Slow Food From Your Own Garden

n Autumn’s Wonderland, we showed you how to make quick compost in a compost bay.  Continuing the theme, Paul Cosgrave describes a good way to build a kitchen garden;  and Daniel Eggins gives readers another of his fine ‘Slow Food’ recipes.  This time, it’s a chunky beef potted pie for winter.

After last issue’s composting ideas, you hopefully now have a nice big pile ready to go into your kitchen garden.  What?  No kitchen garden?  Here’s how to make one quickly and cheaply.

Order 4 (non-arsenic) treated planks from a landscape centre.  Lay them roughly in position in a sunny spot (4 hours of direct sun in winter should give you about 6 hours in summer).  Start to put your lawn clippings and other organic debris into the space (1).  Turn the planks sideways onto their edges.  If the ground slopes, use small leftover brick or paver pieces to lift the ends and hold loosely in position with extra large tent pegs or edging stakes (2).  They don’t need to be precisely equal, just level enough to please the eye.

When you’ve arranged them as you want, dig 10 – 15 cm holes using a trowel, equally spaced in two or three places along the lower edge of each plank.  Extend each hole under the plank and in each hole force the peg or stake into the ground, hard up against the wood.  Fill the hole with a fairly wet concrete mix, tamping down well (3).  Support the planks while the concrete dries, which should take about three days in warm weather.

Grease the pegs or stakes to protect them from rust and cover the dry concrete with soil, so the grass will grow over it.  Finally, put your mature compost into the enclosure, with a spray of water first on the clippings underneath.  Keep a little compost to fill in uneven spaces under the planks (4).  You’re ready to plant, and the veges and herbs you’ll grow will add freshness to all your winter comfort food.

cost:  4 planks (2400x200x50) $80.00;  8 – 12 edge stakes or tent pegs $25.00;  concrete $7.00;  total: approx $110.00;  construction time: approx 3 days