Spring brings its bounties - The Weekend Australian

WEEKEND APLUS    The Weekend Australian  September 24-25, 2011 www.the Australian.com.au

Holly Kerr Forsyth
Spring brings its bounties

After a few false starts, spring is finally under way across the country. Wisterias, jasmines and roses are filling the air with scent, fruit trees are bursting into blossom and deciduous trees are unfurling fresh foliage.  And community and school kitchen gardens are being tended with renewed enthusiasm.

You know the saying about converting the child while young? Grasping this adage, over the past decade schools kitchen garden programs have engaged our youngest citizens in the joys of growing produce.  These initiatives demonstrate that tomatoes are not born in a tin, that eggs come from chickens, and that food prepared without synthetic flavouring can taste good.

Leonie Shanahan started her Edible School Gardens program more than 10 years ago in Queensland, where she conducts workshops that enable students and teachers, parents and grandparents and other members of local communities to set up vegetable gardens in the schoolyard.  “Each year-long program culminates in a harvest day celebration where children enjoy the fruits of their labour, “she explains, “with local chefs creating a healthy, tasty, colourful and chemical-free festive lunch.”

A recent menu for Year 6 students, titled From Paddock to Plate, included cream of sorrel and silverbeet soup, split green beans with lemon honey and macadamia dressing, and minced chicken with cucumber, mint and glass noodles.  “A local farmer also brought in organic oranges and pineapples.” Says  Shanahan. “And meat chickens were raised for the day.”

Her new guide, Eat Your Garden – Organic Gardening for Home and Schools, is a result of her experience in establishing and running these schools programs.  The book includes monthly planting guides, soil discussions, including worm farms and composting and ideas for no dig gardens as well as gardening in pots and in tanks.

In my vegetable garden, discipline has been forgotten, yet again.  I’ve discovered another variety of potato I cannot resist: Maranca, a multi-purpose oval potato with dense yellow flesh. (I’ll try it in a potato, fennel and cheese bake.)  As I have filled all my green grown bags, I’ve planted them in a sturdy, deep cardboard box on a tray.  By the time the box disintegrates I should have harvested the new potatoes. (And, if forced to plant roses where other roses have been, consider planting in cardboard box filled with fresh potting mix, to counter any disease problems that may be residual in your garden soil.  Eventually the cardboard will rot and strong roots of each plant will reach into the ground.)

I’m pruning off rhubarb flowers so they don’t sap energy from the plant, and I’m pruning my passionfruit vine to create new growth to produce flowers and fruit.

More of the easy-to-grow rainbow chard and silverbeet have gone into my above-ground tank garden; harvest daily, along with perpetual lettuce, to keep the foliage young and sweet. While most garlic is planted on the coldest day of the year, I’ve planted more, as imported garlic is sprayed with poisonous methyl bromide.  Leeks also add spice to cooking and are easier to grow than onions.  I’ve planted the swarf pea Bounty, along with the beans yellow butter and dwarf green.  Edgings are of basil, parsley, coriander, sorrel and spicy mustard greens.  Packed with anti-oxidants.  So healthy.  So delicious.

Prunings
    Contact Leonie Shanahan on
    Leonie@EdibleSchoolGardens.com.au  Her new book, at $39.95, is available from
    www.EdibleSchoolGardens.com.au or through the Diggers Club

One of the many thrilling aspects of travelling our country is observing the changes that altitude, soil and climate can bring to vegetation.  And this ensures equally fascinating differences in species of fauna.  Recently, dropping about 1000m from the peak of the Great Dividing Range, I noticed subtle changes in colours and markings on parrots and rosellas.  An updated edition of Neville W. Cayleys’s 1931 classic, What Bird is That, has been released by Australian ‘s Hertiage Publishing;$69.95, including postage and handling, More; www.whatbirdisthat.com.au: 136 646

It’s time to renovate the lawn.  Weed, aerate with a garden fork and apply a prepared lawn food.  Water well.

Leonie Shanahan’s book is the result of her experience in establishing and running schools programs

These initiatives demonstrate that tomatoes are not born in a tine (and) eggs come from chickens.