Growing herbs for beginners

Herbs in a clay pot. Credit: Art Aspirations @ Flickr.com

All of us here at Kev’s Patch have our own vegie patches – we’ve seen first hand how much fun they are, how much money you can save with them, and how good they are for the environment.

But maybe you’re a bit hesitant to try a full vegetable garden, or you don’t have the room, and yet you’d like to get some of the benefits. Why not try growing a few herbs in pots?

Most herbs are dead-easy to grow, and don’t need much special care. As long as they’ve got sun, water and a bit of food, they’ll happily grow anywhere, even your kitchen windowsill. It’s a great way to figure out if you’re keen for a more extensive edible garden!

The easiest herbs to grow are the ones we use frequently in cooking – parsley, chives, mint, basil. To get them going, here’s a few steps you can follow:

1. Find a place to put your herb pots. Pick a spot that’s facing north or north-east, and gets at least 5 hours of sun a day. The nearer it is to your kitchen, the more you’ll remember to use your herbs once they’re grown.
2. Buy 2 or 3 packets of seeds or seedlings of the herbs you most like to eat or cook with, and a container to put them in. The container should be at least 15 cm deep, or as tall as your hand. If you’ve got a long container, you can put all your herbs in it, about 15 cm apart, or you can get individual pots for each plant. You’ll also need a small amount of potting mix.
3. Fill your container to about two-thirds with the potting mix, then add the seeds or seedlings according to the directions on the label.
4. Give your herbs a little water – they don’t like to be soggy, so don’t over-do it. After they’ve grown a bit, you’ll know when they need a drink because they’ll look tired and droopy – give them some water and watch them perk right up again.

Once your herbs are growing, you can just pick off leaves to use whenever you feel like it. Frequent picking encourages them to grow more, but always leave the plant at least two-thirds of it’s leaves.

Later on, we’ll post some ideas for getting more adventurous with growing your own food! Let us know if you’ve got any suggestions.

Round 2

Here is my second letter back from the leader of Australia’s department.  Only my address has been omitted for obvious reasons.

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Australian Government
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT BARTON
Reference:C09/43828

20 August 2009

Dear Mr Webber

Thank you for your letter of 17 August 2009 to the Prime Minister regarding my previous reply about the growing of organic produce at The Lodge and Kirribilli House. I have been asked to reply on the Prime Minister’s behalf.

The Department is currently investigating various environmental initiatives including water capture at the residences. Water tanks are already in place at Kirribilli House which has reduced the amount of town water used there.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to the Prime Minister.

Yours sincerely

Suzanne de Smet
Assistant Director
Official Establishments Unit

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Thanks for the reply Suzanne.  I do appreciate the time you take to reply on behalf of our PM.  Really I do.

So readers, what do you think?  Another fob off?  Not much detail in this letter, but at least we now know that Kirribilli House has rainwater tanks and that they use them.  I believe this response deserves an third reply asking for details of the “various environmental initiatives”.  Maybe there might be an organic vegetable patch in there somewhere even though there is not a lot of reference to it in this letter.

If at first and second you don’t succeed, try, try again and again and again!  Kev’s Patch will become a reality.  Please join the campaign and participate in this fine piece of environmental activism by sending our PM a letter.  Even if you are not Australian, still have a go at getting the leader of your country to plant their own veggie patch at their official residence.

Just as important though, please take the time to plant some vegetables of your own.  It is nearly spring, so have a look at Gardenate to see what you could grow in your area.  It currently covers climates for Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  Growing your own food is as simple as putting a seed or seedling in the ground and watering it.  It nature can do it, I am sure you can.  Go on, give it a go because you will never regret it!  Even a balcony pot or two are a good start if that is all you have available.

Lets all lead by example, see how many of us can start our own organic veggie patches, and keep applying the pressure to Prime Minister Rudd.  Tell him in your letter how well your garden grows, with or without water restrictions in your area.

Here’s a thought.  If the PM had his own veggie patch, he wouldn’t have to borrow as much money to pay for all these handouts to big polluters that he is proposing in the CPRS.  Now that is something worth fighting for!

Cross-posted at The Greening of Gavin

New letter including water info

Little M over at Gustoso recently wrote to the PM about starting a vegie patch, and wasn’t terribly impressed with his reply that Canberra’s water restrictions were what was stopping him from doing it.

So when she wrote in, she included facts about how you can garden using very little water, and how Rudd could include a water-tank and a grey-water system. Since the government is keen on everyone having those, I don’t see why he shouldn’t give them a whirl too!

Little M is challenging herself and her family to become self-sufficient for food, by growing all of their own fruits and vegetables. If she can do it, facing the same water restrictions all Aussies have right now, I don’t see why Kev can’t get just  10% of his family’s needs from a little garden of his own.

You can see Little M’s letter on our Take Action page, or check out her gardening skills over at her blog Gustoso.

Downing Street is growing vegies too

Vegetables in the Downing St garden

Soon Mr Rudd will be the only world leader without his own vegie patch. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has got one now. Watch out, Kev, you’ll get left behind!

I read on Treehugger that Mr Brown has had a vegetable patch planted at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the UK’s PM. Apparently Sarah Brown, his wife, is very excited about the project and keen to see some strawberries soon.

The garden is actually run by the Royal Parks Agency, and the produce is on sale in the Downing St cafeteria so staff can benefit from having freshly picked vegetables.

What’s interesting to me is that it was his Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn, who committed him to the project. And he only put the idea forward because the Organic Trade Board and the Soil Association put him up to it.

So I feel a letter to our own Environment Minister coming on… when I send it I’ll post it here for you to see and copy if you like.

Photo credit: official Downing St Flickr account.

A reply

Well, if you followed our suggestion and sent a message to the Prime Minister about starting a vegie patch at The Lodge, this is the reply you’ll probably receive. Several of us have had identical letters.

It’s nice to get a reply at all – plenty of politicians don’t bother to respond to anything they think is silly or unimportant. So thumbs up for Kev and his staff. But I can’t say I’m impressed with their reason for not planting some vegies – they’re not the only ones on water restrictions, and plenty of home gardeners will tell you they manage just fine.

Have the staff at The Lodge not heard of rainwater tanks and xeriscaping? If you’re gardening with very little water, give us your best suggestion for how Kev can still grow a few vegies without depriving the rest of the garden of water.

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Australian Government
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT BARTON
Reference:C09/32365

14 July 2009
Dear Ms Julie

Thank you for your letter of 6 June 2009 to the Prime Minister regarding a vegetable garden at The Lodge. I have been asked to reply on the Prime Minister’s behalf.

At this time there are no immediate plans to grow vegetables at The Lodge. While we acknowledge that there are many good reasons to do so, the lack of water in Canberra makes it impractical to undertake such a project. The grounds at The Lodge have already been affected by the water shortage and would be further compromised if water were redirected to the establishment of a new garden. There are however, existing fruit trees and herbs growing throughout the garden which are used in the house, as are flowers grown in the grounds.

The time you have taken to write to the Prime Minister is appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Suzanne de Smet
Assistant Director
Official Establishments Unit

Pete’s Patch

Peter Cundall is the bright spark who came up with the idea of PM Kevin Rudd having a vegie patch at The Lodge. He asked the PM about it when he was visiting The Lodge as part of the Australian of the Year ceremony in 2007.

But you might know Cundall better from his work on Gardening Australia, where he was a presenter for many seasons until his retirement last year. Cundall loves his vegie gardens, and was responsible for Pete’s Patch, the demonstration vegetable garden at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.

Pete’s Patch shows us how it’s possible to have a proper 6-bed crop rotation system going in the space of the average Aussie backyard. It doesn’t take much room at all to grow enough veg for a 4-person family. You can see updates on how the Patch is going on Gardening Australia’s website (with photos going back to 2007), or visit it yourself if you live in Hobart.

Don’t you think it’d make a great model for Mr Rudd to copy at The Lodge? Everything’s been worked out already, it doesn’t need much maintenance, and it wouldn’t take up much room at all. Perfect for a busy man!

One of the garden beds at Pete's Patch, May 2009

The Queen has a backyard vegie patch

As reported in The Guardian, via the Ethicurean blog.

As a 14-year-old, she picked up a spade and joined with the rest of wartime Britain in the Dig for Victory campaign. Seven decades later, though no longer wielding the spade herself, the Queen, 83, has again embraced the “grow your own” movement.

For the first time since the war, fruit and vegetables are to be found in an allotment-sized plot in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

If Her Majesty can get a vegie patch organised, I think our PM shouldn’t have any trouble either!

Update: You can also watch a video tour of the garden.

The White House kitchen garden

The Obamas have famously planted an organic vegetable garden on the lawn of the White House in the US.

The idea was first posted at OnDayOne.org, a site collecting proposals for the new president to undertake upon entering office. It was picked up by newspapers and media, and quickly became the most popular proposal on that site. The web site EatTheView.org served as a focal point for the movement.

The Eat The View proposal eventually went on to be voted the grand prize winner of the On Day One contest.

On 20 March 2009, the Obamas started their new White House Kitchen Garden. They’ve even published the layout as an example for others.

This simple action is inspiring families all over America to do the same, which can only be a good thing for their health and budgets!

Garden site-seeing in Australia

The Christian Science Monitor liked what the Obamas had done, and thought it was great that there was a push to do something similar in Australia. They link to Darren’s original post about getting everyone to support Kev’s Patch.

Kev needs to be a garden-variety PM

In The Australian, Stephanie Alexander says until we make Kev a garden-variety PM, he won’t be a patch on the Obamas.

“…a vegetable garden at one of the PM’s official residences would be a potent symbol of the importance of eating fresh, seasonal food.”

Stephanie knows what she’s talking about when it comes to gardens – her Kitchen Garden Foundation has set up gardens and kitchens as part of the curriculum in dozens of primary schools all over Australia.