I was invited to be a #veggiegeek on twitter a couple of weeks ago.  I was first flattered then shocked at my realisation that yes indeed I have become serious about growing fruit and vegetables. I’m not expert by any means, I’m still learning and experimenting but this is the fourth year I’ve worked a kitchen garden and I’m finally started to see how you can grow food at home in a sustainable way.  But knowing and doing are two different things.

If we’re to survive eating food from our kitchen garden I’m going to need to be better organised and dare I say more of a veggie geek.  So far, my vegetable gardening routine has been driven by available time and energy.  To be successful in this game I need to get into a more planned approach treating each season and crop according to a pre-planned timeline.  Also, I need to be more specific about how much I plant of what.  I’m still very much in the let’s see what grows and plant it all.

We’ve just eaten the last garlic bulb from last year’s crop which were harvested 10 months ago.  I’m actually amazed that the stock stored and lasted as well.  I know this year it won’t as the mice ran off with many of my garlic cloves from the garden immediately after they were planted.  We will probably only have a third amount of garlic to store this year but we shave savour every one. Our potato stock ran out months ago although I’m fast coming to the conclusion that we’re better off just growing new potatoes which do taste much better than shop bought whereas main crop potatoes stored don’t taste that different and we’d need a massive garden to grow enough for the whole year. I seriously underestimated the amount of root vegetables to grow last year.  We ran out of carrots and parsnips pretty soon although I was beginning to feel I never want to eat another turnip as they sprung up easily and grew to massive proportions.

Knowing what you want to eat and when is of course the starting point for any kitchen gardener.  I’ve placed so much emphasis on the what that timing and yield hasn’t really crossed my mind.  Although I’ve been putting more of a conscious effort into thinking about that this year I am still a little on the back foot as far as stocking the garden goes.  It’s been a flurry of activity re-filling the raised beds which have settled considerably and needed an injection of new compost and soil.  Potting on seedlings in the greenhouse and then into the cold frame has been relatively straightforward although I amassed a stock pile of plants which really should have been in the ground by now.

I’ve also grown masses of companion flowers this year which are groaning at me from the cold frame to be let out into the garden proper.  If all goes according to plan this will be happening today.  Along with a massive seed plant of root vegetables.  The runner beans still need to find a home and I’m running out of space as I’ve been a little over enthusiastic with my planting of peas and beans this year.  I have no doubt that I’ll manage to squeeze everything in and then it will just be a question of standing back and seeing what happens.

One bit of planning I have done this year is to choose varieties of vegetables that will feed the soul as well as the serve our dinner plates.  I’ve planted a much bigger range of New Zealand heritage varieties and crops that will be beautiful as well as tasty.  I love these peas which have frilly stems and are competing for the beautiful pea award. Charting progress in my backyard pantry has never been more exciting and you can be sure that there will be plenty of veggie geek reporting to come.