I have been growing organic vegetables and herbs in my Johannesburg garden for 15 years. When I started I knew nothing about any kind of gardening. To this day I have never been on a gardening course or had any formal training. It all began in 1995 when I visited a friend in California. His garden was bursting with chillies and it was the first time I had seen red, yellow, purple, brown and orange chillies in such a huge variety of shapes, colours and sizes. At that time in South Africa all one could find were little hot red ones. Jalapenos were hardly on the culinary radar yet. Although I knew nothing about gardening, I was so inspired by this rainbow vision that I collected seeds of every variety of chilli I could lay my hands on. Back home I removed a section of lawn, dug in some compost, scattered the seeds and sat back to watch my chillies grow. That summer I had about 20 varieties of chillies growing in my garden and quickly earned the nickname Chilli Queen. Faced with this abundance I couldn’t waste it and I started making Jane’s Hot Diggedy Chilli Jelly. This became so popular amongst my friends that once, after returning from a long overseas trip, a friend greeted me with “Oh good, you’re back – when are you making some chilli jelly?” So much for missing me!

I was hooked on the simple process of sowing a few seeds, watching them grow and then dealing with the harvest. So I dug up more lawn. The chillies were followed by tomatoes, lettuces, eggplant, herbs and more. I subscribed to magazines and bought books. Every year I’d try something new. Very soon I ran out of space and began experimenting with vertical structures and different methods of intensive gardening. I made a lot of mistakes - but over the years I have developed a method of growing vegetables that suits my busy lifestyle. I am a television producer and I don’t have the time to spend hours in my garden every day and I only have a gardener who comes once a week. So I have worked out the quickest and most practical methods.

In late 2007, a friend approached me for some help in starting his organic vegetable garden. After spending time helping him, I realised two things: one; over the years I had gathered a vast store of knowledge on how to grow organic vegetables, and two; I needed to share this information as there was a lack of South African books on this topic. I started writing and sixteen months after I began, Jane’s Delicious Garden was launched. In less than a year it had outsold Keith Kirsten and Margaret Roberts and is now in its fourth print run.

Today my vegetable garden is about 60 square metres and is my favourite and most rewarding part of my garden. In this column I will show you how easy it is to create and maintain an organic vegetable garden – no matter how small or large your space is.

Week Two:  The organic way