Carlton, NSW

This Carlton backyard gets great sun in both summer and winter, so we chose the position of the three beds carefully to make the most of the light across the whole year. Together they provide a serious amount of growing area — probably enough to feed half the street!

Capturing both summer and winter sun is the real key to a vegetable garden that produces year-round, and a thoughtful layout makes all the difference on a compact St George block like this one. Each bed is a wicking bed, so it keeps its own water in a reservoir in the base and draws it up to the roots, keeping the soil evenly moist through the warm months with very little watering, while a built-in composter turns the household's scraps back into food for the garden.

Three beds together turn a modest Carlton yard into a genuine kitchen garden, with room for everything from leafy greens and herbs to tomatoes, beans and root veg, and space to rotate crops through the seasons. Raised and lined, they stay tidy and easy to work, with no digging and little weeding.

We build from kiln-dried, vegetable-grade timber with a food-safe finish, made to last years of steady use. If you've a sunny backyard in Carlton, Kogarah or elsewhere across the St George area and want to grow a real supply of your own veg, we'd love to help you plan it.