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Grow your own

Nadia Lim shares her tips for starting a cost-effective kitchen garden.

Words Carolyn Enting. Photography Matt Quérée

With inflation acting as an unwelcome fertiliser on the price of vegetables, growing your own has never seemed so attractive.

To ensure you get the best yield and bang for your buck, MasterChef turned farmer and market gardener Nadia Lim recommends doing some planning and research before hitting the garden centre.

Lim’s bountiful backyard just out of Arrowtown produces enough to feed four families and 80 per cent of her produce is grown from seed. At the time of our catch-up, it was filled with Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, silverbeet, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Her mixed salad garden – housed in a half wine barrel near the kitchen – was ready for picking, as were parsley and coriander for adding flavour to curries and other dishes. Additionally, she and her husband Carlos Bagrie have a four-acre market garden at their farm, Royalburn Station.

“The best thing about having a vegetable garden is the reward of having your own fresh produce at your fingertips,” says Lim.

Lim took up gardening six years ago and the first thing she ever grew was a cherry tomato plant on the deck. Cooking with fresh produce over the years as well as memories of her nan’s garden have provided inspiration to dig in and grow her own vegetables.

“My nan was a really good gardener and she’d always send me out into the garden to get silverbeet or potatoes. I think we had silverbeet with every meal,” Lim laughs. “It was exciting as a kid digging up potatoes. It’s like finding treasure. You never know what you’re going to find, what size they’ll be or how many of them there will be.”

Through trial and error, nd disappointments, and triumphs, she’s worked out what thrives in the cooler southern climate versus the balmier north, and how to plant spaces for the best return. Here are some of her hot tips!

Be smart with your space

Really consider the space you have and work smartly with it. For example, you can grow a lot of carrots and radishes (60-80) in one square metre of garden bed, but you can only grow 1-2 cauliflowers in the same space.

If you don’t have heaps of space, go for things that grow upwards and like climbing, like peas or beans. Also, consider growing things that thrive in pots, such as tomatoes (but make sure they’re large enough; a big mistake is not having big enough pots to allow the plant to grow its roots to its full potential). You can get lots of lettuces in one square metre of garden bed, too, and fresh salad greens beat any store-bought hands down. If you’re short on space, plant more of what you like to eat though having a couple of experimental things is always fun. If you’ve got the space, you can go wild with what you plant, going for both things you eat lots of and also wild new things.

Grow from seed

To genuinely save money on food, it’s key to grow from seed rather than just buying seedlings. A packet of 20-40 tomato seeds costs half as much as one tomato plant. Growing from seed is easy, but it requires being on time and organised. The real savings come into play when you do this and also make your own compost.

Seed collecting

It’s super easy to collect seeds for certain varieties, including peas, beans, pumpkin, courgette, tomatoes and cucumbers. Make sure you always pick the best genetics – if one particular courgette is a stellar performer, let it fully mature before collecting the seeds. Remember that tomatoes should be starting to rot and pumpkins must be fully mature before you scoop the seeds out. And leave peas and beans on the vine until they’re completely dry before removing the seeds. Overall, if you want to save some seeds, leave some plants to fully mature (i.e., don’t eat everything!).

Storing seeds

Lim likes her seeds to be able to breathe a little bit so she stores them in labelled paper envelopes. The seeds must be fully dry before storing, and she always uses them the next season so they don’t have to be stored for that long.

How to plant

Some things are best sown direct, like carrots and parsnips. The seeds are so

tiny, it’s much easier just to scatter them straight into the ground where they’re going to be forever because they don’t like being transplanted and if you move them, you’re not going to have success.

Seeds for larger plants, e.g., brassicas and tomatoes, are best raised as seedlings in a tray. Lim uses wooden seedling trays which are really easy to make. The depth of the tray is really important – you need about 8cm to allow for enough root growth. Fill the tray with some seed raising mix or you make your own with soil and a little bit of sand and compost. Then sow seeds in rows. Lim does about eight di erent seeds in one seed tray, arranging them in rows and planting things with similar growth rates, such as peas and beans, together. A general rule is big seeds together and small seeds together.

When to repot

You don’t want the seedlings to be overcrowding each other in the seedling tray, so once they show their first true leaves, scoop them out – an ice block stick or a teaspoon does the trick – and transplant them into a small pot to keep growing until they’re big enough to be transplanted into the ground and fend for themselves in the big wide world. Lim uses wool pots (a product she helped develop) rather than plastic pots as the plant can go straight into the ground in its pot – the wool completely biodegrades, feeding the soil at the same time.

Stagger your planting

An important lesson for beginner gardeners is to stagger your planting. When Lim first started gardening, she put everything in all at once and of course everything was ready all at once and it was overwhelming and her family couldn’t keep on top of it. “All the beetroot ended up going into juice! And then suddenly we had nothing,” she says. You’ve got to be disciplined to sow your seeds at the right time so that they’re ready for planting out at the right time and then to stagger them. For example, plant a row of bok choy or lettuce every two weeks, and sow carrot seeds every few weeks in strips, so you have a consistent ongoing supply.

Use wool planters

Lim and Bagrie have sheep and say there’s a reason why the best fertiliser is nd made out of sheep dags! Wool is so good for the garden and the plants. Lim has developed a range of wool pots (www. thewoolpot.com) to replace plastic pots and transplant seedlings straight into the ground. When the seedlings are big enough, you directly plant the wool pots into the ground and the pots completely biodegrade, at the same time releasing a slow-release natural fertiliser. “In summer, after 5-6 weeks you won’t see a trace of wool left,” she says. “It’s one hundred per cent gone. Instead you’ll find loads of worms because worms love wool. And you don’t get any transplant shock or root balling because the pot moves with the roots.”

Getting your seedlings ready for planting

A soak in a bit of seaweed solution can help beforehand, but also make sure you harden o your seedlings, which Lim says is a step that some people forget. It’s probably not as essential in places like Auckland, but down in the South Island, before Lim plants out, she will always move her seedlings from the greenhouse into an outdoor area for about three or four days to give them a chance to adjust.

Must-have herbs

Coriander, parsley, basil and mint are the herbs that Lim uses all the time. “You can put parsley with anything and coriander goes with almost anything too, and basil in summertime with tomatoes, salad and for making pesto,” she says. “I also love mint as it’s such a refreshing herb and is great in savoury, sweet and drinks.”

Planting for your climate

Think about the climate you live in and what’s best suited to growing because you don’t want to waste money, time and e ort. “I love Brussels sprouts and tried growing them when I lived in Auckland but never had great success. Whereas in Arrowtown I grow the most amazing sprouts,” says Lim. “And it’s because of the cold climate and hard frosts here and that’s what sprouts like.” For beginner gardeners, one of the trickiest things to get your head around is understanding what plants like certain temperatures and environments. Sometimes, you’ll scratch your head and think, ‘But I’ve done everything to look after it. Why has it bolted or why does it taste bitter?’ You need to consider what actually suits the climate where you live.

Managing mint

Mint is amazing but be careful with where you plant it as it will literally take over everything in its way and you’ll never get rid of it thanks to its impressive root structure. Lim thinks it’s best to plant mint in a very large pot, or half wine barrel, or a separate part of the garden you don’t mind it taking over. If you really want it in your main garden with other plants, plant it in the ground in a big terracotta pot to contain its roots!

Handy herbs

Another really important thing to consider when establishing a kitchen garden is that it has to be close to your kitchen. The closer it is to your kitchen, the more you will eat what you grow. “In winter, if I didn’t have herbs and salad in pots/wine barrels on my deck I would use far less of them as I get put o venturing into the garden when its pitch black and two degrees outside!” says Lim. “I reckon one of the main reasons why people don’t end up

“…e best thing about having a vegetable garden is the reward of having your own fresh produce at your fingertips [...] It always comes back to salad greens. I think they’re the best value for money because it’s hard to get top-quali‹ greens from the supermarket and when it comes to salad greens, the fresher the beŒer.”

using the produce in their garden is it’s too far away. Out of sight, out of mind.” Ideally, she says, you should be able to see the produce you’ve grown so you can keep eye on things – both so you’re reminded to use your veggies, and so that you don’t lose track of new growth.

“If you don’t check on the courgettes every couple of days, you’ll miss them and end up with marrows,” she says. “That’s all right if you like marrows, but if you want to use these beautiful little courgettes and their flowers then you have to pick them every day. Same with beans, peas and tomatoes. Keep picking regularly every couple of days for the best results, and continuous growth.” Highest reward for the least e ort

“It always comes back to salad greens,” says Lim. “I think they’re the best value for money because it’s hard to get goodquality greens from the supermarket and when it comes to salad greens, the fresher, the better.”

Plant a mixed salad

Lim has planted a mix of salad greens in a half wine barrel but you can use anything like an old bath or tub with holes in the bottom for drainage. Fill it with some good soil and then you just scatter your seeds over it – rocket, Miner’s lettuce, mizuna and so on. Lim throws some radish seeds in too. And when should you use it? “You might not want to pick everything because it looks so good and you think, ‘I’ll leave it there’ or ‘I’m not sure if I should pick it right now’, but pick it,” she says. “As soon as it’s ready, pick it. Don’t leave it to go past its best. And regular picking encourages more new growth.”

Medicinal plants

Lim hasn’t planted anything specifically for medicinal purposes but she does have tons of calendula. “I use the petals in salads to pretty them up. You can also dry the petals and make tea,” she says.

She and Bagrie also have over 2,000 elder trees on their farm and as Lim explains, elderberries are very medicinal and an amazing resource. In December when they are in full bloom, Lim uses the flowers to make elderflower cordial; then in autumn, when the unpicked flowers have formed into berries, she makes elderberry syrup with wild thyme and honey from her hives.

Feeding your garden

Lim suggests using homemade compost or Vermicast, which is like a supercharger. “I also find a bit of seaweed is a great boost for plants,” she says. “I have found, in general, if you’ve got really good soil and healthy plants, you don’t require any synthetic fertilisers.”

Managing pests

“To keep on top of white butterfly, every one to two days I’ll very gently squash the eggs on the leaves and then give them a little blast of cold water with the hose,” says Lim. “It’s a great way for controlling aphids and caterpillars, and their eggs. I’ve had really good success with that.” To deter pests she has also made up sprays with garlic, chilli, water and a little bit of dishwashing liquid (to help the solution stick to the leaves).

Plus, it pays to check your plants every couple of days. Observation is key to pest management – you’ll learn so much by just noticing the subtle changes every day throughout every season. That’s how you learn to be a good gardener.

Finally, have good soil. If your soil is deficient, then your plants won’t have the minerals and nutrients that they need and that’s when they’re vulnerable to pests.

Growing potatoes

Potatoes are so easy to grow, says Lim. Plant seed potatoes at about 30cm deep. The deeper they are, the more room they have to spread their roots to grow tubers on. When they start sprouting out of the ground, create a mound around them to create more depth which will allow for more shoots and tubers to grow. Now, a lot of Lim’s potatoes are self-sown. “You’ll never have to plant them again because you never seem to be able to dig up all of them,” she says. “So there’s always a couple of troopers left and they’ll just sprout when the time is right and then the whole thing just continues.” You can also grow them in a big bucket, hessian sack or even in straw. Potatoes will grow anywhere so give them a go!

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2022-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

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