Surviving in the suburbs on the pension.

Surviving in the suburbs on the pension.                                                                         

I have raised this issue with Bob and a few others at different times down at the local. Being on the pension is a tough call if that is all you got.

“I reckon you gotta be able to grow something yourself,” Bob said. “Not like you can get a killer for a carton and skin it in the back shed like we did back in the good old days. Or have your own chooks and get a rabbit or two now and then.” He complained. “Save a few quid if there was a way pensioners could get vegies or something that was easy.”

“I heard of a bloke in Gero who is doing something like that, “I said.

“Well, why don’t you go and ask him?” Bob answered.

And so I did.

Wilf  hailed from Cockatoo Island in the North, been a crocodile hunter, baker, haul pack driver and a few other things in his career. Now in retirement in Chapman Valley Road, he is growing vegetables, herbs and all good stuff to the extent he and Rose are self sufficient and also supply friends and family with much needed clean, untainted produce.

Wilf told me it started when they tried to grow plants around a paper bark tree out the front yard. It’s roots chocked out the plants. That is what gave him the idea of putting them up into boxes and pots. And it worked.

Mustard, basil, wild rocket, parsley grew strongly.  Onions that grow in boxes which are kept up on a bench because of lack of sun low down are thriving. Wilf blanches broccoli when it is ready and there is enough for them for twelve months. People come and get chillies, they all like chillies grown by Wilf. His tomatoes are in small pots which can be moved around to be in the sun during the day. Sweet potatoes are also grown in small pots with a lighter soil base. The potatoes are harvested by moving the soil aside with his hands and breaking the potato off the base of the plant stem and then it is allowed to continue growing. Fresh runners are broken off and people take them away to plant.

Out the back yard cabbages grow at four plants to the box, six are no good because the sun can’t get around them and they don’t have hearts. As the cabbages mature they all lie over to the sides and grow better that way. Spinach and beetroot, silver beet, radishes and more onions are in their respective boxes standing on thin trestles.

He found that by putting about six inches of plain sand in the bottom of the box or pot, then adding organic sheep manure, organic garden soil conditioner or organically compounded sugar cane, which he buys in, the plants respond well. He then lightly covers the surface with a sugar cane mulch and waters in thrive fertilizer mix of two heaped measures to nine litres of water. The plants are watered with a watering can to save water. Any bugs he kills off by hand and because the pots are well off the ground other predators are kept to a minimum. When the boxes are not in use he puts a lid on them and leaves them in the shed till next season, which gives the soil time to compost.

 

We discussed his work over a cuppa and he said although it took time to do, it wasn’t hard work and at his age, he really enjoyed gardening and eating the fruits of his labour. Anyone can do what Wilf