Seedlings in bed

Newborn baby seedlings

Ready for bed in about two weeks hopefully, by which time the newly-filled raised bed should have settled sufficiently.

Purple sprouting broccoli, red pak choy, rainbow chard/silverbeet and Tuscan black kale.

What material is best for a raised bed?

After some research, I chose eWood, which is a very strong, dense wood-like material made from recycled plastic. Here's why:

Material	Advantages	Disadvantages
Softwood	Very cheap, attractive	Rots quickly, weak
Treated wood	Cheap, attractive	Leaches toxins into soil, weak
Hardwood	Very attractive, durable	Very expensive
Corrugated iron	Cheap, durable	Unattractive, heats soil, can rust
eWood	Very durable, strong, affordable, resistant to rot, insect damage, UV and moisture, eco-friendly	Moderately expensive

And here's the bed itself, now filled with layers of cardboard, sugar cane mulch, lucerne mulch, tea tree mulch, garden compost, dry leaves, cow manure, mushroom compost and organic compost:

Beauty of vegetable flowers

Edible plants have a rare beauty of their own. There's no reason that swapping ornamental flowers for vegetables should result in a less lovely garden.

Fastest growing food plants

When you first start growing plants for food, the most frustrating thing is how long it takes. But you can get started very quickly. Here's a list of some of the fastest growing food plants:

IMMEDIATE: buy a potted strawberry or chilli already fruiting - even ornamental chillies can be eaten. Or get some potted herbs that you can plant out or put on your windowsill, and immediately start using in cooking.

COUPLE OF DAYS: grow some sprouts such as mung beans (Chinese beansprouts). There are many kinds of seeds and legumes you can sprout, some in just two days. Almonds will "sprout" (more like swell) in a day. You can also leave some sprouts to grow into larger plants if you like.

ONE WEEK: cress can be grown on damp tissue or cotton wool, and is ready to harvest for a sandwich or salad in about a week.

TWO WEEKS: micro greens such as silverbeet can be ready for harvest in as little as 10-14 days. Plant some of them out, and you'll end up with vigorous, hardy "cut and come again" silverbeet plants, giving you a steady supply of greens.

ONE MONTH: some varieties of radishes are ready to pick in 3-4 weeks. Radish leaves are also edible.

*BONUS TIP*: don't feel you have to grow everything from scratch. Germinating and planting out seedlings can be a hassle. Just buy ready-grown, young vegetable plants from nurseries and speed up the time to harvest by a month or more. Or get both seeds and plants, for a conveniently staggered harvest.

5 foods already in your garden

A regular garden usually has many food plants in it, even if a vegetable or herb garden hasn't been deliberately planted. Here are five garden plants you can eat:

1. Dandelions
Dandelion greens are delicous and this recipe for mashed potatoes with dandelion greens is particularly tasty and easy. You can also roast the roots to make a coffee-like drink. You can eat both leaves and flowers in a salad, and make wine from the flowers.

2. Nasturtiums
You can eat the leaves and flowers of Nasturtium in a salad, and make a pesto from the leaves. The seed pods, picked when green, can be pickled for a crunchier, tastier, peppery alternative to capers.

3. Roses
You can crystallise rose petals to decorate cakes, and put them in salads. My grandmother made a wonderful plum and rosepetal jam. The rosehips can also be used to make a jelly or a syrup.

4. Oxalis
Oxalis are those tiny weeds with leaves like three delicate hearts that start growing everywhere, whether in flower beds or flower pots and window boxes. They're in the wood-sorrel family and have a sour, lemony flavour like sorrel. You can also use the flowers and leaves to make tea.

5. Amaranth (eg Love-Lies-Bleeding)
You can eat Amaranth leaves in salads, and stir fry the stems and leaves. The seeds can be ground into a flour. You can also pop the seeds (video) like popcorn.

These are just five examples, there are also dozens of other edible weeds and flowers that you probably already have growing.

In praise of Nasturtiums

The ultimate beautiful food plant: nasturtiums (Tropaeolum). Many people know the leaves as great in salads. But the flowers are even better: a honey-sweet burst of scented flavour that ends with a fiery, radish tang.

Nasturtium is also a wonderful companion plant. Radishes and the cabbage and broccoli family love it. It attracts aphids and other pests, and works well as a barrier when planted around fruit trees, tomatoes, curcurbits and brassicas.

Nasturtium grows quickly and easily and actually likes poor soil with low moisture and no fertiliser. It gives great ground cover and can be trained over walls and fences.

It is also spectacular. It comes in a range of colours, from dazzling jewel hues to quieter whites and creams. Leaves vary from bright green to dark green and variegated.