Peter Boege and Irene Kaspar have one of the most productive home gardens I have seen in Canberra. The home, in Deakin, had belonged to Irene's mother and the couple moved in during 2014. Peter said the ground was baked red clay.
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Now there is a clipped rosemary hedge along the front and side of the block protecting a row of berry bushes including currants, jostaberries, and gooseberries. A line of healthy feijoa shrubs produced 28kg of fruit this year, there are olive trees and a pair of bay trees.
Five raised beds were built using old fence palings which "migrated from the backyard and still have life left in them". These contain a range of different garlic, lettuce, leeks and herbs with potatoes sown in surrounds and rocket in the flowering stage.
Beside the driveway are compost containers. The fence palings are capped and an electricity pole partly wrapped to discourage the visiting possum but there is a "possum patch" planted especially as a deterrent to it roaming more widely. Near the house is a 2200 litre water tank with two more 2500 litre tanks in the back garden. Five new modular raised herb beds are close to the kitchen. These were purchased online from Birdies Garden Products in Queensland and they come in a variety of colours. They have a plastic membrane and are filled with mushroom compost.
In the backyard are seven large and four smaller raised garden beds filed with broccoli, spinach, leeks, green peas, broad beans, sunflowers, coriander and recently sown carrots, beetroot and dill. Peter pulled back some mulch and dug his fingers into the chocolate-coloured soil which was full of worms. His heritage is Dutch and self-sown gold podded Dutch peas bear pink and purple flowers.
The larvae of Argentinian scarab beetles had been causing damage throughout the garden so the couple bought beneficial nematodes from Ecogrow in Queanbeyan to solve the problem.
A garden bed the length of the back fence contains a rangpur lime, loquat, fig, pomegranate and two multi-graft plum trees. These are surrounded by plantings of broad beans, potatoes, strawberries and herbs. The only original tree in the garden is a Meyer lemon, like a basketball when they moved in, now producing 40kg of fruit in a season.
Lettuce is growing everywhere, self-seeding in gaps on the ground beside the raised beds. My favourite was a variety of Romaine lettuce called "Forellenschluss". Irene's heritage is Austrian so it was a treat to hear refer to the variety which means "trouts end" (or tail). She gave me some of the large leaves, lime green splotched with maroon, to take home for lunch. Superb.
Irene says the lettuce works well in a simple Austrian side dish to schnitzel called "gruener salat" (green salad). Here is her mother's Viennese recipe for the dressing: mix two parts vinegar with one part oil, add some water, sugar and salt and pour a generous amount over the lettuce. Garnish with dill.
Snow peas are adorned with red flowers, broad beans with crimson or chocolate blooms, there is green and purple broccolini, Egyptian walking onions, spinach is enormous and shared with an Indian couple at the local shops. Neighbours from their former home in Deakin and friends and newer neighbours all receive edibles from the garden, including the magnificent artichokes.
Seed sown in the two greenhouses are almost always from Diggers or Eden seeds. Many varieties are heirloom and include recently sown tomatoes, basil, capsicum, okra, parsley and dill.
Blue crocus are Irene's favourite flowers and the garden's walkways have specially ordered palest blue pavers. Bee-attracting Agastache, bergamot, echinacea and blue flowers of bold borage, which Peter describes as triffids, join calendulas, daffodils and roses with Roma tomatoes self-sown from the compost.
Garden greens
Ingredients
1 tsp cornflour
30g butter
1 cup fresh peas (or broad beans)
3 zucchini, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
grated lemon rind (to taste)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp mashed roasted garlic
400g pasta (orecchiette, penne , fusilli or farfalle)
200g spring green vegetable leaves, shredded (cabbage kale, silver beet, broccolini,
rocket or lettuce, tough stems removed)
100g goat's cheese, crumbled (to serve)
2 tbsp olive oil
Method
Cook pasta in large saucepan of boiling water until al dente. Drain, return to the pan and keep warm. Heat butter and oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and zucchini and cook until softened. Add cornflour to the pan with peas, lemon rind and juice, and bring to a simmer. Add spring vegetable green leaves and cook until just wilted. Add sauce and garlic to pasta and toss well to combine. Top with cheese and season with cracked black pepper.
Serves 4.