Mike Booth's flourishing KITCHEN GARDEN

Here, in his first column for H&G, our new gardening editor Mike Booth shares his planting and growing journey...

- Mike Booth

In 2015, I announced to my partner, Steve, that we should buy a farm so I could have a large garden and, also, a place out of the city where we could spend our weekends. Up to that point, we had been living in an apartment, where my passion for growing things was confined to our balcony – I spent most of my weekends tending our tiny patch of green. While I looked for a property for us to buy, I enrolled in a horticulture course at TAFE three nights a week and spent my free evenings reading about and watching YouTube videos on gardening. During that time, I rented a small vacant block of land and started to implement what I was learning.

Starting with a small balcony garden, our new gardening editor Mike Booth-pictured here with Bedford the English springer spaniel - has learnt plenty along the journey to planning and planting his own impressive vegetable 'patch' at his home, Rosedale Farm, near Orange in regional NSW.