Grow It, Know It.
28 Marchl 2025 By Carin Clegg, APD
When I went to my first Permaculture Central Coast gathering I was introduced to the concept of a seed bank and swapping edible plants. Ever since then, I have been giving plants, cuttings and seeds to as many people as I can.
The main reason I do this is that I believe our food system has become broken and so has our relationship with food. Despite so much information at our fngertips, we have lost so much food knowledge, and with that, a connection, appreciation, love and value for fresh, nutritious food.
Most of us now rely on people we do not know, to grow our food, at a place not close to where we live. We don’t know what the plant looks like through its life cycle, let alone how to care for it, harvest or check when it is ripe (before or after harvest?). We have lost the knowledge of how to cook the harvest in many ways with a bumper crop.
Today fresh fruit and vegetables come pre-prepared and packaged; we do not even need to touch them when we cook. It is common to open a packet and dump some veggies in the pot or just reheat a pre-prepared meal in a rush to get food on the table. Eating this way often means the types of fresh foods like vegetables offered at the family meal table are limited. Kids do not learn about their food and therefore do not enjoy eating a wide variety of foods to pass healthy habits onto the next generation.
The second reason I give seeds and edible plants is that there are so many benefits of growing your own food.
Improving everyone's health
From almost every room of my house I can see some kind of food growing, and this inspires me to cook the foods I see, eat and share them. When you grow your own food, you increase the availability of these foods in your diet and in the diets of those people around you, without having to look at numbers or ingredients list on a screen or packet. This benefits everyone’s physical and mental health.
Reduce waste and save money
Home food gardening greatly reduces our food miles, carbon footprint and food waste, so great for a sustainable future!
If you grow your own food you are less likely to waste it and the other foods you buy as you have experienced how much time, energy and effort it requires to grow food.
When you compost your food waste, and use this garden gold on your edible garden, it also reduces overall food cost as well as wastage.
Physical activity
Having a garden is a bit like having a home gym, as long as you use the correct manual handling procedures: bend your knees, keep your chest upright and squeeze your tummy muscles.
Connect with Nature
In a world of screens, so many social connections and things to do. Simply getting out and connecting with our natural world can be so valuable for our mental health and spiritual well-being.
Here are some of my favourite easy to grow edible plants:
- Shallot and leeks
Chop 2cm off the end with the root and plant. For shallots snip the green ends as needed. Allow them to go to seed in summer, collect the seeds and replant.
- Parsley
Self seeds all over my garden (front and back) and due to the varying microclimates I never run out of parsley.
- Perrenial basil
A great pollinator attracting and hardy plant. Cuttings make roots really easily in water too.
- Celery, lettuce, rocket, silverbeet and spinach
Great pick as you go plants and self seeds abundantly.
- Beans including snow peas, peas and sugar snap peas
Fantastic for vertical spaces.
- Capsicum and chillis
Plant once and get a couple of years out of it
- Asparagus
Plant once and get a few years out of it before you need to divide the plant for more asparagus!
- Sweet potato
As long as you have a big space these grow quite well and help to break up clay soil.
- Native raspberry
Low maininence, disease resistant and less spiky than the normal raspberry.
- Choko
Low maintinence, disease resistant and will give you a bumper harvest.
- Madagascar or white beans
A perennial plant that needs a large trellis. You can pick and eat the beans fresh or dry and store for soaking and cooking later.
- Oyster Mushrooms
Easy to grow in buckets indoors, especially over winter
If you are interested in growing your own food, get inspired and check out Carin's garden, Everything IncrEdible and the many other gardens in the Central Coast Edible Garden Trail, 3rd and 4th May. Find out what grows well in your area. Pick up some seeds, cuttings and plants, learn a lot more about the foods you eat and make a difference to the health of our whole community.