“[Now] it’s taken over my life \u2026 if I can’t sleep at night then I’m planning the next project.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
It was a time when many Australians started gardening<\/a> and the sale of herbs and vegetables shot up<\/a> around the country.<\/p>\n Several years on, Ms Earl’s garden is in full-bloom.<\/p>\n She said it now contained everything from rhubarb to peanuts.<\/p>\n “I think the only thing that I haven’t got is celeriac,” she said.<\/p>\n “I have everything in there. I just like growing things.”<\/p>\n There’s always a vegetable or fruit ready to be picked. (ABC South West WA: Dominique Bayens)<\/p>\n ‘As long as they enjoyed it’<\/p>\n Ms Earl’s garden is so impressive, it often attracts the attention of passers-by including international tourists exploring WA’s premier wine region.<\/p>\n She said sometimes she invited people in but other times strangers wandered through unaware they had stumbled onto private property.<\/p>\n “They \u2026 find me there and say, ‘What a lovely community garden’ and then I have to tell them it’s actually my garden. Some people are quite surprised,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n she said. Ms Earl says the garden produces enough food to keep her pantry full and her chickens fed. (ABC South West WA: Dominique Bayens)<\/p>\n “They pick and have a look and have their kids in there \u2026 it can be quite funny sometimes.<\/p>\n “When I’m not here and somebody is doing something in my garden they’ll say, ‘These people came through and these people came through’.<\/p>\n “I’ll say, ‘Oh well, I don’t know who they are but as long as they enjoyed it.’<\/p>\n “I don’t mind people having a look.”<\/p>\n Any leftover produce will be pickled or given away. (ABC South West WA: Dominique Bayens)<\/p>\n ‘Superwoman’ of the veggie patch<\/p>\n Trevor Paddenburg, who runs an Edible Garden festival in the region, said he had knocked on Ms Earl’s door after noticing her “conspicuous” garden.<\/p>\n “It’s like having a verge garden but on steroids because it is so open and Helen is so welcoming,” he said.<\/p>\n “I would call her a superwoman when it comes to growing food, she’s got so much experience and so much wisdom.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Trevor Paddenburg says Ms Earl’s garden is a great example of how to grow food on a suburban block. (Supplied: Trevor Paddenburg)<\/p>\n After inviting the keen green thumb to showcase her garden in the festival, he said it was “a hit” with punters.<\/p>\n “It’s an incredible thing that people can just see what she is up to and that she is so willing to share,” Mr Paddenburg said.<\/p>\n “The more we can inspire people to grow things and be more sustainable, the better.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It isn’t unusual for Helen Earl to find strangers wandering through her backyard and admiring her garden that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[5554,1117,77006,77011,728,13537,13538,77008,38788,77014,51172,31920,60802,77010,77007,77009,70,8794,16,15,77013,77012],"class_list":{"0":"post-187734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-community","9":"tag-covid-19","10":"tag-cowaramup","11":"tag-edible-garden","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-garden","14":"tag-gardening","15":"tag-grow-peanuts","16":"tag-growing","17":"tag-growing-fruit-and-vegetables","18":"tag-hobby","19":"tag-locals","20":"tag-lockdown","21":"tag-margaret-river","22":"tag-peanuts","23":"tag-rhubarb","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-tourists","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-vegetable-patch","29":"tag-veggie-patch"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114690419990728977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n