Get Growing for Summer

by Peta Hen

With the release of her new book, Good Life Growing, we caught up with garden guru Hannah Moloney to get her hot growing takes for the warmer months.

What are the benefits of growing our own produce at home? There are so many! Your physical and mental health can improve, once established you can save money, and I 100% promise you’ll have a deep happy warm feeling in your soul every time you harvest and eat some produce from your own patch.

What fruit and veg should we be planting in Tassie now things are warming up? Tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, carrots, beetroots, beans, onions, potatoes, salads – so many things!

What can people do if they don’t have room for a veggie patch and still want to grow their own fruits and vegetables? Embrace the humble garden pot and grow a few things on your doorstep or courtyard. Alternatively, you can grow fresh sprouts in your kitchen sink or save your carrot/beetroot/celery stubs, place them in a shallow dish of water and harvest the fresh leaves that’ll grow back!

What is your one hot tip for protecting our garden in warmer months? Instant protection can come in the form of some shade cloth draped over some type of framework to protect young/sensitive annuals on hot days. Long term, you can actually grow seasonal shade in the form of deciduous trees or quick-growing climbing plants like hops or runner beans.

What can we do around the garden to deter snakes? The main thing to know is that snakes are lovely and need a happy home just like we do. But if you’d like them to live somewhere else, then keep any ponds away from your house/garden (or don’t have any) as they can attract snakes.

What can we plant that’s both pretty and edible? I’m a fan of calendula, borage, sweet alyssum, heartsease and nasturtiums as they’re all selfseed and pop up all over the place. You can eat all their flowers in salads, plus the nasturtiums also have edible leaves and seed pods. I’ve also planted around 50 dahlia plants this season which I recently found out are edible – I’m yet to try them, but can report back 🙂

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