Me and the Garden
I have to admit, I'm not very clever when it comes to gardening. I've never grown my own veggies and I've never really had the knack or the patience for backyard maintenance.
You would be ashamed of me if you knew that I actually grew up in a HUGE veggie garden in my younger years- my grandparents being Italian immigrants brought their knowledge and passion of good home grown veggies to Australia, let me run amok in the garden while my Nonno tended to his tomato plants.
But as we all know the joys of our childhood fade away all too soon and as I grew up I became more interested in other things and stop visiting the garden. My next experience of gardening would be a hap-hazard kitchen garden when I was an apprentice that mainly consisted of us planting the containers of used micro-herbs and watching them grow into normal-sized herbs like coriander, basil, parsley, spinach and even celery!
So that brings me to the here and now. My most recent attempt at a garden was 2 years ago when I invested in a wine barrel that I had grand plans for a beautiful flower bed. Unbeknownst to me my puppy had other plans :-( He dug the whole thing up and had a good nap in there.
But I think he did me a favour, I now know that only hardy plants will thrive in this sun-drenched spot that I decided to place the wine barrel (I thought I was being smart protecting it from the severe winds we get, but really I was just putting it in a spot that gets little shade and is covered by the eaves so it gets no rain either!)- so now I have lavender, rosemary and succulents that I planted from my wedding bouquet that are all doing remarkably well!
Living about an hour and a half south of Sydney, I am so lucky to be pretty much in the middle of all the good stuff food-wise! There are a plethora of farms (you have to drive past a large dairy farm to get to my place!), and loads of self-sustaining places really not too far from where I live. Just 30 minutes South is the beautiful township of Berry thats full of gorgeous farms and restaurants that source organic, local produce, and I can even pop up over the mountain to the Southern Highlands which is like a goldmine of gorgeous produce!
Last night I stayed up, glued to the idiot box watching several episodes of River Cottage Australia and I loved the episode where they did a food swap. People in the local community got together and swapped their produce. No transactions. Just pop your bounty on the table for everyone to share! I loved it! I'd have to say I was actually pretty jealous of the whole thing!
Anyways it got me thinking... The picturesque town of Tilba (where River Cottage is filmed) is literally 2 1/2 hours south of us. With all this wonderful organic produce going on down there, I really have no idea why its so hard to find it around here.
So my new resolution is to hunt down some good farmers markets over the next few months. I'm going to follow some other blogs too that are dedicated to organic food and self-sustainability. Hopefully this will encourage me to maybe start my own organic veggie patch, give me a bit more confidence to give it a go and learn some new things, meet some cool new people and most importantly eat some more delicious food!!
I've already found a heap of Aussie blogs that look amazing and full of great recipes, tips and stories (and pretty pictures too!)
I'll keep you posted as to what else I find and where it leads me!
You would be ashamed of me if you knew that I actually grew up in a HUGE veggie garden in my younger years- my grandparents being Italian immigrants brought their knowledge and passion of good home grown veggies to Australia, let me run amok in the garden while my Nonno tended to his tomato plants.
But as we all know the joys of our childhood fade away all too soon and as I grew up I became more interested in other things and stop visiting the garden. My next experience of gardening would be a hap-hazard kitchen garden when I was an apprentice that mainly consisted of us planting the containers of used micro-herbs and watching them grow into normal-sized herbs like coriander, basil, parsley, spinach and even celery!
So that brings me to the here and now. My most recent attempt at a garden was 2 years ago when I invested in a wine barrel that I had grand plans for a beautiful flower bed. Unbeknownst to me my puppy had other plans :-( He dug the whole thing up and had a good nap in there.
But I think he did me a favour, I now know that only hardy plants will thrive in this sun-drenched spot that I decided to place the wine barrel (I thought I was being smart protecting it from the severe winds we get, but really I was just putting it in a spot that gets little shade and is covered by the eaves so it gets no rain either!)- so now I have lavender, rosemary and succulents that I planted from my wedding bouquet that are all doing remarkably well!
 |
| Then... |
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| After Hank had a snooze in there... |
Living about an hour and a half south of Sydney, I am so lucky to be pretty much in the middle of all the good stuff food-wise! There are a plethora of farms (you have to drive past a large dairy farm to get to my place!), and loads of self-sustaining places really not too far from where I live. Just 30 minutes South is the beautiful township of Berry thats full of gorgeous farms and restaurants that source organic, local produce, and I can even pop up over the mountain to the Southern Highlands which is like a goldmine of gorgeous produce!
Last night I stayed up, glued to the idiot box watching several episodes of River Cottage Australia and I loved the episode where they did a food swap. People in the local community got together and swapped their produce. No transactions. Just pop your bounty on the table for everyone to share! I loved it! I'd have to say I was actually pretty jealous of the whole thing!
Anyways it got me thinking... The picturesque town of Tilba (where River Cottage is filmed) is literally 2 1/2 hours south of us. With all this wonderful organic produce going on down there, I really have no idea why its so hard to find it around here.
So my new resolution is to hunt down some good farmers markets over the next few months. I'm going to follow some other blogs too that are dedicated to organic food and self-sustainability. Hopefully this will encourage me to maybe start my own organic veggie patch, give me a bit more confidence to give it a go and learn some new things, meet some cool new people and most importantly eat some more delicious food!!
I've already found a heap of Aussie blogs that look amazing and full of great recipes, tips and stories (and pretty pictures too!)
I'll keep you posted as to what else I find and where it leads me!
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