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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSome people prefer to work on one area\nat a time until it is finished right down to the placement of tables and placemats\n(they call it being thorough and can\u2019t do it any other way). The problem with\nthis is that you really can fit a lot into a small space and it\u2019s easy to spend\nso much time on the first area that the rest of the garden doesn\u2019t develop very\nquickly (whereas you want to get those trees and bushes growing everywhere).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes creating the garden can be a\nlot like doing a jigsaw puzzle. You start with the most obvious parts (corners,\nedges) and work out from there, filling in as you go. Often you don\u2019t know what\nto do next until you finish one part and suddenly the next step becomes\nobvious. Sometimes you will be perplexed for a while, not knowing with an area,\nin which case just carry on around it until the answer comes along. Unlike a\njigsaw puzzle you can take as long as you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once all parts of the garden are fully\nfunctioning you change from builder to manager and your workload goes down\nconsiderably. The work also tends to become more interesting because it has\nmore direct and productive purpose. You introduce new plants, remove\nunproductive things, add artwork, propagate plants and generally fine tune the\ngarden to maximize productivity for the amount of work expended. No area is\never completely finished and you may decide to go back to the most unproductive\nareas (places where things didn\u2019t work out as expected) and improve them with\nthe benefit of greater experience and knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your perspective on time changes as you\ngain more experience in the garden. When you first start out 5 years sounds\nlike an awfully long time and you debate whether it is worth doing something\nthat takes so long to come to fruition. Yet that 5 years will pass quickly\nenough and planting a tree today gives you something else to look forward to\nlater. The growing plant is quickly forgotten and becomes just part of the\nscenery, until the day when it suddenly starts to produce fruit and takes\ncenter stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest secret to creating a\nwonderful productive food garden is to simply keep at it. Over time the garden\nwill inevitably improve, gradually becoming less work, more productive, more\ninteresting, more diverse, more filled with wildlife and more beautiful. This\nis true even if you are a total incompetent and kill plants every year. So long\nas some of what you plant each year survives, the garden will eventually fill\nup with beautiful food. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"