Showing posts with label Companion gardener. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Companion gardener. Show all posts

Sunday, 5 June 2011

If only every Suburb had a Community Garden and a Kitchen Gardeners Swap Meet.

Batty's Garden-8Allie & Steve's Visit-146
Many people today are striving hard to fit into today's culture.
Many of us vegetable gardeners feel a little out of place at social gatherings. We would much prefer to be in our gardens, pruning, planting, weeding, picking or preserving our produce.
Our to do list is endless, sorting seeds, making sauerkraut, pickling olives, transplanting seedlings, propagating cuttings and there is always pruning to be done.
I meet very few gardeners who are not keen to talk about what they have been growing or how the weather is affecting their garden.
So we have this group of home gardeners who meet together every few months and we always have a good time.
When we meet to swap seeds, excess produce and ideas, we also share part of our lives with each other.
We may meet for just a couple of hours but friendships are formed, phone numbers exchanged and the promises are made to share produce as it ripens and matures.
Someone has chokos to share, someone else has excess chillies, another has apples and firewood, the list goes on and on.
Cuttings and prunings, excess seedlings, potted plants are brought and given away.
Cuttings of herbs, curry leaves and berries, ginger, galangal, lemongrass and cardamom plants are divided and shared.
Variety is being added to people's gardens, new plants and ideas are being introduced.
People are taking things home to grow, things they had never heard about before. New flavours are introduced and as people try new things and use them at home, their palates change and they look forward to trying new and interesting plants.
Chesnuts-2Beef, Beans & Basil-7Curry Leaf Tree-2
And so for a few short hours people are introduced to new things, new ideas and new challenges.
If we lived in any rural area in any other country it would be a natural thing to save seeds and share with neighbours. But in Australia the majority of people are buying their fruit and veggies from large supermarkets or fruit stores. These unknown, mass farms are often using many harmful chemical sprays and fertilizers to achieve a perfect looking product, which looks good but lacks the flavour and nutritional value of organically grown produce.
Our priorities in life should be healthy pure rain water, fresh clean air, viable seed, local, organically grown food and a healthy lifestyle.
Lasagne-1Seedlings & Purple Chilli-3Brown Rice, Besan & Chive Cakes
A lifestyle which includes rest and relaxation, time to spend with others, time to share a simple meal or wander around a friend's garden.
When you live in a city you see people constantly rushing around, driving children from one paid activity to another. Children who have been in child care all day are seen throwing tantrums in shopping malls and supermarkets as their hassled parents fill supermarket trollies with chemical laden foods, coloured beverages and other sugar laden sauces, cereals, sweets and cookies.
I guess I am just getting to be a grumpy old granny, but to those of us who grew up in the forties or fifties we remember a much different world.
Seedsaver Maggie-20Seedsaver Maggie-5Colours of Autumn-14
Most families grew their own vegetables, had chickens for eggs and chicken for a special occasion.
There was no television, people sat and chatted about their day, listened to the radio or read books, played cards or board games.
All the neighbourhood children played cricket on the road, there were fewer cars and people rode their bikes, walked or caught public transport.
Anyone remember going to work in an old steam train?
I did. I caught the train from Liverpool Station to Central station in Sydney. A group of us teenagers met in the same compartment each day and played cards or just chatted.
Now the people I see walking the streets are plugged into their  iphones or ipods and don't even look at anyone.
Time is money now, so people rush everywhere, drive like maniacs and have no concern for anyone but themselves.
So it is with great pleasure that I look forward to when our garden group meets again.
Our dream would be for every suburb to have a Community Garden and every Community Garden to have such groups meeting several times a year.
   Seedlings & Purple Chilli-1Colours of Autumn-7

Monday, 21 January 2008

COMPANION GARDENERS

I have sent an email replying to a bloke's request, through this blog, to help him start a vegetable garden. This person will be the first of many, I hope, that I can help personally to take charge of their eating and begin to enjoy the rewards that we gardeners already know, that come with picking something from your own garden. Pattie has called it becoming a "Companion Gardener" and I like this name. I am a one-on-one type person and I can't believe my luck that someone has come to me for help just when I was thinking how am I going to find someone without using up my gardening time. I hope he gets back to me soon and we can start getting the worms working and building up the soil so we can plant in autumn.

A couple of nights ago I sat amongst a group of people I didn't know, at a friend's place for dinner. The hosts and most of the guests worked together at the Waite Campus . Anyway, they do agricultural experiments and stuff and talked a lot about work. I sat there quietly (yes, I can be very quiet, you may be surprised to know!) thinking of Pattie's challenge and realising this was a place to start. Nobody asked me what I did for at least 3 hours - not unusual, I find, and I didn't offer as there is always this feeling I have that I am less of a person in the eyes of such people, because I don't have a career. (I, however, see this quite differently!) My young neighbour at the table didn't noticeably gasp with horror when I replied to her question about what I do, with "I grow vegetables". I had thought about what my answer would be if anyone thought to ask me and I decided to get right on with "the challenge" !

We talked for quite a while, she was so lovely, and I gave her the blog address (maybe she will read this too) and then my neighbour on the other side, who had heard the odd word about gardening, asked me about her garden, or lack of, and I thought this would be my chance, as she had once tried to grow spinach. We spent ages talking and she became so excited about the whole thing. However, she lives too far away from me for me to become her "companion gardener" but maybe I should have given her my phone number. Anyway I didn't . How far are you prepared to go to help someone start a new garden? 5 minutes drive, 10 ? 20 ? I would go 5, or better still, in walking distance. It's one thing to start helping someone, it's quite another to keep it up for some months or longer and, for that, it needs to be convenient. Luckily and by great coincidence, the bloke who sent the email to me is only 5 minutes away!

Add new gardeners to the Victory Garden Drive list at www.victorygardendrive.blogspot.com!

Saturday, 19 January 2008

DIG ON FOR VICTORY


Pattie, of Foodshed Planet has introduced an idea to inspire everyone to get a friend involved in growing some of their own food, at the same time "joining hands and hoes" around the world to support and learn from each other.
If each of us helped one friend get started we would be well on our way to reducing green house gasses, reducing oil consumption, eradicating obesity, saving water, improving fitness and bringing a smile to those worried faces. Personally I am going to take up the challenge - even though all my 'friends' already grow vegetables - I will have to seek out other ways to succeed.
People often say they don't have time for this and that but I point out that we all have 24 hours in every day. We may choose what to do with the time in many different ways, it is up to us. In the time it takes to drive to the shop, collect all the goods, get through the checkout, put it in the car, drive home, unpack it and put it all away, they could have prepared a small patch of ground or a couple of pots and planted some herbs or lettuce which, with a little care, will provide a quick salad many times over the next few months.
When I grow seedlings I always have too many and these I put into nice pots and give to people such as my mother-in-law. I put them on a stand for her so she can water them easily and she loves to pick the goodies. Nothing too tricky - just salad things and herbs, right by her kitchen door. It keeps her involved in the garden and gives her fresh food. All our elderly could manage this and, I am sure, would love it. When they look scrappy (no, not the elderly, I mean the plants, you meany), I take them away and bring her new ones, so she always has something on the go.