Welcome to the hotly anticipated second installment of Bryan’s Garden.

It would be fair to say I’ve fielded the odd look of disgust from my female counterparts this week whose sheer weight of numbers dominate the Marlborough Express newsroom.

By announcing the arrival of Bryan’s Garden it is almost as though I have invaded their realms of domestication.

I’m not sure what the stereotypical vegetable gardener is meant to look like, but, by some of the side ways glances I’ve attracted, apparently I don’t conform.

However, over the last few days, I have stumbled upon the realisation that cultivating a vegetable garden may be in vogue, much like yo-yo and slinky was years ago.

The young sensitive new age gardener, both male and female, appears to be emerging from the closet.

No where was this more evident than good friend Muz Moeller’s public sadness at losing a broccoli earlier this week.

“Poor little dude…it’s like losing a family member,” he announced on Facebook.

Bryan’s Garden sends our condolences big fella and hopefully in the future readers will stop being so selfish and come to your aid.

Yesterday, I set about providing a more nutrient enriched platform for my array of vegetables to grow from. I embarked on a small mission to a rural contact’s place in Woodbourne and, after 10 minutes on my hands and knees under his wool shed, emerged with some of the finest, aged, sheep manure the top of the South Island has to offer.

Time will tell just the impact this stuff has, but throughout the week I’ve been assured it’s the business. Lemon’s suggestion of adding banana peel to the mix hasn’t quite come to fruition. Unfortunately I don’t have a gang of monkeys that look like Charles Anderson at my disposal so collecting the peel doesn’t happen over night.

Keep soldiering on my green fingered friends. I expect to hear more of the trials and tribulations of your gardening exploits this week!

Do I know anything about gardening..? Absolutely not, but horticultural exploits do run in the family. My Uncle Graeme, A.K.A Captain Cacti, cultivates an array of exotic plants out of the Glenduan, Nelson, my dad Derek  grew cherries and garlic on the plains here in Marlborough and my grandad Brian is a weapon with trowel in hand at his home in Motueka.

Bryan’s Garden is intended to be a forum for gardeners, young and old, to share the trials and tribulations of home grown produce.

There’ll be weekly updates of my own small 2m x 3m patch of gold, which has been underway now for about a month.

It currently contains: broccoli, cabbage, parsnip, potatoes and onions, but as the seasons change and the sun and warmer temperatures become more prevalent, additional plant species will be added.

Any questions readers have will be put up for public debate, but I’ll start with a topic that is pretty pertinant to my garden in its infancy.

Plant food and additional soil supplements are key to producing a garden one can be proud of. I’m pretty keen on fertilizer and sheep manure, but seasoned campaigners out there must have some little gems they want to share.

Dig in!