Grow your own vegetables with or without soil

Vegetable gardeners need never go hungry. Did you know that all the vegetable needs of a family can be met in a tiny garden where less than 1.5 square metres is needed for each person? Or that you can grow plants without soil? Here’s how to grow your own food:

 

Method 1: Growing vegetables in soil

1. Level a sunny safe site
2. Dig a trench the size of a door to knee-depth. If possible along the north-south axis. You will start a new trench each month for 4 months. This will give you a regular supply of fresh vegetables all year round.

 

1. Half-fill with natural plant and animal waste, for example leaves, grass, cardboard, vegetable peels, newspaper, egg shells, manure and compost.
2. When half-full, water well and cover with soil. Do not compact.
3. Dress soil with 5cm of grass clippings or dead leaves [mulch].
4. Build a low fence of sticks around the bed to protect it from animals and the wind. Plant beans against this fence.
5. Separate the mulch with a stick and plant a good variety of seedlings or seeds in alternate rows and according to the season. See ‘what to plant when’ below.
6. If you plant marigolds in some rows you will have fewer insect pests.
7. If the sun scorches the plants build a light frame of twigs and dry grass over the bed for shade. Remove the grass bit by bit as the seedlings grow stronger. If the weather is cold use old plastic bottles to make protective domes
8. Water regularly and lightly. Keep the soil surface damp under the mulch.
9. When the seedlings reach a height of 5cm, heap the mulch up against the plants.
10. Collect animal or poultry manure and make liquid plant food. Put a 1 litre carton of manure in a bucket of water for three days. Dilute this solution with water 1:30 times and put a teaspoon of this fertiliser on each plant after you have watered well.
11. Control insect pests with a natural insecticide mixture. See instructions below.
12. A trench garden like this can be planted continuously for 5 years as long as you plant different types of vegetables in each of the rows (crop rotation). So keep records.
13. Herbs add interest and help to protect plants from pests. Plant a few rows of parsley, chives, thyme, and garlic.
14. Use bone meal, wood ash and compost instead of chemical fertilisers.

 Method 2: Basic Home Hydroponics

Not everyone has access to soil but even those who live in blocks of flats and the handicapped could use hydroponic methods to grow some food of their own.

The name hydroponics suggests plants grown in water, and that method is used. But it also refers to any method of horticulture that doesn't use organic soil, like the one shown here.

1. Choose a container - Plastic is best but a pot or asbestos window box painted inside with bitumen paint will also work. If your container is clear, wrap with brown paper.  
2. Drill a few small 6mm holes in the base and plug with nylon stocking. You might like to have a drip tray underneath.
3. Place 3 cm of fine stone or gravel in the container for drainage.
4. Fill to a 20-30 cm depth with river sand, or well washed builders sand. [There must be no lime in the sand.]
5. Plant your seedlings or seeds in the sand.
6. Buy a 500 g bag of commercial nutrient powder from a garden shop. This makes 250 litres.
7. Dissolve a quarter level teaspoon of this in 1 litre of water and leave to stand in a plastic container overnight. Use only a half strength solution to water the seedlings for the first 12 weeks. Thereafter water with full strength solution [half a level teaspoon to a litre.]
8. Moisten the sand well once a day.
9. Support the growing plants properly.

What to plant & when (Southern Hemisphere)

Lettuce, tomatoes & cabbage can be planted any time.
Spring           
Beans [August to March]
Green Peppers
Pumpkins [August to October]
Summer        
Peas [February to July]
Onions [February to April]
Potatoes [January & February]
Autumn         
Carrots [March to August]
Spinach [March to August]
Winter
Beetroot [April to September]
Turnips [April to September]
Potatoes [June and July]

All information courtesy of the South African Boy Scouts

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