This will be a walk through my garden.  Together we will look at what to do and when to do it. There will be information that hopefully will help you with your garden along the way. This will be a month by month account of what to plant and when to plant it. We will look at pests and diseases in the garden and what products to use to counter them. We will also look at lawn care, container growing, vegetable gardens and much much more.

I suppose the first place to start would be getting your garden ready. As there has been a huge interest in growing your own vegetables we should start there. Many people these days don't have the good old quarter acre section to tend and live on much smaller sections. This shouldn't stop you from having a vegetable garden. Raised beds have become very popular recently. As well as providing you with great vegetables they can also be a feature in your garden. You can buy these as a kit set from all the major garden centers as well as the big box stores. I have decided however to make my own. First thing to do is decide where you what your bed to go. You are looking for a site that has good sun throughout the day and is protected as best you can from the wind. Don't worry if your site is a little exposed to the wind we can fix that later. Once you have selected your site and decided how big the bed will be it's time to get to your local timber supplier. There are two trains of thought about treated timber over non treated timber. Some people prefer to use treated as it will last longer than non treated. Others prefer non treated as it has no chemical residue left in it from the treatment process. I have gone for treated and I will line my bed with a layer of black polythene to separate the timber from the soil. By doing this I will create a barrier between the soil and the timber preventing any leaching into my soil.

Now that you have the timber it's as simple as making a rectangle box. You can make your bed as high as you like. I have used half rounds that are 2.6 meters long and a width of 1.5 meters. I have gone three high giving me an overall height of 450mm It is important when making your bed that you are able to reach the center from both sides. I will anker my bed into the ground using 100 x 100 treated posts.

If you are placing your bed on top of your lawn there are a couple of things to do. I decided to take the top 10cm of lawn off using a shovel just cutting under the surface and rolling it up like ready lawn. You could just mow the area first then lay a layer of newspaper down, wet it then place a layer of pea straw on top. It's now time to fill your bed. All good things start with the soil, if you have poor soil you will have poor plants so don't just fill your bed with any old thing. South-Hort has an excellent vegetable mix we have designed especially for raised garden beds. This mix is weed free and contains an Osmocote 8-9mth release fertiliser. It is available by the trailer load, truck or 20ltr bag.

If you do however have soil left over I would suggest that you blend it with South-Hort Organic Compost at a 50-50 rate. South-Hort Compost is Bio-Grow certified and is also available by the trailer truck or bag. If you are unsure of the amount of mix required you can use the following equation. Length x Width x Depth this will give you the cubic amount of mix required. If my raised bed was 2 meters x 1meter x 500mm deep (2 x1x.500 = 1 cubic meter of mix)

As well as raised beds I have also decided to have the normal vegetable garden in the corner of my section. The area I have chosen is covered in grass so the first thing to do is work out how big you want the garden to be. I have then taken the top 10cm of lawn off with a shovel. Then I have forked over the ground. I now need to put a good amount of South-Hort Compost into the ground. This will be blended with the existing soil and produce a good loamy structure for my vegetables. This is a good time to add South-Hort Blood and Bone and dig it in with the compost. Blood and Bone should be applied at 300grams per square meter (about six handfuls). If your soil is heavy now is the time to add Gypsum as well. So that's the vegetable gardens done and ready for planting. You can use the same principles when creating your flower gardens. And with the proper care you can achieve great results.