Last year I created a goal, to grow most of our food we eat in our own back yard. This is a rather big goal since we live in an inner city suburb and hence have an inner city sized backyard. Actually I doubt you could officially call it a backyard. With all ground paved tiles and sized to fit just one car, a courtyard would be a better description (not a lot of space and no soil).
Fast forward to January 2012 and how is my goal progressing? Last week I created a salad dinner that contained 90% of the food we grew in our courtyard from garden pots. So what are we growing now?
Ready to Eat:
- 4 types of lettuces
- all our herbs
- cherry tomatoes
- carrots
- beans
- egg plant
- capsicum
- spinach
- silver beet
- strawberries
- edible flowers
Soon to be ready for eating:
- corn
- peas
- passion fruit
- spring onions
- pepino
- mandarins
- lemons
- cucumbers
What else will I be planting this year:
- mustard
- zucchini
- sorrel
- kale
- blue berries
- grapes
If you are interested in growing your own food, don’t allow a lack of space or even knowledge to stop you (as when I started I really didn’t have much of either). Start with growing the herbs you like to eat and ‘grow’ from there.
It might be interesting to know that the majority of the garden pots we are using for growing our own food, have been collected 2nd hand. Either gathered from the side of the road discarded on ‘chuck out days’ or purchased 2nd hand from the ‘Pre Loved Roots’ shop.
Feeling inspired and want some help?? Check out Sydney’s ‘Green Square Growers’. Many of the people in this group are growing food on their inner city unit balcony!
I would love to know what food you are currently growing at your place?














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6 comments
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January 22, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Hannah Collins
Thanks for details of your backyard, this will be us in 2013! Hannah
January 22, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Sarhn
Yay good for you Hannah! I will very much look forward to seeing your garden grow!
January 24, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Keith and Anita
Hi Sarhn. Love what you’re doing. Unfortunately our back yard is desperately in need of some tlc at the moment. What we did though, several years ago, was decided that any tree we planted would be edible. In its prime we had something like 30 trees with about 20 different varieties. Admittedly our yard is larger than yours but it’s still only a suburban block. Isn’t it such great joy though to eat your own produce?
I’m sure you won’t mind if I pass your details onto a friend of ours, Bruce Wadd, who is travelling the same path as yourself.
January 25, 2012 at 11:05 am
Sarhn
Hi Keith and Anita,
Lovely to hear from you and thank you for leaving a comment. More than happy for you to pass my details onto others, if you think they would be interested in what I am doing.
To answer your question – it is a huge joy to eat what you grow (tastes a million times better than what you buy in the shops).
Thanks again
February 21, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Charlotte
Hi Sarhn,
I discovered your blog through an email from the city of Sydney and since then, I’ve been thinking about your projects. I love what you’re trying to achieve and like you, I don’t want to find excuses for not doing anything for the environment.
I would be happy to come to your next meet up (your group is in my feeds on facebook) and why not, help you in your projects?
February 21, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Sarhn
Hi Charlotte,
You are most welcome to attend one of the Green Square Growers meet ups. They are every 2nd Sunday of the month at 10.30am. We would love to have you.
http://www.facebook.com/greensquaregrowers