By Renee Wood
Although the weather outside might be frightful, gardening sure can be delightful during winter, forcing you to get out there and breath some fresh air and slithers of sunshine.
Although winter can be seen as the usual time of slumber for a garden, it’s also time you can build structures and plan to prosper next season.
Lilydale resident Lisa Leckie has been inspiring others through her social media account, @lisaandlisa, sharing what cooler months can offer through preparation and planning.
Lisa has always dabbled in the garden, working on her beautiful home with her husband Glen.
The aesthetics was first what drew Lisa to the outdoors when raising her family but in recent years the opportunity to grow her own produce has become a reality.
The pandemic offered a great opportunity to start learning more about home grown produce and Lisa has since become more invested in the garden during lockdowns.
Now the four acre garden is starting to show the beginnings of a food forest, with fruiting vines growing over structures, a new green house on the hill and a small orchard with juvenile fruit trees.
The proof is in the pudding, with the highlight of picking fresh berries or plucking off tomatoes seen as a real highlight.
“Just growing your own food and knowing where it comes from, not having all the pesticides and stuff like that,” Lisa said.
“I’ve always loved gardening but the food side of it’s good too now I’ve got more time because the kids have left home and the grandchildren love eating it all,” she said.
This year you’ll find Lisa sowing seeds of old heirloom vegetable varieties or anything that sounds unique like Squash Spaghetti or Tomato Pink Bumble Bee.
“This year I’ve brought seven varieties of pumpkins and I’m going to grow the smaller ones up over all the arches to save on space.”
Lisa chooses to grow organically and have a ‘no kill’ policy, believing it’s the best way of protection for beneficial pests, pets and the kitchen table.
There’s plants to attract bees, with a real natural hive living on the property – while only organic fertilizers are used on the property
Lisa is trying her best to grow the foods listed in ‘the dirty dozen’ that have been reported to have high levels of pesticide residues on them.
These include; strawberries, spinach, kale, collard greens, and mustard greens, nectarines, apples, grapes, capsicum/ chillies, cherries, peaches, pears, celery and tomatoes.
“So if you can only grow a few things then you want to grow them or buy organic,” she said.
The greenhouse which was recently built is making use of dead space on a slope, giving ideas for others on how to work with difficult geography, while also an option to extend your season with produce such as tomatoes.
Lisa found signing up to The Diggers Club, social groups and watching videos online was a good tool for produce beginners.
“You can join the community group on Facebook. And then if you’ve got a problem, which I often have, you can see what other people have you put out there and…they have a horticulturalist answer a lot of the questions as well.”
There’s also local gardening clubs that are based around the Yarra Valley beginners can also join to get support.
Winter is the perfect time to experiment with growing your own produce which will help to reduce the grocery bill while soaking up that winter sun – you never know where it may lead you.
“Once I got started I just got addicted and wanted to do more,” Lisa said.
