Whether to kill time throughout the lockdowns or save money during the current cost-of-living crisis, more and more folk around the world have taken to growing their own produce. But gardening guru Kath Irvine says that Kiwis were already well ahead of the curve.
“When I started out landscaping in the 90s, it was hard work convincing people to grow food,” she tells Verve. “I hung in there by letting go of my edible focus and accepting organic was the next big step for everybody, believing food would follow off the back of a toxic food growing system. And it has. Community gardens and school gardens sprung up, and it became more mainstream to question our methods of growing food and linking it to disease. Previously it’d been considered a hippy or alternative thing.”
Kath is famed for her ‘practical, down-to-earth advice’, which she shares in her book Edible Backyard. With over 20 years’ experience, she’s an advocate for all-natural, low input gardens that recycle and reuse and use as little plastic as possible to deliver a “daily serve of fresh organic green for a happy mind and strong body”.
“Many people come to me following a health scare, looking to slow down, and incorporate homegrown and organic as cornerstone of their healing journey. By 2010 I was able to focus entirely on edible gardening and by time 2020 rolled around it was a strong movement in NZ with lots of incredible people leading the charge.”
Traditionally, those taking in interest in gardening had tended to be mostly women aged over 45, but there’s now a good cross section of society finding their green fingers.
“It’s so exciting to witness this groundswell,” says Kath. “Fresh-picked organic food and time spent outside is at the heart of our wellness.”
What should everyone have in their garden over the holiday period, and start thinking about for the season ahead?
“Ideally your garden grows the things you love best to eat! For me it has to be basil, corn, summer squash, and tomatoes. A gardener is always looking ahead. A broccoli, for example, takes a goodly three months to head up so if you want continuity of supply keep planting – a few new things a week will see you right.”
Kath advises that those just embarking on their gardening journey should consider starting with leafy greens and herbs which are “a brilliant base for loads of good meals and totally doable even for a busy person”.
“There’s a huge variety of leafy greens available and I recommend you grow them all!” she adds. “Crisp, spicy, and bitter salad greens of different colours, as well as a variety of cooking greens – it’s the very best kai, easy to grow and jammed with nutrition when fresh picked. You just can’t buy nourishing greens unless you go to a farmers’ market.”
For city dwellers with less room in the backyard, Kath says that it’s essential to get to know your space intimately. Things to consider include finding where the sun hits at different parts of the day throughout the year, where the wind blows, and where frost sits.
“Once you’ve identified all the sunny sheltered spots put up trellises or frames as tall as you can on the south side and send all the climbers up – cucumbers, melons, beans tomatoes, small squash – perhaps training fruit trees into two dimensions or even over arches. There’s so much fun to be had here! Twine climbers through trees – beans like growing with apples in my garden.”
Kath also suggests ‘intercropping’ as a way of making the most of limited space, a technique that sees new seedlings planted beneath finishing crops which allows the younger ones to “get their grow on” while harvesting the older ones, resulting in “a lot less downtime in the garden”.
Another tip is to ditch the sprays and fertilisers, even the organic stuff.
“Though they may provide an instant fix, the collateral damage is great, and the irony is that the more you add, the more you need to add because you’ve interrupted the living soil organisms who have the job totally in hand.
“Soil life is at the heart of our gardens’ wellness and by supporting it with gentle natural inputs like seaweed, leaves, herbs, and manure, little and often, and always keeping the soil covered, we create gardens that not only experience less disease and pests but crop more abundantly. It takes a bit of unbundling and relearning, but you’ll find it’s really simple. More importantly it works!”
The key is to regain our trust in natural processes – and the benefits go beyond a bounty of edible harvest.
“There’s nothing better than a yard full of flowers and produce and bees and butterflies and fragrance and medicine and cups of tea,” says Kath. “It’s your own little ecosystem to which you belong.”
