Rebecca and her son make gardening fun

By Caitlyn Grant

Apr 14, 2022

Happy: Rebecca and Oliver Andersson, 5, in their garden. Photo by Megan Fisher

What began as a blank canvas was no match for Rebecca Andersson’s vision of what her garden would become.

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The Shepparton North garden began when Mrs Andersson’s son Oliver was born five years ago.

Although no longer pregnant, Mrs Andersson still had cravings, but this time it was for shade and the need to no longer look at Colorbond fences.

“My plan was to have flowers, all-year round hot pink flowers,” she said.

Hot pink: Bees love the hot pink bottlebrush. Photo by Megan Fisher

With five years of hard work, bit by bit the garden has flourished and grown.

Hues of pink camellias, azaleas, bottlebrushes and leucadendrons now adorn the garden, with hot pink catching the eye at every turn.

A canopy of wisteria now expands along trellises. Foxgloves, hollyhock and Chinese star jasmine are among the greenery that stands tall on the outskirts.

Bright: Pink, pink and more pink dots the garden. Photo by Megan Fisher

What was once a barren landscape is now bright with life and a whole lot of produce too.

In what she describes as an “unwieldy and wild” space, Mrs Andersson has also cultivated vegetables of all varieties with Oliver by her side.

Harvesting: Oliver and Rebecca pick some edible plants. Photo by Megan Fisher

“One of the benefits, and it's kind of a permaculture principle, is having your vegies close to your kitchen and living so you see it more often, which means you're more likely to weed it, prune it, pick that thing when it's ripe,” she said.

“I think in the beginning, like most people, I thought the vegie garden tends to be messy, so I'll hide that and I have the pretty stuff out front.

Dinner: Corn is among the plentiful produce. Photo by Megan Fisher

“But I think over the years my idea of what I think is pretty has changed, so the things that I now get really excited about, like food growing, I don't really care so much if it looks unfashionably messy.”

Eggplant: Rich in colour, rich in flavour. Photo by Megan Fisher

In the purely organic plots are plentiful eggplant, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes and the like, much of which decides the meals of the Anderssons.

Everything in the garden has been planted with a steady grasp on permaculture knowledge.

Habitat: Butterflies love the garden and its goodness. Photo by Megan Fisher

Mrs Andersson knows when each plant is ready to flower, how they grow and — an enviable trait of most gardeners — the names of all her plants.

She said the garden’s versatility never stopped evolving.

The lush yard is now a habitat to birds and bees and regularly sees the life-cycles of caterpillars, much of which has been the result of trial and error.

Hungry: A caterpillar climbing a leaf. Photo by Megan Fisher

“The more ground-cover the better, really,” Mrs Andersson said.

“When we started it was just bare soil and I knew I couldn't leave the soil because that's really bad. It gets hydrophobic so it doesn't hold any water.