Meet the grower

From wedding roses to winter brassicas, Monique’s gardening journey has been one of trial, error and triumphs, writes SALLY FELDMAN

An Adelaide gardener has gone from amateur to Instagram green thumb

It was late 2015, and Monique Collins was planning her wedding. She and her husband-to-be, Jay, had moved into their home at the beginning of the year, and she’d set her heart on growing her own flowers for the occasion. “So I planted out ‘Iceberg’, ‘Heidi’s Wedding Rose’ and ‘Guardian Angel’ varieties – all very wedding-y!” she laughs. It was her first proper foray into gardening.

Those roses, which made their wedding debut in March 2017, proved a challenge. “I now know that we have our first flush around October, then a second one that might come through in December/January, and then a third flush that comes towards the end of March/early April,” explains Monique. “So we just missed the boat – so many rosebuds hadn’t opened. The night before my wedding, I put them in warm water as I’d read that was a way to get them to open. I think some did by the evening of our wedding! I didn’t have as many blooms as I’d hoped for, but I was able to put together some very rustic centrepieces by adding some gum-tree flowers and foliage from the garden.”

down the garden path

Those rose bushes now thrive in the front yard of what she calls a ‘standard suburban block’ in Glenelg, Adelaide, alongside a vegetable bed, an orange, a fig and a potted olive tree.

The house, where she lives with Jay, their young son and Willow, a Hungarian Vizsla dog, has almost a third of the 690m² block given over to the garden, which harbours flowers, edibles and natives.

CLOCKWISE FROM MAIN

Monique in her dahlia patch; these Scarlet Runner beans were grown in semi-shade but Monique plans to grow them in full sun next year for a bigger yield; exclusion netting keeps cabbage white butter y o these brassicas; freshly harvested celery, mustard greens, carrots, spring onions and rainbow chard; Willow helps keep rodents and possums out of the crops, but occasionally destroys some in his enthusiasm; a owering gum.

Along the side of the house, a line of espaliered young apple trees leads to a north-facing backyard, where raised garden beds and fruit trees, including lemon and lime, peach and nectarine, share space with a “struggling” avocado tree and a magnificent flowering gum.

Monique’s vegie-gardening journey, now shared by some 22,800 followers on Instagram, has been a matter of learning from the ground up. “Vegie gardening kind of skipped a generation. My mum loved her garden but couldn’t spend as much time in it as she would have liked,” she says. “My grandfather on my father’s side was a big vegie grower – he had his own bees and chickens, and grew all his own food, including on the vacant block behind his house! He passed away when I was quite young, but you could say it’s in the blood.

“When my mum moved into our family home before I was born, it had been a market garden. My mum was a flower gardener, like her mum, so she converted it into a fairly formal garden, with lots of Japanese box hedging, seaside daisies and lavender planted in rows, which is quite beautiful. I guess she was quite lucky as the soil had been taken care of for so many years that everything she planted thrived.”

Not so for Monique, who was faced with an unforgiving sandy soil, with few nutrients and no water retention. “Initially, it resulted in a few casualties,” she admits. “I remember saying to Mum, ‘What did

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP

In summer, Tromboncino zucchini and spaghetti squash ourish in these raised beds; tomatoes supported by homemade wire cages grow next to several varieties of basil; a pretty purple harvest of Black Genoa

g and eggplants – Listada di Gandia, Little Fingers and Violetta di Firenze; bees love the

owering lamb’s ears under this citrus tree; Golden Nugget pumpkins are a favourite for Monique as they grow on a compact vine, although they quickly ate the 12 she grew, so she’s planning to grow more next summer.

you have to do to your soil all those years ago?’ and she said, ‘Absolutely nothing!’”

a growing passion

Monique taught herself by reading plenty of books and finding information online. “I’ve watched endless YouTube videos and read endless articles,” she says. “There’s a great gardening community on Instagram, with lots of very supportive people, who are sharing their experiences. Now I’m doing the same for other people, too.”

Her husband also proved to be an invaluable resource. “Jay has helped me a lot. He’s from a farming background, so he had a strong foundation of knowledge to share with me,” she says. “When I first planted a garden bed, he told me off for not having the soil level; that the water wouldn’t drain properly. I thought – what?! But I’d say now – insert cheesy grin – my knowledge has surpassed his!”

After plenty of hard graft enriching her soil with compost sourced from local suppliers, aged manures, organic fertilisers and homemade compost from her own three bins, as well as practising crop rotation, Monique transformed her arid dirt into rich, productive soil.

In the process, Monique’s interest quickly turned from flowers to edible produce, starting modestly with a few herbs, leafy greens, and a single tomato and zucchini plant. “I still have the memory etched in my brain of the first time I ate something I’d grown myself – a tomato. I was just so happy,” she recalls. “The flavour blew me away. I had such a sense of pride and accomplishment. From there, my passion for gardening grew. Growing food for my family is so rewarding.”

Now, she grows more than enough produce to share with her friends and neighbours, too. “This season, I had 20 tomato plants,” she says. “I still have a freezer full of tomatoes from summer. You can freeze them whole and they keep their colour. They’ll lose their structure, though, so they’ll be soft when you defrost them, but they’re great to add to curries, sauces and soups. Or if I’m doing a roast, I’ll add them to the vegetables in the pan. I also have lots of citrus at the moment, so I’ll slice and dehydrate them in the sun or in the oven and save them for

G&Ts in the summer!”

feeling the heat

In Adelaide’s predominantly Mediterranean climate, with its hot, dry summers and mild winters with only moderate rainfall, Monique also has to deal with the threat of heat stress on her crops. And it’s been getting pretty extreme recently…

The fiery summer of 2019–20 was a particularly tough one. “I remember one night that it was 39.9˚C at midnight,” says Monique. “It hadn’t cooled down at all. That was a busy week in the garden, trying to keep everything alive.”

To cool things down, she has not only relied on traditional methods, but also come up with some of her own. “It starts with the soil – building it up to improve water retention. Cow manure really retains moisture. Plus, I add thick layers of mulch and use shadecloth to protect plants,” she says. “In extreme heat, I’ve also been known to put out ice packs or ice blocks in the morning, sitting them on top of the mulch to help keep roots cool!”

As for pests, Monique utilises crop rotation, companion planting and exclusion netting or bags to protect fruit. “But when possums want to eat something, there’s nothing you can do,” she says. “Generally, though, they hang out in the big gum tree, and when that’s flowering, they’ll leave the garden alone. Our fig will be a new challenge, as it’s only recently been transplanted from a pot into the ground. The birds tend to leave things alone – although they like berries – but the dog helps out with that!”

Globe artichokes make an easy-care and very handsome addition to the patch, writes PHIL DUDMAN

Could there be a more attractive edible to grow? Globe artichoke is a herbaceous perennial that could easily hold its own in a colourful herbaceous border, with its deeply toothed silvery-grey foliage and bold, ball-shaped flower buds. The buds are the bits you eat; if you let them open up, you’ve left it too late. But not all is wasted, as the mature, thistle-like blooms are a striking purple, and insects love them!

Globe artichokes can be grown in all areas except the tropics. They like plenty of sun and plenty of room, as they can grow up to 1.5m tall and wide when in full production. These plants must have good drainage. Enrich soil with plenty of compost and manure, and create mounds for planting if the soil is heavy. Growing them in either mounds or raised beds is particularly essential in subtropical areas, where heavy summer rainfall can knock them about (they prefer a drier summer).

You can start them from seed, but it’s better to buy a few small plants from a nursery, or find yourself some offshoots from an established plant. If you have a friend who grows globe artichokes, ask them for one. They’re easy to remove and transplant. Find an offshoot that’s about 15–20cm long. Simply push a sharp spade between the offshoot and the main plant, dig it out then trim off some of the older leaves to prepare it for planting.

Now is a great time to plant globe artichokes, but if you are in a frosty area, wait until spring, after the risk of frost has passed. Keep new plants moist, and liquid-feed once a fortnight for the first few months to help them get established. Mulch well.