SQUARE PLOT GARDENING

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wished for a comparatively small garden that would grow enough vegetables for your family all the round with no digging, little weeding, no sprays, hardly any fertilizer and planting out once a month in rich, homemade compost?

No, it’s not hydroponic gardening but a very simple system I have developed and taught as one of my ways to help people economize and enjoy the benefits of fresh, wholesome vegetables. This series that we will start could be one of the best investments you will ever make as you get hooked on my method of square plot gardening.

People are starting to appreciate the benefits of eating vegetables either raw or slightly cooked. Gone are the days of vegetables with all the goodness boiled out. This trend of course means that a higher proportion of housekeeping is spent on buying vegetables at the local supermarket or greengrocer.

With the cost of food continually rising it is getting more and more difficult to balance the household budget. In boom years many people resort to tinned or processed vegetables which certainly increases the weekly cost but also reduces the available remaining vitamins.

Having processed on computer several thousand household financial plans, I have found the great variable to be housekeeping. Some people literally eat the profits while others spend too great a percentage of their total expenditure on food.

If I perceived that the housekeeping was a little out of kilter, I would inquire if they had a garden, usually to be told that the males of the household were too lazy to dig and weed it. I used to fall for this until I realized that the generations after the war were never taught to garden while young. Sports and cultural interests had taken over. When first married they would wonder whether to start a garden and pay a visit to the bookshop or library. One surreptitious look at the gardening books with all the equipment, sprays, manuals and hard work quickly nullified any desire to learn .