A bunch of beetroot
My brother Stew is a mad keen veggie gardener. He even has his own Youtube channel all about growing veggies. You can check it out here. Stew’s garden draws you along paths and through gates and up little side paths to discover a delightful, rambling, eclectic yard full of surprises.
I made a comment to Stew that “For a Veggie Gardener you have a lot of beautiful flowers”. He said, “Yeah, well, it’s more like a cottage Potager/ish Garden, which is a bit like a flower garden with veggies in it, rather than a traditional veggie patch”.
Apart from a wild and wonderful garden, Stew has a pretty interesting story. Read on to find out a bit more about him and his gardening history.
1. How long have you had this garden?
“It started when my now 27 year old daughter was 6 months old.”
2. How/When did your interest in veggie growing start?
It was childhood labour for a long time with my Dad and I’m surprised it didn’t put me off for life. But when I moved into this garden I started to put a few seedlings in every now and then. Then, when I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, I thought I could eat myself better so I stepped up my veggie growing. Sadly it didn’t work. Then about two years ago I decided I wanted to up my YouTube game so now, with a reputation to maintain, I’ve ramped up the veggie garden to the next level.
Borage for the bees
3. Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?
Yes and yes. I completed a certificate in Horticulture waaaay back in 1990 at the GCIT. There I learnt just enough to get me into trouble and not quite enough to get me out of trouble. So I’ve had to teach my self a lot along the way. Especially as I was learning at the time when chemical use for the control of insects, disease and fertilising was still popular and organic gardening was in its infancy, popularity wise.
The old glider swing boasts a magnificent orchid.
4. Tell me about your association with the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers
Well, I just love it. And a huge influence on me becoming interested in gardening and growing plants. Having little spare time and money I couldn’t have my own ‘Carnival Garden’ but then one day one of my Garden maintenance customers was saying how he’d always wanted to enter the carnival garden comp so I said if he wanted to I’d be happy to help and guide him through it. Very pleased to say we won the Grand Champion garden on several occasions along with a host of other categories as well. After a while we went our own seperate ways and it would be another decade before I had another opportunity to enter into the carnival garden competition again. This time at my current place of employment, Glenvale Villas. Here we’ve enjoyed being awarded one First Place and Four second places.
5. I know you’ve had some health issues. How did/does that impact on your gardening?
Ulcerative Colitis, you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. In the early stages it wasn’t much of an issue and I did give the veggie garden a big push in the hope I could eat myself healthy. But as time progressed my UC became worse and with increased side effects from medication along with some severe lethargy the garden went by the wayside. The only cure for me was an operation to remove my colon which reluctantly I agreed to have (would much rather have had the miracle cure I was waiting for). Anyway, it worked and after some tweaking and finding out what was working and what was not I’m now fairly healthy apart from some fatigue now and then and it’s full steam ahead.
The engine room in the afternoon light. They look frightfully like a bunch of daleks coming towards you.
6. Tell me about your compost bin system.
I don’t remember now how or why I fell in love with the Gedye bin compost system but I did. I’d tried several other ways of composting and none of them were satisfactory to me. I’d had my eye on the Gedye bins for a while and went and bought one which was ok but I thought two would be better which was ok but then I thought four would be better( are you sensing a pattern here?). Well I have eight now but think I could use one or two more yet. They make the best black gold (compost) ever. I just need to keep working and turning to get the system to make compost fast enough for the amount of compost I need for the veggie garden. And I use a lot of compost hence the amount of bins I have.
7. What are your favourite things to grow
Everything. But the veggies that taste the best grown by your own hand in your own backyard are the ones I like best. I’ll give you a top five.
5. Beans
4. Carrots
3. Tomatoes
2. Onions.
1. Corn .
With corn it’s best to have your water already on the boil (with a teaspoon of salt, if you like) before you go and pick your corn. Then as you are walking back to the kitchen you can clean the cob and then all you need to do is drop it into the boiling water. Just long enough to get some heat into the cob so you can melt a dollop of butter over it. Add a sprinkle of salt and that’s as close to nirvana as you’ll ever get.
8. What’s the hardest thing to grow
Zucchini. And it’s not all that hard to grow but I just can’t get the bloody things to fruit. While everyone else is banging on about the summer ‘zucchini glut’ and how they are going to use them all I’m standing there looking at my zucchini going, ‘zucchini glut? What bloody zucchini glut?’ Anyhow, I’ll persevere and maybe, one day, I’ll get to experience my own zucchini glut.
9. What’s your best gardening tip?
I haven’t got one.
I’ve got two.
1. You need blind faith and persistence.
2. Feed the soil not the plant. If you’ve got good soil you’ll get a good plant. If you’ve got a good plant you’ll get a good crop and then you’ll have good nutritious food to eat.
10. What do you hate most or the hardest thing about veggie gardening.
Watering. It’s time I could use doing other tasks in the garden. We don’t need a lot of rain but we do need some.
11. What do you love about veggie gardening
Seeing seeds that you’ve planted and cared for when they just break the crust of your soil and emerge into the world ready to go. Never ceases to amaze me and it usually comes with a sense of relief as well.
12. Tell me about your favourite gardening tool
Japanese weeding sickle. It’s so good I made a video about it. The best weeding tool on the planet.
13. What veggies have you got growing in your garden at the moment?
Wow, that’s a big list. I’ll give you a top ten.
1. Tomatoes
2. Lettuce
3. Beans
4. Carrots
5. Onions
6. Garlic
7. Radish
8. Silverbeet.
9. Chillies
10. Beetroot
14. What are your veggie garden dreams for the future?
I’d like to get 2 to 5 acres of nice land where I can become self sufficient in fruit and veg and every Sunday toddle off to the local markets with whatever excess I have on a flash looking old truck. Something like this one. Also a similar goal is to have the same as above but have a small cafe on the land somewhere where as much as possible comes served up comes fresh from the farm.
If you got this far it would be great if you could press the little heart in the corner to give the post a ‘like’ so I know you’ve stopped by. Or you could leave a comment or ask a question. And if you want to check out Stew’s YouTube channel and subscribe, here’s the link again. Stewart Dorman. I Garden
