About that garden outside your back door.....

One look at the calendar tells me that Spring is not far away and it's time to take another look at the garden with an eye to surviving Summer, keeping water use to a sustainable level and, cutting back the amount of greenhouse gas the household is responsible for by reducing the number of food items which have to travel great distances to get to the table.

How is your garden going? Yes, I know that many of us these days have woefully small backyards to potter about in and some have little time to spend in them.

However, no matter how small the available area, space can usually be made for a few low maintenance home-grown herbs. With a little more room one or two veggie crops can also be added.

So get out there and turn over a patch, add some decent compost and organise a top mulch this month. Chose a spot that gets a decent amount of full sun during the day, but not so much that the ground bakes and plants require a lot of water to survive.

Next month, go to the local nursery and pick yourself up some parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme plants. Add basil, chives, coriander, lemon grass and dill to the list or whatever else you fancy in your cooking.

If you have the garden space look out for some of that hardy mint our grandmothers used to grow (after all mint sauce is no more than infused mint leaves with a little vinegar and sugar thrown in) and try planting out some rocket for a prolific quick pick alternative to lettuce.

Hunt about for a small variety of chilli bush and find a spot for it among the flowers.

For those wanting to add a vegetable - you can't go past that old staple silver beet for an easy growing and plentiful crop of spring and summer greens and two or three cherry tomato plants will give you a constant supply for months.

Consider making space for spring onions if you are daunted by the thought of tending tomatoes or think about adding a few capsicum plants instead if that takes your fancy.

Towards the end of Summer pick up a few Australian garlic bulbs from the green grocers and do a staggered planting of the individual cloves in March so that next year garlic will be coming up to keep company with the other herbs.

If you live in a flat, bring home the biggest pot you can purchase and make yourself a mini herb garden on the balcony or place a row of small pots on the kitchen window sill.

Ask the neighbours what they are growing this year - it might be possible to extend the veggie range by acting cooperatively on your street.

There is really no excuse for buying absolutely everything from the grocery store when it is so much more convenient to open the backdoor and gather in from the garden.