Plans for spring

Lately I have been driving my hubby mad with my new big idea.

I'm going to grow a vegetable garden!

Now about the only thing I know about growing anything is that which I learned from my dad. By learning I mean that he did it and I looked on. So I really know very little, if anything, about gardening.

My vision is not necessarily to grow enough vegetables to completely feed our family (though that would be nice), but to grow enough to cut down on some of our food bill. Plus there are plenty of other reasons why - 1. Time spend with the kids outside 2. Digging and learning about how things grow 3. Health benefits 4. Better for the environment (I plan on setting up a compost heap ASAP) 5. Possibly some exercise to help shift that baby weight etc, etc, etc.

This is my plan so far. I hope to built 2 raised garden beds of about 2 x 4m in the back corner of our yard. I envision that it would look something like this picture. I would like to do this sooner rather than later so that I would be able to work some manure and other lovely things into the soil and then give it time to develop and become ready for planting. This also means that I need to get cracking on that compost heap. I also hope to grow most things from seed inside (its cheaper) and transplanting when the plants are of decent size.

Some vegies that I would like to try growing are: tomatoes, capsicum, carrot, spinach, zucchini, lettuce, strawberries (I know, not a vegetable), beans, beetroot and eggplants.

For now I am reading as much as I can on the topic and saving some money to buy all the things we need to get started. If anyone has any ideas or handy tips please let me know as I surely need all the help I can get.