In the Beginning

I’m fairly proprietal about my garden. Just ask my husband when he tries to do me a favour and water the ‘crop’ to save me time in my day. The wild woman in me threatens to behead him and it is only his fearful face and apology for being so thoughtful, that allows me to see it for what it is. He doesn’t want ownership, he just wants to help.

I wasn’t always like this. Ask the poor flowers and shrubs I grew at our previous home – they barely got a ‘look in’ once a week. How things change though...

Five years ago, we bought our present home, a 103 year old converted church whose previous life was as a Catholic convent school. The religion I leave to others, but I have a love of big, spacious old buildings and this one close to Perth city, was about as close as we were going to get to an old European stone farmhouse. Grand it is, but without the acreage we’d one day promised ourselves. We got the house, but not the paddocks. However, determined to live at least part of our dream, we set about creating our slice of ‘The Good Life’.

Keen to get the taste of ‘real veges’ into our family of four, we installed raised garden beds in the front , courtesy of ‘Your Patch’, an organic vege company. In addition to the beds, Cameron also came along in the deal; he visited fortnightly, dispensing advice and planting seedlings. It kind of defeated the purpose of growing our own but he provided invaluable knowledge.  For me, it clearly was a case of ‘watch and learn’. Four seasons later I was on my own and reading everything I could about being a city farmer, believing that to obtain the knowledge, I’d have to follow the advice of others. 

Our very first weeks - 2008

October 2009 and we are on our own!

October 2010 and getting daring - learning to shade plants with companion plants

October 2011 - a few weeks from winning Subiaco's Sustainable Garden Award

October 2012 - still going strong!

It took me some time but one day it all just clicked. The only way I was going to learn was through trial and error and constant vigilance. My plants became like children; if I didn’t check what they were up to, they would soon take off and do their own thing, with whomever they chose to do it with! This explains my initial response to my husband and his good deed! The opportunity to be in constant contact with my growing ‘babies’, means I can watch and see every change, and which bug good or bad, has moved into my territory!

This blog is as a way to share the bits of knowledge I have found along the way and provide somewhat of a diary through the seasons. Recipes, tips, failures and successes will be written about, photographed and collated. Please feel free to share my blog with anyone you may think will like it and do give me feedback or any tips you have. I plan to post weekly, but then I know that the best laid plans often go astray! 

Fiona.

'My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view.'  ~H. Fred Dale