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The vegetable garden
CREATE A WATER WISE GARDEN
Plant healthgiving vegetables
With planning and a bit of work, you can make a
Water Wise vegetable garden
poor subsoil (the next 30cm of soil)
in another heap.
• Put lots of organic matter, such as
old garden and kitchen waste, into
the bottom of the trench and let it
sink down for a few days to enrich
the soil.
• Put the healthy topsoil back in the
trench on top of the organic matter.
• Use the poor subsoil to make paths,
instead of putting it back in the hole.
• Good plants for hard soil are
cassava, sunflower, sweet potatoes,
cape gooseberries, radish, parsnips
and carrots – they help to break up
the soil.
Conserve water
Pine needles being used to mulch
vegetables.
V
egetables need good soil in order
to grow well. If your soil is hard
and compacted like cement, first
prepare trench beds. Follow these
easy steps:
• Dig trenches where you want your
vegetable beds.
• Keep the healthy topsoil (the first
30cm of soil) in one heap, and the
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You can conserve water in your
vegetable garden in many ways:
• Make large square or rectangular
beds so that most of the water goes
to the plants, and not to the paths in
between. Keep pathways narrow.
• Avoid walking in the beds as this
compacts the soil – rather use
pathways.
• Mix water-retaining granules into the
soil to hold water in.
• Put lots of compost into the beds to
hold water in.
• Herbs need less water than
vegetables, so plant them in their
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CREATE A WATER WISE GARDEN
own bed and water them less
often.
• Sow together vegetables with the
same speed of growth.
The vegetable garden
Make your own shade cloth using orange or
green net vegetable bags sown together.
• Slow-growing seeds are celery,
brinjal, leeks, onions and
tomatoes. Fast-growing seeds
are cabbage, broccoli, lettuce
and radish.
• Always keep the beds well
mulched to conserve moisture in
the soil.
• In hot climates, put up a shade
cloth.
• In summer water in the evening
rather than during the heat of
the day.
• Water deeply rather than
lightly, so that the water goes
down 30cm. You will find that
you need to water less often.
• During very hot weather make
sure the vegetable garden is
moist at the beginning of the
day.
• Drip irrigation is the best way of
watering, so see if you can get
a drip hose for the vegetable
garden. Next best is to use a
sprinkler on your hose. ❃
To save water, make large beds with narrow pathways.
(PIC: Wright)
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