The Zimbabwean Gardener Issue 16 Autumn 2016 Low res | Page 30

Gardening for beginners

A salad garden for beginners
Learn some basic gardening tips to save some money and eat healthily.

I often come across many people who
say, ‘Gardening is not my thing’! Fair
enough, but there are so many benefits
to gardening that people quite often
ignore.
Apart from my passion for growing
plants, another reason my garden is
inundated with fruits and vegetables
is that it saves me money! Most of
my fruit and veggies come from my
garden, and I actually feel guilty when
I buy fruits and veggies that I could
grow. My monthly veggie shopping
comes to about $4, which includes a
variety of 60 veggie seedlings and some
fruit seedlings, like granadillas and
gooseberries, from Emerald Seedlings.
When you consider that two bags of

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lettuce cost the same in the shops,
need I say more?
Most novices get scared away by
gardening as they lack knowledge and
confidence. All gardeners were in that
position once. One important thing to
remember is that the more you plant,
the more curious you become and the
more your confidence will grow.
My friend, Terry, who is a teacher and
a beginner to gardening, agreed to be
my guinea pig for the salad garden for
beginners. She was a stellar student,
and she has even passed on her
newfound enthusiasm for gardening to
her students at St John’s Prep school.
What a great bug to catch!

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What you need

Here are the basics to growing a salad
garden in a pot, which is great to have
outside your kitchen door for easy
access and maintenance.
VEGGIE SEEDLINGS
Go to your local nursery to choose
your veggie seedlings. Make sure you
choose veggies that won’t take up too
much space like lettuce, herbs, cherry
tomatoes and spring onions.
Choose a variety of pick-and-go
lettuces, such as butter and frilly
lettuces. Iceberg lettuces are not ideal
for this salad pot, as it takes longer for
the head to form and then you must
remove the whole plant. The other

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