Toni Salter: Detox & Rejuvenate - New Year's Resolve

This is the time everyone's talking about new resolutions of getting fit, eating healthy, detoxifying from too much Christmas binging and setting goals for the year ahead. What better way to start the year than by starting up a veggie patch.

Eating lots of vegetables is the best way to detoxify your body and with warm summer days ahead of us, salads are the best and quickest way to eat your way to good health. And a veggie patch doesn't have to be elaborate! You can start with growing a few veggies in an old laundry tub just outside the back door. It's really quite easy. You can grow a complete salad in just one pot.

First, choose a large pot. Suggestions: old laundry tub, wine barrel, concrete or terracotta bowl or simply a big plastic pot. Fill it with premium grade potting mix and a bit chicken manure if you can handle the pong!

Next, go down to the local nursery and look for the salad veggies you like. Grab a grafted tomato, if you can, because it'll yield right through winter if you put the pot in a warm sunny spot. Pick at least 3 different lettuces - choose the repeat harvest varieties like oakleaf, frilly and mignonette. You just pick the outer leaves as they get bigger and the plant will keep going and going and going. There's so many different ones to choose from that make up a great looking salad with all sorts of different leaf shapes as well as being great tasting.

Get a couple of cucumbers, a capsicum and a packet of nasturtium seeds. If you like fresh herbs buy some basil and parsley as well. Take them all home and arrange them in a pot like this.

Place your tomato in the centre, two cucumbers in the corners and lettuces around the front edge. Fit the capsicum and herbs in between and then plant a few nasturtium seeds wherever you can fit them. The cucumbers and nasturtiums will spill over the sides of the pot as they grow. Nasturtiums add some interest to a salad with their unusual leaves which are nice and spicy. The flowers bring colour and are also edible.

If you're feeling adventurous plant them all out in a veggie patch in the backyard instead. Now is a great time to plant cool season plants as well, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, celery and silverbeet. All cabbage family plants are high in antioxidants and anti-cancer properties. So go ahead, and eat your greens!!!

If you'd like to learn more, you can attend one of Veggie Lady's workshops.
Go to The Veggie Lady's website [http://www.theveggielady.com] or to the Chaos Generation events page [http://www.chaosgeneration.com/events.htm] for workshop dates.