Home Organic – Tips for treats

What started off as a weekend husband-wife hobby for Toyota engineer Andrew Donkin and his wife Karen has blossomed into a flourishing home organic veggie garden business, which was first introduced to the public at the Shongweni Market in 2009.

Andrew has since left his engineering profession to concentrate solely on Home Organic. He has the following tips to offer the new gardener.

“The Home Organic Veggie Garden is designed to be a practical and manageable system for busy, health-conscious professionals living in urban areas with limited space,” he explains.

When it comes to size, start off with something that you can manage. You can always build onto your veggie garden later. The style of is totally up to your liking – select a typical set-up with plants in the ground or raised containers. Location is key for growing seedlings so make sure that the plants are in an area which gets at least five hours of sunlight per day.

Your local nursery will provide you with a good quality growing medium or, you can mix up a half/half mix of potting soil and compost. Add a handful of an approved organic fertiliser for good measure.

If it’s your first time growing, Andrew recommends starting off with the ‘easy’ plants like radish, carrots, beans, tomatoes, spinach and rocket. For the slightly trickier plants, buy the seedlings from the nursery. Make sure to water your plants every day until they are well established. And don’t forget to feed your veggies. Organic fertiliser should be added once a week.

The netting provided with all the Home Organic units will make your veggie garden monkey and bird proof so you won’t have any unwelcome ‘snackers.’ The raised containers will preclude the danger of moles and soil-bound pests and don’t despair about the flying garden critters – there are a number of natural tricks to ward them off. Crushed egg shells keep slugs away, encourage pest eating bugs like the Praying Mantis to your garden or try ‘companion planting’ – basil will keep bugs at bay and marigolds act as a natural insect repellent. You can always make up your own organic pesticide – an excellent potion is a mixture of one part milk, five parts water and dash of liquid soap! 

So, just follow the simple steps provided and get planting. Home Organic offers a wide range of veggie garden kits suitable to grow your own organic veggies and herbs right on your doorstep. Home Organic will also install the units for you, complete with soil, plants and irrigation systems.