A few years ago I read a great book called One Magic Square by local Adelaide Hills author Lolo Houbein. She wrote about growing vegetables on one square metre of garden and introducing veggie growing to a whole new group of people.
Tori Arbon developed the One Magic Square concept into a season-long programme where people meet together to learn to create their own Magic Square in their own garden. Our local council recently supported groups to do this by subsiding organic seedlings and compost for participants.
I am co-ordinating our local group with a friend. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a suitable community garden to grow the demonstration hub so my front garden now has the hub. We have a group of 17 adults and 2 children who are all growing a square in their own gardens.
Our group ranges from experienced gardeners through to first-time vegetable growers. We planted our squares in early spring and we meet fortnightly to learn from each other. Sometimes we meet at the hub garden and sometimes at other participant’s gardens.
Our gardens are now producing lovely organic vegetables and we are starting to focus on cooking our home-grown vegetables and sharing recipes. At the moment we are sharing zucchini and silverbeet recipes but later on it will be tomatoes! Tori and Lolo recently authored Magic Little Meals, a cookbook based on home-grown produce, so this is a great resource for us.
We are enjoying getting together and talking about our gardens and produce so much that we intend to continue with autumn and winter season vegetables. We would love to have some new groups start so if you are interested please check out the Magic Harvest Facebook page and let Tori know if you are interested in being involved.www.facebook.com/magicharvestbytorimoreton.
