Complete novice starting a veggie garden!

[scouseontheinside]

It's something that has been on my mind since I stayed with a friend several months back and tasted her home grown salads. I cannot believe the difference - to think, I've been eating this supermarket tripe for years!

Essential info: we are in NZ so it's currently winter.

What should I know? I'd like a herb variety, lettuces, tomatoes, and maybe some strawberries as I get the hang of things.

I am a complete novice to gardening, so would like to start off with basics and build my way up. We will have to use planter boxes due to the way our garden in structured.

How do I keep rats (and possums in this part of the world!) out of my veg? I'd like to keep things as organic as possible. Are there types of planters I can buy that will keep rats out?

Any other advice you can give will be gratefully received!

As you grow in NZ, the best source of local knowledge will probably be your friend to be honest. The best advice to keep rats and other critters out is never to put dead animal stuff like blood, fish, bone on as a fertiliser, and never put cooked food onto your compost heap.

Funky Is animal manure counted in that?

If you go click on this and enter your NZ info, you'll get monthly updates on what to plant and when. It is entirely non-commercial.

www.gardenate.com/?zone=2

Possums will not go on the ground if they can help it, so position containers away from fences.

Try this for containers- www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s3885151.htm
We're doing this in the spring to exploit our driveway.

We set cage traps for rats when they chowed down on the tomatoes. But then you do have to kill them. Don't ask.

But then they've never been back

Other than that, look at what your friends are growing. Loads of stuff can be grown in the right pot in the right place.

Funky Is animal manure counted in that?

I don't use animal manure, and I don't know if critters your way are attracted to other animal manure; it's normally blood, fish, bone and cooked food that attracts them. It's DEAD animal stuff that you need to avoid.

Seeing as you're in NZ, scouse, you'll be able get sack loads of sheepshit, free of weird animally-bits. I can get it here in Melbourne, and I've not seen a sheep in yonks.

Great link thanks echt! My cousin also lives on a farm, so I bet we could get some sheep manure directly from source!

Can I ask, are rats inevitable? We're very lucky not to have a rat problem here as the house is very new, and they have no way into the house. However... I am reluctant to bring them close just in case they realise there is a kitchen full of edibles just beyond our veggie patch...

I teach gardening [organic veggie mainly] and have a community garden, an allotment, a canalside garden, loads of compost heaps and daleks, have taught in around 10 different gardens in schools and various places and the only rats I've ever encountered are when the school kitchen were putting bread into the compost bin.

Oh thanks Funky! That's excellent to hear!

I have more questions! I went round a few garden centres today, to do a bit of background research. Everyone is telling me different things!

First off, is it worth buying a $79 large self watering planter? Would I do just as well in the shallow dinky plastic one for $15?

Do I need to prepare the soil a certain amount of time in advance before planting? Some garden centres said yes, others no...

Lastly, this is what I was thinking I would plant. In the planter, lettuce and beans. In pots, tomatoes, basil, and strawberries. Perhaps mint and coriander as well. Too ambitious for a gardening virgin?

If you're planting in raised beds of some size and building up the soil, then it definitely gets better in the second year. Not so sure about smaller containers.

Keep mint in its own pot; it's a bully.

Hard to comment on the planters you suggest :link?

Good luck with it all, scouse.