Learning how to build a vegetable garden is such a useful skill, especially in this day and age.

It’s something that I’ve always wanted to learn about and do, but until recently haven’t had the time or inclination to start.

Over the years I had been collating various bits of information about vegetable gardening, and gardening in general, mostly focusing on caring for indoor houseplants and growing some herbs and chilies. But recently it’s seemed like the right time to start taking some steps towards developing a vegetable garden here at home.

While there is a lot of flat land here at the house to work with, the soil here is clay and I didn’t want to have to use soil amendments to break up the clay soil.

Instead I’ve opted for some simple raised garden beds, mostly in the form of large round grow bags (100 x 30 cm, 235L) which I found online. These grow bags were very affordable and were a quick and easy way to start a vegetable garden without too much preparation work or stress.

I filled the bags with a DIY blend of store bought compost, sheep pellets, perlite, worm castings and coconut coir. I watered this blend into the grow bags and planted seeds of a variety of vegetables.

These garden beds were started late autumn, and while I was slightly concerned that I planted them too late, a good portion of the seeds thrived, mainly the bok choy, dill, cauliflower and broccoli, and are now, or soon ready to be harvested.

While the seedlings were growing, a number of the leaves started to show signs of caterpillar activity, so I applied a natural neem insecticide spray to the top and under side of the leaves, which has worked successfully with regular fortnightly applications.

As a first-timer starting a vegetable garden, this has been really successful, and has been a great way to learn more about vegetable gardening.

Helpful Supplies + Tools

• Plant Grow Bags
• Garden trowel
• Shovel
• Wheelbarrow
• Hose + spray gun (water soil to limit aerosols)
• Dust Mask (when handling soil)
• Gardening gloves
• Neem insecticide concentrate (diluted with water)
• Organic foliar spray

There’s heaps of great information online, which I highly recommend to learn from.

Urban Farmstead

One such resource is Urban Farmstead, which is a YouTube channel dedicated to helping others learn more about vegetable gardening. It is highly informative with each video produced so well and with so much thought. I highly recommend this channel. It is based in the central valley region of California, so it may not be completely applicable to viewers based somewhere cooler, but is still a helpful resource nonetheless.

Here’s a few I enjoyed.