Growing Vegies in a Box - First Step to a Blue Mountains Food Garden

Lizzie Connor and Sue Girard have been teaching residents of the Blue Mountains the fundamentals of growing vegetables in small containers. I experienced their first workshop at the Festival of Joy 2007 held at the Katoomba Community Gardens. Their combined wealth of knowledge empowered the participants both young and old with the knowledge that it was possible to grow salad vegetables without a garden.

Last month I was invited to participate in another workshop held at Lizzie's Katoomba house on a day that was particularly cold and wet. However, the atmosphere was convivial and both Sue and Lizzie taught us some of the principles of Permaculture and together we helped create 4 boxes of veggies.


On Lizzie's deck, we were able to see previous boxes in different stages of development and a bubble wrap cover invented by Sue that provides protection in harsh environments.









Another workshop will be held in June and online support is available to all at http://www.katoombachamber.com/ (follow the links to Kitchen Gardens and then to Questions and Answers). Sue and Lizzie are both members of the team that monitor the Forum and help answer queries.

Photos by Helena Wong.
Maryanne Bell.