Deciding to create a garden is one of the best decisions
that you'll ever make in life,
but, like anything,
along the way there are things that can trip you up.
So I'm going to show you just how to get around them.
One of my top tips is to always think like a beginner gardener.
Never be afraid of asking questions.
Ask your nana and your pop, your neighbours.
Everyone loves to give help.
And you never stop learning.
I'm always learning, and that's really important.
It is very tempting to grab your wallet
and whip out to the local nursery and buy everything in sight,
but that's precisely what you shouldn't do.
Start off small.
Think small quantities of things and where to put them.
In fact, you might find that over the years some plants do die,
but at least that gives you an indication
of plants that will survive.
And the whole thing about this is that it's giving you experience
and, hence, more confidence.
This is a community garden
and places just like this
are where budding gardeners first put a fork into the ground.
One such gardener is my friend Isabel Robinson.
Good morning, Isabel. Hello, Jane.
This is looking good. Oh, thanks.
She's asked me for a bit of advice
and I'd love to help her where I can.
Isabel, what got you into gardening?
Um, well, I've always been interested in growing my own food.
And I don't have much of a sunny garden at home,
so I'm just trying to learn as I go
by putting different edible things into this community patch.
So if you have any advice that you can offer,
I would really appreciate it.
Well, the first thing would be to know your limitations.
That's really vital. Yeah.
You're down by the coast.
The community garden is right on the sea
and so it's got very sandy soil.
And you just have to keep adding in to that sandy soil
just so it keeps sort of absorbing all the nutrients.
So I've bought you a bag of something.
Oh, thank you. A present.
Oh, how delightful.
I would say every year, late winter into spring,
see how that...
Mm. ..you've got it looking nice.
It's nice and friable. What does friable mean?
That is such a good question.
It basically is like when you make a cake
and you know how light and fluffy it is?
Well, this soil conditioner is made up of a lot of composted bark
and a bit of sand,
and you can see how it falls apart easily...
Yep.
..which means that there's a lot of air space in there
and air's got oxygen in it.
And it's what the roots really need to grow.
We forget what's under the ground. Yeah.
And I see you've got a bit of horse manure in there,
which is just rotting down nicely.
Yes, yes, I got some of this over summer
and, yeah, I just kind of spread it around and...
Let the worms do the trick. Yeah.
That's good.
And everywhere you see that it's compacted,
just fork that over with a little trowel or a fork
and then add this into it and you'll find it really will help.
A question I've got is, what do I actually have room to plant?
Yeah, it's fair enough too
because if you want a plant like this apple tree...
See how tall it is? Yeah.
And it is really growing very wide and quite dominating.
It will have a fantastic crop on it, you know, productive wise,
but do you want your whole garden bed to be taken over
by this one plant?
If you do, that's fair enough.
But you might prefer just to have one like this
that has got lots happening in it,
you know, potatoes and silverbeet
and, oh, golly, all sorts of things, the cabbage family, kale.
Following on from having the space for things,
these broccoli are doing well
because they have plenty of room to reach their maturity.
Think about the final size of your crop.
It'll tell you on the seed packet or the plant label.
And the other thing is seasonality.
Have you noticed that when you plant things and you end up with a glut?
Yes, I have. What kind of things?
Er, zucchini.
I had way too many and I had to give them away
and some of them went a bit mouldy.
That's right. You keep your eye out for just when they're right to pick.
Yeah. And it is true.
If you can, sow things so that you have a lot coming in then
and then, two weeks later, plant some more
so that they're going to be two weeks behind.
Yes.
And you will...you'll get into that habit
of just thinking about, "Oh, I can plant that and then that,"
and you'll get that nice continual
rather than everything coming at once.
Is there a plant that would bring the bees in?
Surely is!
That's a really great question for a beginner
because I would always suggest a salvia.
They're easy to grow and they bring the birds and the bees
and they need pruning once the flowers finish,
and that teaches you how to prune
so it's really doing a good education job
to grow a plant like a salvia.
How do I know where to put a particular thing in the garden?
I would suggest you take a photo.
You know, cameras are part of your hand now, aren't they?
True, true. Yeah.
So take a photo and take it around
to some of the older members of the people here
and ask them
or take it down to your nursery and they'll be able to help you.
And don't forget,
the label will tell you the height and the width of the plant
so you can go by that.
And also it tells you how much sun it will require.
A common thing for beginner gardeners to do
is to overwater plants.
Now, water is essential, of course,
but you've got to have really well-drained soil
because if a plant is sitting in boggy, saturated soil,
the roots are going to rot
and you can easily get fungal disease on the leaves.
So make sure the soil is well aerated and nicely tilled up,
and you'll be fine.
Now, the same applies for fertiliser.
Don't use too much.
Just go with what it says on the label or the bag,
because if you overdo it, you can often kill the plants.
And anyway, you could be wasting that fertiliser.
It could just get leached out of the soil.
What if a plant dies?
(GASPS) I can nearly bet you that most people here
would have lost plants.
I've lost lots and lots of plants over the years
and don't get too hysterical.
It's just one of those things.
Maybe you didn't do the right thing,
but you'll learn from losing that plant
and it's all in experience to which you get more knowledge
and more confidence.
And that's the big thing.
Don't you reckon it's confidence that's the thing...
Yes, definitely. Course it is.
My confidence is slowly building.
And your knowledge is too. I notice it.
Yes. Oh, thanks. Good.
Thank you so much, Jane, for your advice.
That's alright. Good to see you. Mwah!
Say hi to the family.
See you soon. See you.
The biggest tip that I can give to beginner gardeners
is not to be afraid of making mistakes.
Every mistake means a lesson learned.
And the more you learn, the better gardener you will become.
So go out and enjoy it.