Growing vegetables or fruit in your own backyard has made a comeback. Rosie Manins learns how it's done.
Fred Earl started growing vegetables at the age of 10 , when his father went to war and Fred was left to tend the family's garden in South Dunedin.
''My father was always proud of his garden and I thought `I've got to keep it going'.''
With little knowledge or guidance, the youngster managed to do his father proud and has been keeping his fingers and thumbs green ever since.
''There was a chap around the road who kept a few trotters and I used to get a sack or two of stable manure from him. I was only a kid and didn't know much about gardening, but I knew manure was good for the plants.''
Mr Earl (83) has been living in Halfway Bush for almost 60 years and has become somewhat of an authority on vegetable growing among his Dunedin Gardening Club peers.
He has his own potato variety, aptly named Fred's Folly, and his parsnips are highly sought after for their sweetness and size.
''They're a good size; they don't fit in the kitchen sink. Not like those ones from the supermarket.''
Fred's Folly is a ''good, firm'' white potato and a ''great keeper''.
It took almost a decade to perfect and has been savoured by Mr Earl's friends and relatives from Invercargill to Paekakariki.
Despite his success, there is nothing fancy about Mr Earl's methods, which he has developed to get the most out of his garden with the least effort.
Mr Earl stopped digging over vegetable patches decades ago, when he discovered an effective alternative which was gentle on his lingering back injury.
''You just put compost on top and let the rain wash all the nutrients down into the plants.''
He read a book about it and tested the theory by dumping some compost on a patch of clay destined for cabbages.
About two weeks later he dug the ground to find worms in the clay for fish bait, and was amazed to discover it had been transformed.
''I couldn't find the base of the compost, all the soil was free and loose where it had been hard and compacted before. That was about 50 years ago and I've never dug the ground since - the only thing that gets the shovel is the compost.''
Kitchen waste, lawn clippings, seaweed and stable manure goes into the compost, as does the odd weed and even rhubarb leaves.
''People say you shouldn't put them in because they're poisonous, but mine go in along with everything else and it's fine. Every year I put in a bit of bought compost from Milton as well.''
Mr Earl avoids using chemicals on his vegetables, and firmly believes that naturally healthy soil will produce healthy plants able to withstand any pests.
''Even the white butterfly won't bother the cabbages. Mind you, it takes a few years to get your ground up to that standard.''
He first used chicken droppings to nourish the clay-based soil, with the help of a work colleague who let him clean out the chicken runs.
''He had about 1000 chooks and I was at him for two or three years before he finally said I could do it. I used to come home with 100 bags of it, which would all go on one plot and the next year 100 bags would go on another plot.''
Mr Earl also uses a bit of blood and bone, especially on his greenhouse tomatoes, as well as seaweed which he collects from the beach at Waikouaiti.
''It brings nutrients to the soil that are not otherwise readily available and has a lot of advantages, like preventing club root in cabbage and broccoli.''
Top tips
• Rotate crops each season. ''That's most important. The only thing you can grow out of the same ground all the time is onions.''
• Nourish potatoes with mushroom compost.
• Seaweed prevents club root in cabbage and broccoli.
• Use organic manure and avoid chemicals.
• Soften clay-based soil with rich compost.
• Onions don't need thinning. ''As they grow they just push each other aside and you can get more in the same patch with less work.''
