My name is Paul and I live in Melbourne, Australia, with my 3 children and wife. I have been an avid gardener for almost 20 years and I love growing my own food at home. I started out like most people growing a few vegetables from seedlings in Summer.
However, as my interest has increased so has my garden. In March 2014 our family moved into a new property. The aim of moving into this property was to change our lifestyle and become less reliant on the major supermarkets by growing our own food.
The property was selected because it is relatively large, for a urban block, 836 sqm (9000 sqft), with a north facing backyard which is advantageous in the Southern Hemisphere. The property also had a sunken area that was approximately 30 m long (100 ft long) and 5 to 6 m (16 to 19 ft) wide. The area was transformed into the main vegetable garden.
In April 2014 we cleared the site in preparation for the construction of the garden.
![IMG_0723[1]](https://ediblelandscapeblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img_07231.jpg?w=1000)
And by Christmas December we had the beginnings of a vegetable garden.
By the following year we had started planting espalier fruit trees along the edge of the vegetable garden, between the black posts. These would serve to create a garden room. The below shows a photo taken from the house in October 2015.
![IMG_1200[1]](https://ediblelandscapeblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/img_12001.jpg?w=1000)
Today we have approximately 50 fruit trees on site, a greenhouse, composting facilities, chickens and an area for growing soft fruit (raspberries, strawberries and blackberries). The vegetable patch produces around 500 kgs (1100 lbs) per year.
In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic arriving, we wanted to take our food production to the next level so I started to look at how to track my gardens’ performance to optimise the output by collecting actual data. I found it extremely laborious to collect the data using an excel spreadsheet.
As no apps that currently exist that have the functionality to collect the data required easily, I approached my brother in-law, Bernard, a professional programmer, to see something could be created. He agreed and “Plan Your Patch” was born.
The App is currently under construction and will arrive soon. In meantime enjoy the blog, Cheers.