripe and can never taste their best.  The sugars in sweet corn convert to starch noticeably within 15 minutes of being picked.  If you want fresh food you must grow it yourself.  Food from the markets is not fresh and it will never be as good as food you can grow on an otherwise useless piece of lawn.

All of this fresh organic food had zero food miles, it was watered from the water tank which collected water from the roof, it was fertilised with compost made from lawn clippings and chicken manure from my property.  Does it get any better than this, yes it does!

To make things better my kids know where food comes from as they help me plant seeds and tend the vegetables, they help harvest and eat the food, and they help me save seeds (and dabble in a little plant breeding) each year.  Most adults I know have no idea how to save seeds. 

My kids have grown and eaten many fruit and vegetables that most people have never heard of.  They have eaten delicate and tender foods that could never survive transport.  All of this is possible because we destroyed our lawn and made it into something better.

Many vegetables are growing here

Raised vegetable beds - far more productive than lawn