A Green Granny's Garden - a year of the good life in Grey Lynn.
The confessions of a novice urban gardener.
Fionna Hill
After seeing a display on community gardening at the Grey Lynn Festival, Fionna Hill was hooked. Living in urban Auckland had severely limited Fionna’s gardening options. While she could manage window boxes of microgreens, she yearned for more space — and she was utterly delighted to eventually find herself with a plot in the Grey Lynn Community Gardens.
A Green Granny’s Garden is the diary of Fionna’s first year in a vegetable allotment in a New Zealand city community garden. ‘I was a novice gardener learning the ropes with a bunch of young organic permaculture enthusiasts who diligently lived by their code. It was an eye-opener,’ admits Fionna. ‘The gardening experience with my new gardening friends was enriching and honest. They are marvellous characters. Some of their rules are too stringent for me, but we survived and I love my wee garden in their space.’
A Green Granny’s Garden is full of Fionna’s plant stories, people stories, observations, successes and failures, feasts and famines, bugs and bites, shared pot luck meals, experiences and learning curves.‘Mistakes and disasters are all part of the process, and you always have next season to get it right,’ she says, ‘I gardened through all the seasons, and have eaten vegetables from the gardens every since beginning my gardening adventure.’
A Green Granny’s Garden covers the preparation and eating of the harvest, including recipes, produce gathered from elsewhere, heritage seeds, companion planting, ornamental edibles, and the microgreens and herbs grown on Fionna’s second-floor apartment balcony. ‘I was brought up by hardworking kiwi parents who lived through the Depression. They gardened: Mum preserved fruit, vegetables and more; Dad was our home handyman and could turn his talents to many things. I have inherited some of mum’s frugal habits and have her dog-eared Aunt Daisy’s Book of Handy Hints, which I sometimes consult.’
This is a book for gardeners and non-gardeners alike, as Fionna’s endearing and honest account of her experience makes for a warm and witty read. Fionna Hill is an exuberant, vivacious gardener with an enormous zest for life. An experienced writer, she is also a professional florist and stylist. ©
Published September 2010
Price $39.99
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