Backyard gardens with Michael Keelan: In the Adelaide City region of South Australia

One of the best ways to learn about good gardening techniques is to look at everyday backyards. Today, we’re in a fantastic vegie garden at Ottoway. It’s the pride and joy of Richard Geselle and his partner and it’s an award-winning garden from last year’s Housing Trust Garden Competition.

It’s a wonderful veggie garden now but just a few years ago it was a compacted lawn where you would think it was impossible to grow anything else. But Richard has persevered - he’s got the soil right, the layout is great and it’s just an absolute treat.

The good layout is achieved by using something as simple as sleepers. Paths are created by laying sleepers flat and at the back there are sleepers on their edge to create the beds. There are about six different garden beds and the soil comes from Richard’s own composted clippings and cuttings from various plants in his garden. They’re broken down over time and by adding a little blood and bone it’s becomes a rich soil. Richard uses crop rotation superbly in his garden. He doesn’t grow beans in the same plot year after year; they are rotated on a constant basis.

It’s not a very big back yard - it’s not a very big garden - but it’s one that functions well.