The harsh realities of gardening: brown, burnt leaves after this week’s Frostageddon; the coldest end to winter in sixty years for Melbourne. Everything recovers and looks glorious by late December but this is why I don’t let first time visitors see my garden until summer (unless they’re into gothic hellscapes of traumatised tropical plants) #frostdamage #frostageddon #latefrost #fickleweather #thistooshallpass #seasonalchange #tropicalplantsinmelbourne #pleasewarmup #plantsaretough

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This is what a paddock of parsley looks like (top) with lines of hydroponic greenhouse mint (bottom left), all grown in suburban Melbourne at Butler Market Gardens. Most of us grow our own herbs (😬) but if we ever (hypothetically) have to buy them from the supermarket most of the time they’ve come from here. Rick Butler took my William Angliss class around the Heatherton farm and packing facilities today and had a clear message that increased demand for herbs has made their sixth generation operation viable once again. He also made the students wear hair nets #urbanagriculture #marketgarden #fieldgrown #hydroponics #protectedcropping #sandyloam #parsley #mint #virtuesignalling #hairnets #excellentguide

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It was a baptism of hail and cold for our first Farmers Market at Alphington! But hardy customers bought plenty of produce from the Burnley Market Garden crew and we were saved by the free breakfast from @miranda_sharp123. I sold Taro to a scientist who had worked on Taro viruses in Queensland and the Pacific for many years but was keen to eat some again! Let’s do this again @plantsandfronds and @kirstyed #alphingtonfarmersmarket #melbournefarmersmarkets #studentsworkinghard #urbanagriculture #novelcrops #bloodycold #chillfactor #characterbuilding #notenoughlayers #morecoffeeneeded #happycustomer

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A world of brassicas at the Northcote Pool kitchen garden. Before long we’ll be down there planting summer crops but meanwhile it’s a classic cabbage patch #wintercrops #cabbagepatch #brassicas #urbanagriculture #northcoteaquaticandrecreationcentre #kitchengarden #timeforaswim #mixingbusinesswithpleasure

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Guys, for the last time eat the bugs not the brassicas! Meanwhile these lush crops are heading to @melbournefarmersmarkets this Sunday August 19 at Alphington, grown by students from @burnleymarketgarden in my subject Horticulture for Sustainable Communities. There’ll be kale, romanesco broccoli, Yacon, carrots, Oca and Taro in the mix. Come on down between 9.00am and 1.00pm! #burnleyfieldstation #urbanagriculture #farmersmarkets #australianwoodduck #studentproject #enoughalready #tolerant #iloveducks

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American Ground Nuts are tubers on stringy roots, produced from a climbing legume. They thrive in wet, poorly drained soils. They are slightly nutty and sweet at the same time, slightly drier than potatoes. I thoroughly recommend them #apiosamericana #hopniss #nativeamericanfood #nativeplantsofnorthamerica #tubers #naturalcarbs #legumes #perennialedibles #novelcrops #panc #riparianplants #easytogrow

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These Malabar Gourds are alarmingly heavy! The vines survive and even thrive through winter and are used as rootstock for greenhouse cucumbers because they’re indestructible; I’ve eaten them when they’re young and they were delicious as were the shoots - these monsters will end up in student cooking prac where we may take to them with an axe as recommended by @erictoensmeier in Perennial Vegetables! #curcubitaficifolia #malabargourd #perennialvegetables #novelcrops #panc #burnleyhorticulturalcollege #heavylifting #bigveggies

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