Creating a productive yet decorative organic garden from scratch may sound like a daunting prospect but — depending on exactly what it is you have to work with — this is the perfect time of year to begin such a wonderful project as right now is, let us hope, the beginning of a peaceful and prosperous New Year for all.

The land area at your disposal, be it large, medium or small in size, will offer challenges all of its own and these challenges will vary from region to region of our climatically diverse, amazingly beautiful, country in which soil conditions vary tremendously.

At this early stage, especially if you have moved into a brand new home, your garden may resemble nothing more than a derelict building site with nothing to focus on except for a dismaying amount of construction debris. Or if you have recently moved to a different residence, it could very well be that you have inherited someone else’s idea of what a garden is supposed to be and their ideas may bear absolutely no resemblance to your own. Few of us are lucky enough to take up residence in a rural abode with attached land which hasn’t been worked for many years and, even then, there are liable to be trees, fruiting or otherwise, to be taken into account when planning the garden of your dreams.

It is difficult to say which of the aforementioned three possibilities is the easiest to work with as each one has its own individual drawbacks and advantages. The former building site must be cleared of all debris and may need truckloads of expensive new soil brought in to make any attempt at creating a garden feasible.

Have a vacant patch of land but don’t know what to do with it? Get started with tips from Zahrah Nasir

Rose —‘The Pilgrim’, Photos by the writer

An inherited garden could result in having to uproot hedges, thinning out shrubberies, remake pathways and garden beds and much head scratching about the fate of large trees which no one wants to cut down, but commonsense demands something must be done about. This is more so: if they are sick and run the chance of rotting and falling down; if they do not allow necessary sunlight to penetrate the growing area; or if the roots are, or may soon, interfere with sewage / water lines and underground cables.

Developing a rural property may sound much simpler than the previous two but this will, undoubtedly, come with a set of unexpected problems to overcome. However, what all three have in common, is the need for massive amounts of seasonal planning combined with endless amounts of patience you didn’t even guess that you had!

Over the coming weeks and months, we will, together, take a deeper and long-term look at how to go about making a garden from whatever it is you have to work with and — this is more and more important as time goes by — how to do this organically whilst actively conserving the environment and the myriad life forms which inhabit it and which are now, as a direct result of misuse of chemicals, the fallout of an increasingly ‘disposable’ society and an ongoing battle for private space, in ever increasing danger of decimation: a decimation that would also have dire consequences for the entire human race.

A garden is what you make it, Photos by the writer

Up-to-date information on how to establish gardens in inner-city areas, new housing developments, in towns, villages and rural areas, as well as on apartment balconies and useable rooftop areas, will be interspersed between the regular, first Sunday of the month, gardening / planting guides and the astonishingly popular question and answer sessions — keep those questions coming please. In an effort to keep everyone happy and informed, we will have columns on specific plants or other useful information, slotted in at random. If you find this plan to be on the overly ambitious side, please spare a thought for the writer who has not only come up with it but who has now got to implement it too!

Now, having explained the forthcoming ‘programme’, let’s, without further ado, have a look at those all important garden jobs to be done this month.

Vegetable seeds to be sown, either directly in the ground or started off in seed trays / pots of, preferably homemade, organic compost, include the following: lettuce, radish, spring onions, beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, Swiss chard / leaf beet, endive, mustard mizuna, giant red mustard. In plains and coastal areas, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums and aubergines can be started off under glass, in purpose made cloches, in plastic tunnels or, the latter four being warm weather vegetables, provided with protection from sunset to sunrise until temperatures begin to rise. You may also like to experiment by sowing a few early courgettes / zucchini, under glass / plastic too and, towards the end of the month, add just a very few water melon seeds to the ‘going for early’ collection as well.

Those with herbs in mind can sow borage, lovage, water cress, thyme, oregano, marjoram, lemon balm, lemon mint, mint, apple mint, peppermint, nasturtiums, calendula, chamomile, chives, garlic chives and, if you can source them, some agastache of which ‘Liquorice blue’ is a definitely mouth-watering, bee-buzzing, recommendation.

There are not many flower seeds to be sown this month but, in about the third week, you may like to start off a few zinnias for spring flowers and the final lot of larkspur, cornflowers, violas and pansies.

Tree planting can continue until the end of February as can the planting of grape vines, kiwi fruit, passion fruit and a wide selection of ornamental shrubs and climbers including those ever popular, bare-rooted, roses.

Prune back and generally tidy up dormant shrubs and creepers and if poinsettias have finished flowering, prune those back and don’t forget to take cuttings in the process.

Cuttings of geraniums and carnations can also be taken now.

Prune back any chrysanthemums which have finished flowering and mark your favourite ones — these may be of a particular colour range or flower form — so that you can identify those from which you wish to pot up suckers to multiply your collection later on.

Mustn’t forget the rapidly increasing number of strawberry growers! Check over, and under, the mulch placed around plants and beneath ripening fruit — this mulch keeps the fruit from coming into direct contact with the soil whilst suppressing weeds too — on a late evening / very early morning hunt for slugs and snails which relish the delicious fruits just as much as you do. If you find any, pick them off with gloved hands and yes, in this instance, the only answer is extermination!

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer will not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 4th, 2015