Lucy Miller | GARDENING FOLK Eggplants are easy to grow
Potatoes grow profusely and easily in a netted cone
Malabar greens (also known as Ceylon spinach)
The wallabies love to eat the leaves off my strawberry plants, but they don’t like chives, so I plant a ring of chives around the perimeter of my strawberry patch. Trying new vegies each season means I am, in essence, practising crop rotation without needing a formal plan. There are so many choices when it comes to edible plants that, if you don’t need to produce commercial quantities, different species can be planted each year to provide the same benefits. For example, last season I grew Malabar greens and this year I’m growing Lagos spinach. Growing unusual plants keeps things interesting. I also try to grow fruits and vegetables that are expensive to buy: figs, blood plums, Davidson’s plums, rosellas, avocadoes, tamarillos, purple carrots, pomegranates, mangoes, red paw-paw and macadamias, to name a few. These make great gifts for friends and family and excess can be made into simple jams or chutneys, dehydrated or even brewed into beer! I get great satisfaction from sharing the more unusual things I grow and exploring the tasty rewards nature can provide. Quirky things such as yacón, Cape gooseberries, spaghetti squash, Mexican sour gherkins and persimmons can excite and engage. People are always interested in bush tucker and things that are a bit different; they want to know what mangelwurzel tastes like, if Egyptian walking onions actually move about and whether there are benefits in eating golden beetroot over red beetroot. Many people don’t realise that loofah sponges grow on a vine and peanuts begin as a flower. The garden can provide many a conversation starter and more than a lifetime of learning.
Clever solutions One thing I have learnt is that, if you look hard enough, there will inevitably be an organic option for solving a problem or treating a pest or disease. Pesky resident wallabies are managed simply by leaving patches of lawn for them to graze, growing additional quantities of the crops they like and arranging plants strategically (basically, hiding them) when they need protection. The wallabies love to eat the leaves off my strawberry plants, but they don’t like chives, so I plant a ring of chives around the perimeter of my strawberry patch. Any runners that escape the chives barrier are fair game and the wallabies are welcome to trim them for me: companion planting with a twist! I also tried a range of things to protect my brassicas, including white oil, eco neem, plastic butterflies and CDs. Then I invested in some vegie netting and the results were amazing. Throughout winter I harvested big perfect cabbages, broccoli and cauliflowers — organic success! My attention has now turned to the 10 acres of bushland. Fires came through the area in 2013 and I feel an obligation to ensure that native plants, rather than the stronger weed species, regenerate the area. It’s time to put my conservation and land management skills into practice. It’s important for us to regenerate pockets of native habitat and local vegetation corridors. Learning for me is a
lifelong passion, so I will continue to study, attend gardening workshops and events, read everything I can get my hands on and listen to the experiences of others. And whenever I’m given the opportunity, I hope to share my knowledge and teach others what I have learned. Finally, I’m beginning to see areas in my garden that are reaching critical mass, which means less toil for me. Pockets are becoming self-supporting and resilient. There is life in the soil and health and vigour in the plants. There are bees, birds, insects and myriad scents in the air. Each day I do a few jobs around the place and they are all adding up to big improvements. Slowly but surely, the barren land is being transformed into a garden that is welcoming and a joy to be in. The productive vegie patch, orchard and native gardens are all taking shape.
Lucy’s top tips 1. Ask lots of questions — listen and share what you learn. 2. Let nature do the hard work for you — compost and mulch. 3. There is always an organic solution. 4. Create biodiversity and reach critical mass, then things will become self-supporting. 5. Crop-rotate without a plan by simply planting new things.
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