Why install a veggie patch?

Back in the day it seemed as though every member of my family dedicated a plot in their backyards to vegetables. I must admit there was fierce competition amongst factions of the family as to whom could produce the largest yield of tomatoes or whose chillies reigned supreme, but set that aside, the veggie patch fed our family and friends two-fold and taught me to appreciate good produce and good food.

I don’t know what happened to those days, but the veggie patch seemed to become superfluous to our fast paced lifestyles. For far too long since we’ve relied on supermarket vegetables, or when enthusiasm and time mix favourably, the slightly superior market produce to suffice our needs. We’ve become lazy and complacent with our shopping choices, and for that our food has been suffering.

To emphasise the superiority of home-grown vegetables over their supermarket counterparts all you have to do it compare the same dish cooked using the different produces. Now unless you have the time and resource to shoot off to the kitchen and make two separate batches of a simple pasta sauce of fresh tomatoes cooked with garlic, chilli and basil, you’ll just have to take my word – there is no comparison!

The flavour of your chemical-free, love-filled, backyard-harvested vegetables shame their bland, supermarket impostures. That’s because your backyard veggies are grown as nature intended them (if you use heirloom or organic varieties which of course you will!) as opposed to the genetically modified versions you find on supermarket shelves. Those varieties are picked unripened and put together by science to withstand the long and cumbersome journey to the supermarket. They’re also made so as not to re-produce, which is the industry’s little reminder to all growers that they will need to return and purchase more seeds next year. It’s therefore quite easy to understand why their natural taste has been eroded by what is considered ‘biological progress’.

Though take away the taste difference and yet there are still many reasons to grow your own veggies.
- You will save on grocery bills. Fancy paying $6/kg for plain old tomatoes in March.
- A veggie patch will heighten the aesthetic appeal of your yard, because food is colourful and sexy (not just when it’s presented on plate at your favourite restaurant)
- It’s satisfying and rewarding, especially for kids as they learn to develop their knowledge and tastes
- And in the much grander scheme, growing veggies does your little bit for the environment by reducing carbon emissions

And amid the current environment of increasing carbon emissions, increasing cost of vegetables and the inability to water our lawns, the idea of a veggie patch becomes much more sensible and more possible - most houses have a burnt out piece of lawn that needs something done with it!

So get out in your front or back yards and choose the best area for a veggie patch. Make sure that you best utilise your sunlight available. Go about building the retaining walls, setting up a compost bin, bringing in the soil and installing the irrigation. Look into what you want to grow and what will grow. Sow them, nurture them, and then enjoy them.

If you don’t have the time, speak to The Little Veggie Patch Company and let us help you!