Angela’s garden in St Albans
Before I started participating in My Smart Garden, I was not aware of the importance of treating the soil as a living entity, or that it is necessary to have plants in the garden that provide food for beneficial insects which prey on pests and pollinate the garden. My vegetable garden was pretty empty, and what I grew was sometimes attacked by caterpillars or other pests. There were times where the soil in our raised garden bed had become hard as a rock because we were unaware that we should not leave soil uncovered. Since participating in the program, I’ve learnt that the soil either must have something growing in it or it needs to be mulched.
I’ve started doing a lot of things since participating in the program which have helped my garden. For starters, after attending the Healthy Soils Workshop, I no longer dig up garden beds. I learnt that if you do, you are disturbing the delicate ecosystem that exists in the soil. Nowadays, I prepare the garden beds by putting compost and organic fertiliser on top of the soil two weeks before I plant anything.
Also, I now avoid having a monocrop in any of my garden beds. I now know that having plants from four different families means less chance of a pest attack. I have read Soil is not a dirty word by Craig Castree and I’m trying to put his science-based advice into practice. I also follow him on Facebook for daily inspiration. I have also organised my seeds into growing seasons and will be able to save seed in the future because I’ve attended a Saving Seed workshop.
I have been to more than 10 Smart Garden events over the years. They have all been excellent but the ones that are currently useful to me are the Olive/Fruit Tree Care and Preserving Olives workshops. I also think that the Healthy Soils workshop is the most important as you cannot have a healthy garden without a healthy foundation of healthy soil.
All the My Smart Garden resources on the website have helped me. I always read your newsletter for upcoming events and gardening tips. I am grateful to have online workshop recordings (on your website) that I can watch when it is convenient for me, and I save the workshop summary notes so I can refer back to them when needed.
Before I attended the Olive Preserving Workshop, a lot of my olive preserving attempts were failing but now I am confident that the olives that I preserve will be safe to eat. This means that my efforts at growing olives are not wasted. I also loved the bush tucker workshops. I have visited local native nurseries to purchase the plants that I know will grow in this locality instead of going to the big green warehouse (Bunnings) which just sells generic bush tucker.
Because of the changes that I’ve made to my garden, I’ve noticed a lot of benefits. My greens are growing really well this year. Parsley is everywhere and we let it go because it is lovely to be able to go out and get these items straight from the garden to the plate. The flowers of parsley are also wonderful for beneficial insects like ladybirds which prey on other pests. All my herbs are going great.
I’ve had a great crop of citrus and olives. I haven’t had to buy a lemon or orange for months and my olives are here looking lovely for the future. I grew tomatoes and potatoes which we really enjoyed. I never have to buy bagged spinach or other greens – kale is always available. I have enjoyed pickled olives from my own garden. The parsley and other herbs have been great and we enjoyed our tomatoes when they were in season. I have not encountered any downside to putting the advice I have been given in your workshops into practice.
Gardening is such a lovely pastime. Even if I didn’t find the healthy food that I grow rewarding, it would be just as nice to be outside doing healthy exercise and seeing the insects and birds flourishing because of what we leave for them to benefit from. I spend a great deal of my time in my garden and I find it very rewarding.
I am so grateful to have the support of such a great program where I can go for advice on any matter that affects my gardening knowledge. You have such wonderful presenters such as Kat Lavers and Craig Castree and others. It’s made such a positive difference to what my garden looks like and what I can produce from it. It’s so good to have local Melbourne presenters and be able to access their knowledge live.
