Homegrown vegetables? Yes peas!

I love the idea of home grown fruit and vegetables, but I question how much stamina and dedication I have and whether my fingers are actually green. We tried our luck with five tomato plants this year and the daily watering beat us.

At this year's Melbourne Flower Show I made a snap decision to take the plunge with a set of five Greensmart Pots that are self-watering. Dare I say it, an intelligent (the pot not me) way to produce vegetables that "out-perform and out-yield those grown in traditional backyard gardens." (website blurb).

As we are in Autumn and hurtling towards winter, we have planted broccoli (the alien spiral one), mini and purple cauliflowers (may as well have a pretty selection), carrots (purple and dutch), onions (red and brown), garlic, radishes, chard (multi-coloured), spinach, rhubarb, beetroot, lettuce (mixed) and a selection of herbs that we use most often - all as plants and not from seed. We have also planted some peas from seed and the bright green shoots are already peaking through - now that is exciting! Quite a bumper crop and not something I would do if the process was more manually intensive. So we shall see whether they can out-perform and out-yield backyard counterparts!

Pots are made from food-grade plastic that will withstand the Australian climate.

Dave will be building a greenhouse type structure to ensure possums don't have midnight feasts.

Add water and food on a weekly basis and the pot takes care of everything else.

Chard, radishes, lettuce and beetroot

Rhubarb (nearest pot) and broccoli and cauliflower

Herbs

Carrots and onions. Garlic isn't visible yet.

Need to exercise a bit of patience before we see broccoli or cauliflower emerge.



Check out the fat radish back left corner of the pot!

If you look closely enough (try squinting) there are three pea shoots.