It was the stuck-at-homeness of Covid that sparked it off. Bee and friends out there weeding, digging, planting – got us started.
Months of diligent street combing, roadside rescue and thrifty scrounging fetched us four bath-tubs, three wheelbarrows and dozens of pots.
Then we scaled it up – buying DIY raised-beds with Community Development Funds – and a truckload of soil to fill them. Our grey concrete yard got a green-over. Every found and purchased vessel was crammed with soil and rich compost, then planted out with vegies, trees and flowers – lots of flowers to brighten those Covid years.
Bok choy, long-beans, snap-peas, snow peas, winter-melons, water-melons, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, loofahs (yes, like the one in your bathroom), pumpkins, silver beet, beetroot, carrots, cucumber, chillies, zucchini, eggplant, cosmos, passionfruit, sunflowers, succulents, an abundance of basil and chokoes, chokoes everywhere.
It’s so satisfying to wander your own backyard and return to the kitchen with a lemon, fresh salad leaves and a handful of fragrant herbs for that special dish.
The health and financial benefits of tending, cooking and eating home-grown organic produce will only increase with the cost-a-living crisis. But our garden is much more than just the harvest.
For Abby, especially, it’s about being in the garden. Doing gardening. It’s about what gardening itself has done for her health.
Struggling with chronic and debilitating illness for many years, Abby rarely left home and did not often venture into the backyard.
The garden changed all that.
I remember the first few months I went down my knee hurt so much – then slowly, slowly got better. Physically, I feel better and mentally, I feel better. I can cope better and I’ve learnt a lot.
Abby says
When Charlie gets home from school, it is not uncommon to see her and Abby, heads bowed together over a garden-bed, searching for snails, caterpillars and aphids. And then, perhaps, scattering crushed egg-shells or spraying one of Abby’s organic brews, to discourage pests from eating our veggies.
