Starting a new veggie garden: the basics

There's nothing like the taste of fresh veggies just pulled from the earth or plucked from the vine. If you're new to gardening, these tips will help you build and plant a small-scale vegetable garden packed with fresh flavours.

• Check the drainage. Dig a hole about 30 centimetres (12 inches) deep and fill it with water. If the water sits in the hole for hours, you will need to either install agricultural pipe to carry excess water away or grow your vegetables in raised beds.
• Choose an area that receives at least six hours of sun every day, preferably from the morning onward. If your backyard isn't sunny enough, think about locating your plot in the front yard.
• If the lawn is in the sunniest spot in your garden, consider replacing it. Dig up the turf and use it elsewhere, kill the grass by covering it with newspaper and plastic, or build a raised garden.
• Don't plant your vegetable patch too close to large, established trees. The trees will shade the vegetables and compete with them for water and nutrients.

• Choose disease-resistant varieties that will grow well in your climate or situation.
• For a continuous supply of vegetables, make small, successive sowings. Use seeds or advanced seedlings rather than buying entire flats that may have more plants than you need.
• Use a mulch between the rows and between individual plants to suppress weed growth. If any weeds do appear, pull them up right away.
• Provide shade for plantings made in summer with a temporary shade-cloth screen, which you can then remove as the plants become established.
• Give the growing crops a quick check every day. All you need is five minutes for watering, harvesting any crops, and keeping an eye out for pests and diseases.
• Accept some damage to leaves and other parts of the plant that you won't eat rather than using chemicals to control pests. Try companion planting as your first line of defense. If you need extra help, consider using biological controls or introducing some beneficial insects.
• Water your vegetable garden in the early morning or evening, never in the heat of the day as the moisture will be lost through evaporation.
• To maximize the use of nutrients and prevent the build-up of pests and diseases, avoid growing members of the same vegetable family in the same part of your garden in successive seasons. For instance, don't grow broccoli after a crop of cabbage – they are both members of the brassica family.
• Plant flowering ornamentals such as lavender among vegetables to attract pollinating insects. Planting sweet peas next to runner beans will encourage early pollination of beans.

• If space is tight, grow a head of lettuce in a large container.
• Surround a small-growing tomato plant with soft-hearted lettuce and clumps of chives.
• Look for non-running forms of vegetables such as bush zucchini and bush pumpkin.
• Try the dwarf form of these varieties, which are also suitable for growing in containers: beetroot (you'll need a soil depth of at least 20 centimetres (8 inches) so the roots have room to form), peppers, chilies, eggplant, beans, lettuce, rhubarb, shallots, silver beet (Swiss chard) and tomato.
• Don't forget that you can garden vertically as well as horizontally. Make a tripod for climbing peas and beans by tying three hardwood stakes or bamboo poles together at the top and wrapping some wire netting around the stakes.

Once you start your very own veggie garden, you'll be amazed at how easy and rewarding it is to grow a colourful harvest of vegetables at home!