How did you get started on your edible garden journey?
I think it was garlic that triggered it all for me. Garlic in Australian supermarkets was mostly from China. I started with one garlic then went to The Diggers Club and got 5 different varieties of garlic and started growing it.
Dad was a gardener as well. He was keen on tomatoes and asparagus, so I started growing them as well and then it just kept snowballing.
Once you’ve got your harvest – the fruits of your labour – it just gets better and better.
What do you like most about gardening?
Ultimately, the end result: the eating and the produce.
Gardening encourages people to eat healthy and be active. Eating healthy and being active go hand in hand. If you’re gardening, you are being active. The benefits are physical and mental.
A combination of the physical element (being out in the garden in the fresh air rather than indoors in a gym or whatever) and the mental health element too – you are enjoying, thinking and researching.
How has gardening changed your habits?
There are some things I would have never eaten before until I started to grow them myself. The classic example is peppers. I never used to be interested in them, but I saw a lot of gardeners here (at the allotment) grow them. So, I researched and realised you can stuff them with rice and toast them and they’re delicious. It was gardening that triggered healthy eating. One thing flowed on to the other.
One night I took a photo of my plate when I cooked dinner. Everything on the plate (a good variety) was from the farm (allotment) here. It was very satisfying.
The flavour is heaps better when you grow food yourself.
What has been the biggest challenge growing your own produce and what learnings have you taken from it?
Working out what grows well together. For example, basil and tomatoes grow well together and they are a marriage made in heaven because they eat well together too. Whenever you have a tomato dish you often have basil in there.
Some things don’t grow well as neighbours and others are the exact opposite. That makes you want to learn – to research and to communicate with other gardeners.
Keeping the bugs out is another challenge, like cabbage moths. There are strategies you can use to stay one step ahead of nature, like companion planting with marigolds and nasturtiums. The challenge is to grow healthy without using chemicals and get the results chemical free.
What advice would you give to a beginner gardener or someone wanting to start their own edible garden?
Plan it out. Know your north and south and plan your garden so that one plant doesn’t shade another one. Some things will grow tall and shade vegetables behind it.
Know the best use of space.
Rotate the beds every 3 years and plan it so you have your winter crops and summer crops.
There are 3 main things to consider with growing vegetables:
- water
- sunshine
- soil quality
Use naturally organic methods to get the best out of the soil. Do not use chemicals. Just use nature. We use a lot of animal manures. Use pea straw on top of the soil to stop the soil drying out, to keep the moisture in the soil underneath.
Plan it, map it out. Know what to sow when. Know your climate for your area.
Why is it important to grow your own food?
You get more satisfaction out of growing your own produce and sharing it with family and friends.
It’s healthy.
It’s probably cheaper. I actually haven’t done the cost comparison.
I don’t know if it is cost effective because you can get caught up in it and the more you research the more you might hunt around for the good natural fertilisers and manures and things.
And then I suppose the next step is to research the best way to prepare the food you’ve grown – learning how to cook it and enjoy it. Learn to get the most out of what you’ve out the effort into growing.
What’s the most impressive thing you’ve grown?
I researched pumpkin seeds. The American world champion pumpkin grew to around 1000 pounds. I bought seeds from it and grew one that got up to a few hundred kilos! It was just for fun. We cut a hole in the top and kids were climbing in and out of it. You could fit 3 kids inside it. We had to get it out of the garden with a forklift!
Is there a page we can follow for more information?
There is a Myuna Farm Facebook page. It features animals, veggies and community events. We run workshops on: keeping backyard chooks, composting and the benefits of worm farms.
-By Lauren Clementson and Alexis Letters-Haydock 🌱
Food from Home 