Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“I LIVE above a Woolworths, but I have my own supermarket on my balcony.”
So said former ABC and SBS newsreader Indira Naidoo when she gave a presentation at the weekend’s South Coast Field Days in Bega.
In front of a packed venue, Ms Naidoo passionately discussed becoming an urban gardener, her books and her dream of turning the lawns of Parliament House into a vegetable garden.
When her first book on urban gardening, titled The Edible Balcony, was released she said she was just known as “the crazy lady who used to read the news and is now growing things on her balcony”.
However, since then she said momentum has grown and there is now more of a general awareness about the need for people to grow their own food.
“Most consumers just look at a cost when it comes to food, but we can’t keep on looking at food that way,” Ms Naidoo said.
She said people need to start thinking about such ethical factors as how much damage the production of that food has caused to the environment and whether or not farmers of the produce are getting a good deal.
She learnt many important things about food systems when she started to grow her own produce on the balcony of her Sydney apartment.
Ms Naidoo said one of the most important things to take into account as an urban gardener is how to use your vertical space.
Most of the plants she grows start from seeds and she usually uses heirloom varieties, “as most of them taste better”.
Ms Naidoo also discussed the movement to create roof-top gardens in cities.
She said in the US some roof-top farms cover about one hectare.
Also, she said in Manhattan there about 90 applications a week to make green roofs.
Australia, she said, is unfortunately behind in this respect as there are no roof-top farms in the country.
