The Urban Agrarian

The generosity of broccoli It took me a long time to give broccoli a place in my garden. It seemed like such a large plant for such a small harvest. All those leaves and such a small edible head; not worth the space it would take up in my small patch where space is premium. Or so I thought. When my kids were [...]

Room for a lemon tree When we first bought this house, over twenty years ago now, I wondered how I’d survive with such a small garden. We’d come here from a rambling homestead on a country acre. In some ways, I was right – I have often struggled to feel as if a small suburban block (436 square metres all told) is enough space [...]

A yellow rose was blooming in my sister’s garden as we sat on her patio drinking tea and talking. I listened to my sister’s voice and looked at the rose, its velvet petals gently uncurling, releasing scent onto the autumn air. The rose brought to mind another yellow rose, one that bloomed for years in my mother’s garden. She grew it from a slip she took from a wreath on my brother’s coffin and she called it the Rose of GD, in his honour. It had small flowers and not much scent, but it was a pretty rose. She kept it in a pot by her back door and tended it carefully, as a mother tends a son … read more »

There’s a princess in my garden – a Silver Princess. She grows near my driveway and drapes her silver-grey leaves and pendulous pink blossoms across the parked cars. Beautiful as she is, I need to trim her enthusiasm … read more »