Moving closer to a dense urban area often comes at the cost of garden and green space. But with creative planning, you can still have a productive and beautiful patch, even when you haven't got a lot of room to move. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
Hannah visits self-taught gardeners in South Hobart who have made the most of a small urban garden, producing food year-round.

Vivienne Luke and partner Des moved here nine years ago after a decision to downsize from a larger property twenty kms out of town. “We were faced with the conundrum; how do you make a garden in a space like this?” says Vivienne. The previous garden was much bigger, with rich soil, flat aspect, and lots of sun. “It was wonderful... (Moving here), we wanted a vegetable garden, some fruit trees and a native garden, but we didn’t know what was possible.”

The outdoor space that wraps around Vivian and Des’ unit is only 150 square meters. The narrow sides are jam-packed with raised and inground vegie beds, climbers up the wall, fruit trees and a lovely native corner. And the unit balcony is now being consumed by pot plants. “I really got into pot plants because I ran out of space, and I wanted more space.” The original planting was hedges of camelias, which were removed in favour of raised vegie beds with inbuilt sitting space. “The height was really important to make it easy for me to use, but also the indentations in the beds make it just so much easier to reach each bed,” says Vivienne of the raised beds which are netted and protected from local pests.

The raspberries are Des’ domain "he isn’t really interested in the rest of the garden, but he loves his raspberries. I call him my sous chef... he gives them tender loving care all year round,” says Vivienne. Des harvests about one punnet a day in the summer and has built the raspberry bed against a Rio mesh structure. Des says, “it’s a very narrow bed, so we have to work hard at keeping them contained.” Vivienne adds, “(raspberries) are invasive, you have to control them, they even pop up in vegetable beds.” To maximise their produce, they’re using all the vertical space. “The beans love it there with the sun. And I discovered you can grow cucumbers vertically, so that’s been a great success,” says Vivienne. This garden has identified and utilised every microclimate that is available. Even the tomatoes are nestled up against a northeast-facing wall, soaking up the warmth.

Vivienne says, “it was one of my dreams to have a Tassie native garden... it’s a lovely place to come for quiet time” and is inspired by the variety of native flowers, perfumes and the symbiotic relationship between plants and birds. “Even just the smell of the leaves, there’s just nothing like it” says, Vivienne. The garden includes Banksia marginata, leptospermums, Pomaderris, Allocasuarina, low growing correas and a Eucalyptus caesia all designed in a layered wild planting for maximum impact and seclusion.

With tips on how to best use a small space for gardening, Vivienne says, “one of the crucial things is the orientation of the property, to maximise the sun. The other is spacing, and most important of all, grow what you want to eat. The things that you love are what you need to grow, it’s life-giving. I love getting out in the garden, I love watching it evolve... I can disappear into this space for hours and feel a lot better at the end of it.” It's important with limited space like this to do some planning around the amount of soil and sun you have, and to choose the right size plants so you can have easy access. And if you do happen to have a few failures along the way, don't worry. You’re still another step towards garden glory.

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