SPIN farming, we can do this Australia.

I have been reading a lot about this local food concept and it interests me greatly, I believe it could be the future.

SPIN farming strips out any talk of politics or ideology that underpins approaches such as organics or permaculture, stating “think in terms of a production system, not a belief system”, although it does employ organic techniques. It can start on parcels of land as small as 1,000 square feet, and can be spread across a number of pieces of land. It is a commercial operation, albeit a small and decentralised one.
Curtis Stone does this in Canada with a short season climate we can do this all year round in Brisbane.

Planting out the 3 square metre bed 31.3.14

With a little rain around I decided today would be ideal to plant out our 3 metre square bed. We ended up going with mostly Kale as I am very interested in learning how to cook with it.
The three varieties we chose to run with are Lacinato, Red Russian and Vate's  blue curled with a few Purple Vienna kohlrabi to mix it up. I have purposely planted very tight much closer then recommended, the aim is to maximise the production in our limited space with out diminishing our yield from overcrowding. Only time will tell wether its too tight but I am quietly confident we will produce good yields of nutritious pesticide free home grown goodness. Numbers in the bed are as follows.

• 10 Lacinato kale at the back as I believe these will probably grow the tallest of the kale and will be used mainly as a cooked green.
• 17 Red Russian kale through the middle extremely vigorous plants I would like to use these mostly as a salad green so will try to harvest these young.
• 17 Vate's blue curled a dwarf species I have planted these at the front so as not to let them be overshadowed by the two other larger varieties.
• The 10 purple Vienna Kohlrabi should grow quickly and be harvested well before the Kale grow tall. That's the plan so far but as we know gardening is 20% plan 70% luck and 10% water.

The seedlings have been watered in well and I will keep the water up to them until they are established. We have had a fair bit of rain over the last week so has been an ideal time to get some plants in the ground.

Update Gutter garden. March 31st

Well the gutter garden beds are doing very nicely over crowded to the max but with access to plenty of water I have decided not to thin them. It might be the wrong move with the beetroot but the radish look great and will be able to pick my first crop over the next week or so. Cherry bell radish are ideal for pots or tight spaces jam them in and water them regularly and you will be harvesting delicious home grown radish in under a month.
Now's the time to get beetroot in the ground and they love Brisbane's climate so put a few in as they are great raw in salads and very forgiving in the garden.

There is a fresh produce revolution in Brisbane

There really is a fresh produce revolution in Brisbane check these guys out
They are one of many brilliant new fresh produce businesses striving to get fresher and healthier produce to our suburban doors.  http://www.foodconnect.com.au/farmers

Interesting article about water Usage

Bit of a technical read but worth having a look at if your ever considering setting up a large scale irrigation system. A great concern when undertaking such work is overwatering and specific crops water usage, Hell of a thing killing something with kindness. Many gardeners just make the assumption the more water the better, and this is very rarely right. We have some overhead sprinkler systems being put in currently at the PCYC farm on the racetrack, now we need to work out a program that is beneficial to our farm and its crops.
http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/agriculture-and-food/horticulture/vegetables/vegetable-growing-and-management/estimating-vegetable-crop-water-use

March 26

Late March and it might look like Summer is over but the heat is still hanging about. The seedlings for our 3 metre square challenge are growing very well.
I have decided on 4 varieties of Kale this Autumn /Winter.
Red Russian, Lacinato, Vates blue curled & Chou Moullier. All old heirloom varieties, all known for good production. The bulk of my seedlings will be going to the PCYC community farm at the Deagon racetrack and with any luck will be available as produce at our Market stalls later in the year. Anyone who lives in Brisbane especially the Northern suburbs should come check out the farm and the community garden at the PCYC on Kempster st. Its a fantastic initiative and the more people involved the better.
I'll attach some links to information on the various Kale for those

interested in starting some off your self. It is currently the perfect time of year to get your hands dirty in Brisbane. Pictures from top to bottom. Red Russian Kale, Vates blue curled, Lacinato, Chou Moullier.

Brassica seedlings

 The various brassica seedlings that I have planted are growing nicely and setting their first true leaves, once they have about 5 true leaves we will put them in the garden. Most of the seedlings will be donated to the Sandgate PCYC community gardens to be grown at the race track farm, which is a community based market garden in Brisbane, very cool concept and I am spending some time over their every Wednesday. If your keen contact the Sandgate PCYC for more details.

Seedlings starting to produce true leaves, most of these will go out to the PCYC community farm, but some will end up in my 3 metre square challenge bed.

No space no worries

A few years ago my brother dropped off a couple pieces of guttering so I could use them as strip gardens for greens or strawberries. I have finally got them full of dirt.
One side has Cherry belle radish the other globe beetroot, we use the leaf in salad as well as the root so 2 ingredients for the price of one.. This is an ideal space saver. I have it set up in the driveway over the drainage.  You could also use Styrofoam boxes anything that has drainage and holds dirt. Plant things with small root masses and quick maturity, radish, greens and herbs are ideal.

 

 

Organic growing

 In my opinion the home garden can only be organic. You are what you eat and when you are in control why would you choose to expose yourself your family and your pets to potentially toxic pesticides, leave that to the commercial farms... Organic farming is relatively easy to achieve on a small scale back yard setting, once organic techniques are  utilised soil health, plant health and your beds production are increased.  Organic farming does however require you to be prepared, be systematic and stay on top of the little issues before they become big ones. Weeding and pest management has to be a daily issue, pulling weeds and squashing bugs, and don't forget to mulch those beds especially in our warm months.  Healthy fertile soil produce nutrient rich and delicious produce and that's why we do this after all.
 The 3 square metre garden bed challenge is a going to be a great way for me to put my opinions into practice and actually see if I can do this a organic farmer in the city.

There are many fantastic organic fertilisers on the market I use a local made one called Triple boost they also make a great soil improver/ slow release fertiliser called Organic link, I highly recommend both these products, which can be found in Mitre tens and some other hardware chains.

Best yield for your space.

 A 3 metre square garden bed challenge has many considerations to take into account. What does one plant to use the space the best? Growing vertically can be ideal if sun permits so beans and peas or cucumbers or zucchinis might be an option. sweet potato which are great producers in Brisbane as a root crop and a healthy green alternative might also be ideal. But I wanted to try something a little different. Brassicas, my chef background had got the better of me and I was intrigued by Kale and its collard cousins. Coming into our Autumn and the start of our cooler months Kale should do very well here, and produce masses of delicious and nutritious leaves for salads and cooking. So for the Autumn come Winter crop I will be trying out these old world favourites.

Seedlings of Russian red, Vates Curly, lacinato, and chou moullier kale have been sown and doing well. I also put down some purple Vienna Kohl rabi, Early purple turnips and a few other less grown brassicas. Its still quite warm here in March but a great time to start them all off.

The 3 metre square challenge.

 Like a lot of us I dream of producing food from my own backyard, I am a chef by occupation and have been for the past 18 years, but my real passion is in gardening and of late food production. I'd love to be able to supply my family with fresh vegetables on a regular basis. I have no illusions of grandeur I have neither the time,space or climate to produce all of my fruit and vegetables. I am very interested in how much I can actually produce in a small space. When I talk gardening with people a lot of the time  space seems to be a major concern, so I thought how much could most households allocate for a garden? A lot of people thought 3 metres square was a big space but a space that could be "sacrificed" for food production. 
It got me thinking and I decided that I had to do a test and see just how much produce you can grow in a 3 metre square garden. Firstly I had to build a bed from scratch as that's what everyone would have to do if they were going to suddenly take up gardening.

 We had a spot that got good sun near our back steps and I boxed I had to lift a few pavers and do some turning of some seriously compacted heavy soil but it loosened up nicely. I then boxed the area with sleepers and filled it with mix of a horse manure, mushroom compost sugarcane mulch and garden soil. Giving it a good turn in and water I will now let it settle for about 5 weeks before I plant out our seedlings

The bed is 117cm x 245cm which is under 3metres square but close enough. The soil is fantastic rich with organic matter and approximately 30cm deep. I'm feeling very happy with how its all started.