Garden grower opens backyard

A PROMINENT food gardener will open up his Soldiers Hill space to the public this weekend, offering gardening tips for the summer.

John Ditchburn, author of the Urban Food Garden blog will be on hand from 9am to 4pm on Sunday, 8 January, to give attendees advice on how best to grow their garden over the warmer months.

Having maintained his food garden for more than 30 years, Mr Ditchburn said he’ll have a wealth of experience to divulge to attendees for a $5 entry cost.

“I’ll talk food gardening until the cows come home,” he said.

“I think it’s a fairly good example of home food gardening. It’s not a Home Beautiful Gardens Australia garden but it’s functional.

“It has 20-odd fruit trees, a large vegetable patch, two greenhouses on a 1100 square-metre plot.”

Mr Ditchburn’s gardening output comprises most of his regular food supply, and includes eggplant, capsicum, zucchini, basil in the greenhouses while things like brassicas, pumpkins and apples are grown outside.

Funds from the open day will go towards maintaining the Urban Food Garden blog, which Mr Ditchburn said is tailored towards growing food specifically within the Ballarat climate.

The open day will be Mr Ditchburn’s first public use of his garden in two years, having previously used the site to host gardening design, seed and vegetable-growing workshops before the pandemic.

Alongside his blog, he was a founding member of the Ballarat Community Garden.

Mr Ditchburn said he hopes his open day will provide people with the answers to whatever food gardening issues they’re having.

“It’s about engaging people in helping them to grow their own food. I’m not talking about self-sufficiency; I prefer to use the term ‘supplificiency’,” he said.

“That means growing a supplementary diet with as efficiently as you can. This is to get people out there and enthused gardening and to assist how I can.”