You can locate Sydney’s Green Garden anywhere. Decks, driveways, patios and even dirt areas will work. The garden is less than 16 square feet and does not need any rows creating a higher ratio of garden to walking space, which in turn dramatically increases the yield per square foot. If you decide to have a large container garden and need to get to something in the middle, you can simply move containers to get to the plant that needs attention. You will be amazed at how much you can grow in a little space.
One of the greatest benefits is there is virtually no backbreaking weeding! Depending on where you locate the garden you may have no weeding at all. No matter where you locate Sydney’s Green Garden there is much less work taking care of weeds than in a conventional garden.
If you have insects on one plant it is easy to separate it from the rest of the garden, treat it and put it back into the rotation. And if you have soil issues it is easy too! Just throw away the old soil and put new soil in that container. In my 7 years of tending to over 100 containers I have only had two insect problems and a couple problems with the soil in a specific container.
In conventional gardens you cannot grow some vegetables next to one another because they are not compatible with one another. In Sydney’s Green Garden compatibility is not an issue because the plants and roots are separated.
In conventional gardens you are suppose to rotate crops every year so you are not growing the same vegetable in the same place the next year. This keeps the nutrients in the soil balanced and reduces the potential for diseases. In your garden you will be adding approximately 25% new soil every year and fertilizing so rotation will not be a real concern for you. (I have grown cucumbers in the same containers for 7 years and have not seen a decline in yield.) But to ensure your success, we have made rotation simple. Just take the last 4 containers from the back and move them to the front row for next year’s planting. That is all you have to do for rotation. It is that easy.
If deer are a problem in your area and you are going to locate your garden where the deer can get to it, you can ‘deer proof’ your garden while remembering nothing is really deer proof. I put 42-inch high chicken wire around my garden. Deer will eat everything in the garden except the basil. Place a stake high enough to hold the chicken wire in the ‘corner’ containers and wrap the garden in chicken wire. You may want higher chicken wire or you can also put the wire over the top allowing only room for the peas and beans to grow through. If you decide to do a larger garden put chicken wire around only the vegetables deer like.
Deer do not like onions, potatoes, peppers and many herbs. In my large garden I never had to use chicken wire to keep the deer away. I locate peppers, onions, and potatoes around the perimeter of the garden, positioning the vegetables deer like in the middle of the garden. These perimeter vegetables are what I call ‘barrier vegetables’. They create a shield around the vegetables the deer will eat. The deer do not like to walk around the containers. They are like the grates used on bridges to keep cattle from crossing.
Many of the problems people think are created by deer are actually caused by rabbits or chipmunks. The chicken wire will also create a barrier for these animals. Whatever you decide to use, do not use deer netting. This is unsafe for smaller animals, such as chipmunks and birds, which get caught in the netting and can die.
Nothing tastes better than vegetables from the garden. There is a big difference in taste between what you buy at the grocery store and what you grow yourself. The vegetables you purchase in a grocery store have been genetically modified to withstand a long trip in a refrigerated truck and still look great when it arrives at the store. What is sacrificed is taste. In addition, you will be eating nutritious, pesticide free vegetables that you know have been well taken care of.