Sustainable Living and Gardening on the Go | An Interview with LiveSimplyWithGrace

An interview with Grace from LiveSimplyWithGrace on Instagram
Instagram: @livesimplywithgrace

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More about this episode:


Have you ever looked at a flourishing garden and felt a deep connection to the earth? Grace from Live Simply with Grace certainly has, and she's bringing that love for the soil to a life on wheels. We got the chance to sit down with this remarkable eco-warrior to bring you the insights of maintaining a sustainable lifestyle amidst the adventures of travel. Grace's story began in the roots of her family garden and blossomed into a vibrant online community, where she now shares her journey and passion for organic living, no matter where the road takes her.

Turning kitchen scraps into eco-friendly treasure while touring the country might seem like a magic trick, but it's all in a day's work for travellers like us. We chat about the wonders of bokashi composting, an innovation that's shaking up how we deal with waste on the go. The ShareWaste app became our compass, guiding us to local compost hubs and connecting us with fellow environmental stewards. It's not just about reducing our carbon footprint; it's a movement to safeguard our planet and cultivate a sense of community, one fermented bin at a time.

The art of gardening is a dance with nature, demanding both grace and grit. In our exchange, we unearth the parallels between nurturing our gardens and nourishing our lives. We share tales of pest woes, celebrate the victories of natural remedies, and honour the humble lessons that our green endeavors have taught us. Whether it's adjusting our sails when the winds of life shift or marveling at the resilience of a tiny seed, this episode is a testament to the growth that comes from getting your hands dirty and your heart invested in the land. Join us as we weave through these stories, offering tips, laughter, and a whole lot of green-thumb wisdom.

'How I Grow' is produced by The Seed Collection Pty Ltd.
Find out more about us here: www.theseedcollection.com.au

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to how I Grow with the Seed Collection. My name is Gemma and today I'll be speaking with Grace, from Living Simply with Grace on. Instagram. Grace is a passionate gardener who began documenting her gardening escapades on social media as Gardening. With Grace Now living and traveling full time around Australia with her family, she is dedicated to living sustainably in the face of climate change. Hi Grace, and thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Hi Gemma, how are you? Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I'm very excited.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Oh, it's our pleasure. I can't wait to learn more about your adventures. I've been checking your Instagram and I'm genuinely inspired by your posts.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Thank you. It's a very great way to live, where we're really happy that we made this decision.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Oh, it sounds amazing. But before I pick your brains about being a traveling gardener and eco warrior, could I start with what got you into gardening and why it's important to you?

Speaker 2: 0:59

Yeah, so I started gardening with my family. So my dad was a fantastic gardener. He was living off his own produce way before. It was cool and yeah, so I just grew up seeing that as the norm, having giant worm farms, and he was growing these fantastic vegetables. So my first introduction to what vegetables look like were passion fruit you know, the size of big baseballs and, yeah, just beautiful leafy greens and worm juice. And so I was always, I guess, inspired by that, without really knowing. And then my mom was a gardener too.

Speaker 2: 1:48

But then, yeah, I grew up and moved out of home and started gardening in a crappy rental in Melbourne and that's where I started posting things on social media. None of my friends were gardening because I was 18. So it was very much seen as an older person activity then, I suppose within my friendship group anyway. So, yeah, that's why I started a different Instagram, because no one wanted to see my tomatoes, funnily enough. And, yeah, I just met this amazing community on Instagram and there's so many dark parts of social media, but I saw the beautiful side of meeting other gardeners and learning from them and communicating with them about mildew and all of the issues that I was experiencing and yeah, so that really encouraged my gardening journey even further, because I felt like I had other people to garden with, even though in my physical circle not many people were gardening. But, yeah, and I've continued to garden until, yeah, we left our home.

Speaker 1: 3:03

Oh, fantastic, and it's really great to hear that you're challenging the stereotype on gardening too, getting young people more involved and encouraging that on social media. I think that's really brilliant.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Yeah, I think it's taken off on TikTok as well. I'm not on TikTok, but I think Epic Gardening is an American Instagram and TikToker and I think he's got millions of followers and a lot of them are young people, so it's exciting. It's exciting that it's becoming a fun and enjoyable thing for young people too, and not seen as that, you know, retiree activity.

Speaker 1: 3:39

Yes, very true and important for our planet too, to teach young people care of earth and where your food comes from, food security as well.

Speaker 2: 3:48

Absolutely. And what food is supposed to look like as well. You know the difference between taste and looks of homegrown vegetables. Just do not compare.

Speaker 1: 4:01

No, they are. They're incomparable, aren't they? It's amazing, the difference, mm for sure. So you mentioned you were gardening right up until you left for your travels, so I'm very curious to know what gardening looks like to you now that you're on the road and how you're currently incorporating things that you've learned along your gardening journey into your life today.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Yeah, so I don't have a garden at all. We are living full time in our caravan and traveling around Australia. We've been traveling for eight months now and I'm turning my gaze on things that I can do to live with the same values that I lived with before, where I'm trying not to rely too heavily on big corporations. So that's where I access. My food is huge. We're always looking for farmers, markets and community groups to purchase food, looking for organic fruit and vegetables.

Speaker 2: 5:07

The more I learn about pesticide use on industrial farming, it just makes me more and more passionate about learning about where your food comes from. So, even if you aren't gardening, it's about supporting people who are gardening and people who are gardening in a way that's going to be good for our planet, and that's people who are doing regenerative farming and organic farming and ideally with permaculture principles, that are not monocropping. It's buying from farmers who have got a big spread of healthy vegetables and that are using companion planting and other techniques to grow their vegetables without sprays and pesticides. We've got a little girl. She's 1 and 1 half and I think all parents must realise this is that you suddenly become so paranoid about what they're putting in their bodies Some that we don't care about what we put in our bodies. Well, we do, but not to the same extent when you have a little child and you're like I want to make sure that I'm only buying organic food.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Yes, I think a lot of parents share that sentiment. I'm a parent myself and I couldn't agree more. It does become a lot more eye-opening when you bring a little one into the world and you realise you know all the things going on that you didn't pay much mind to previously, and particularly the foods. It also helps you become aware of what you yourself are eating and the examples you're setting as well.

Speaker 2: 6:52

Absolutely. It's been fantastic at getting our diets. We're really tip-top making sure that we're having such a spread of food, and iron especially. We're both me and my partner both vegetarian, semi-vegan so, yeah, making sure that our daughter and ourselves are getting all of the nutrients that we need is really, really critical.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Definitely, and you mentioned earlier watching your father garden and inspiring you at the time, without you being particularly aware of it. I think that's one of the best things that we can do for our children is you know, they will do as we do before they do as we say, won't they? And I think, yeah, learning from example, about growing your own food and eating in a healthy manner, creating that kind of environment where that just becomes the foundation, where it's their go-to when they look for foods, and I think that that's a really important thing. So I think it's wonderful what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 7:52

Yeah, it's so nice. We're currently staying with my mum for a few weeks and she has her veggie garden blossoming at the moment. It's summer here in Australia, as you would know, and the tomatoes are just going off. They are. She's got I think she's got a little baby Roma and some cherry tomatoes, and every morning my daughter waddles she's one and a half. She waddles up to the end of the path and she goes Matos, matos and watching her pick them off, and then she had these beautiful blackberries growing as well. They're all finished now, but just you know, gorging her face in these fresh things every morning. It's like, yeah, it's so lovely, I can't wait till we have our own garden again. It's the, it's the one thing we're looking forward to, because I think having kids outside in nature is just, and then growing their own food. There's so many things that they're learning and, yeah, like you said, it's all. It's all that unconscious learning as well.

Speaker 1: 8:56

Yes, 100%. So I think it's fantastic. And then, as they get older too, it can you know it becomes very conscious and most often by choice. Yeah, definitely. Now you said you're looking forward to having your own garden again, I remember you mentioning that while you're traveling Australia, you're looking for your ideal garden. Could you share with us a little bit about what that is to you and your family, about what you're looking for?

Speaker 2: 9:21

Yes. So we are looking for the perfect place to create our own little oasis. We're looking, ideally, for a piece of land If it's got a house, that's a bonus but we're really looking for the land and we're looking to create a home and garden that's based around permaculture principles. So I did this amazing intro to permaculture with Milkwood. Are they Milkwood and Co? Or Milkwood? Anyway, milkwood, something, I can't remember exactly the name. But they have this great intro to permaculture course and so it goes through all of the permaculture principles and you know, permaculture is just that it's 12 principles of how you can build and grow and live. So it's not a framework on just how to garden. It's about how you use water, how you use resources, and it's just kind of a framework for life really. So I've been really inspired by that and we're hoping to create the garden and home that complement each other.

Speaker 2: 10:43

My partner is a carpenter and he's very passionate about sustainable homes.

Speaker 2: 10:49

He's done a passive house course and you know we're looking into earthships and, yeah, different ways to build homes that are one resilient for the future.

Speaker 2: 11:04

We have a terrible climate emergency at the moment, so it's really important that we build homes that are going to be resistant to fires and floods, but also gardens that aren't separate to the home, really using gardens as a part of landscaping to ensure that you've got, you know, windbreaks where you need them, you've got shade where you need it, you have sun where you need it. And, yeah, seeing them as an interconnected process and interconnected thing. It's not your garden, it's not your house, it's your home, the whole property. They all work together and we've been really inspired by people on YouTube that are doing awesome things the Weedy Garden Weedy Gardener. He's awesome. He's doing some great gardening and permaculture growing in the Northern Rivers and yeah, and so we're just looking, looking into that. At the moment, it's just a dream, but our dreams, we like to make them reality, so I definitely think it will be happening in the next few years. So, yeah, keep an eye out.

Speaker 1: 12:20

Oh, that's fantastic, and all the power to you. I really think that it is something you're definitely going to achieve. Looking at your story on Instagram, I don't think there's a goal you haven't kicked.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Yeah, exactly we. We call them ideas though now, so we've stopped calling them plans. We think plans. You feel too bad when you don't. You don't make a plan. You know it doesn't, it doesn't work out. You feel like, oh, my plants didn't work out, everything's changing, it's all. It's all not working out. So at the moment they're ideas, but they're pretty, they're pretty. The ideas around them change, but not the, not the end goal, and that's living a simple life. We don't need a big house. We're living in a caravan, happily. Whenever, whenever we move into a house, like, say, with a friend or our parents for a visit, it's, we find we're just cleaning the whole time running. After our one and a half year old, tidying up and going oh, we don't have to do this in the caravan. So yeah, the bigger house, the more cleaning you have to do. So we want tiny home, big garden.

Speaker 1: 13:32

I like that, I like that perspective and I really like what you said about the interconnection between home and the garden so not inside is where we belong and outside is where we visit, but rather a connection between the two, an area that that flows and that is utilized naturally and with ease of access by everybody in that space. I really love that idea.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Yeah, definitely. And you see, with kids I mean kids highlight it because they don't know how to kind of control their emotions. So you see it so clearly that when they're outside they're calm and they're inside they're, you know, crazy. Well, we'll adults are the exact same way. It's just that we know how to repress them and we don't show those emotions as strongly.

Speaker 2: 14:19

But humans are from nature. We are actually part of the animal kingdom. We are an animal. We're just a different species that happens to jump to the top of the food chain.

Speaker 2: 14:31

But we do best in nature, we do best in with our hands in the dirt, we do best eating from the soil, we do best under the trees. We are happier, our brain thinks clearer, our lungs breathe clean oxygen, our blood pumps and circulates at an optimal rate. You know we, our stress levels grow down. All of this research is coming out to support this, which we already knew. You know deep in us because we've experienced it in nature. But there is just so much research now to support the notion that we are, and should be, spending the majority of our time outside, inside, maybe for sleeping. But the bigger the house, the more you spend inside. It's a real shame that we're not as connected to outside and we find it a bit more uncomfortable, I think, outside as well People. Oh, it's a bit cold or it's a bit rainy or it's a bit this, but it's so important that we're out there.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Yes, I couldn't agree more. It is incredibly true, I think, all those healthy microbes in the soil as well. We've become so accustomed to sanitising everything that we forget that there is really good bacteria that our bodies need as well. So I think it's like you say, the whole approach it's physical, mental, spiritual Mediating is just a wealth of vitality and health and it's free therapy as well.

Speaker 2: 16:09

It is. It's free mental therapy and physical therapy. You look at all of the retirees who are still gardening. They're able to bend, they're able to squat down, stand up, dig. They're physical. It keeps you alive. Literally people who garden live longer than people who don't. It's so good for your body.

Speaker 1: 16:31

It truly is. It truly is so, whilst being on the road and having this drive to live sustainably, particularly, as you say, in the face of climate change. What have you found most difficult, if you will, about this?

Speaker 2: 16:48

Yes. So the two things that have been the most challenging, but also that have been non-negotiables for us, have been using reusable nappies so we've washed all of our nappies along the way and composting. We have not thrown in eight months, any food into landfill and we're really, really proud of ourselves for that. But also, while it's been the most challenging part, it's really not that challenging at all. It just involves one. We're using a bakashi bin, so we collect our food scraps in our caravan, in our little compost bin, and then we put them into our bakashi, and that bakashi process means that we can really squish it down and compact quite a lot of food scraps into one bakashi bin, because bakashi is an anaerobic process and so it doesn't require oxygen. So you really do want it to be compressed so that it ferments. So we have a bakashi spray, but you can also get an inoculated grain. But basically it's a fermentation process that dates back to I think it's from Japan, and it enables us to get quite a few weeks worth of food scraps in there. There are only three of us, but at times we've had the bakashi bin full and we've also had containers full of food scraps because we've filled the bakashi bin, but we're still in the bush, so we just find another container and we fill that with food scraps and we just wait until we get to a major centre.

Speaker 2: 18:37

We go on the ShareWaste app, which is a fantastic app that connects you to other gardeners, and so gardeners have gone on to this app and they've become hosts. So they host a compost bin and then you become a donor and you donate your compost to their compost bins. And it's been such a lovely way of like meeting people in random locations, and we met this one woman in Darwin who's this passionate eco warrior. She's got this website which is all plastic free, and I ended up having this like hour chat with her because she was this awesome person who's she hadn't had anyone who had actually wanted to donate compost, but so we were her first.

Speaker 2: 19:27

And then we met another person near Mackay and we've also donated in local community gardens their compost bins, and it just feels so good to be one, meeting people along the way who are doing great things and two, continuing to compost and knowing that that food is staying out of landfill, because when food goes in landfill it mummifies and it slowly breaks down, and when it breaks down it releases methane, which is a greenhouse gas 20 to 30 times worse than carbon, and that's getting trapped in our atmosphere. It's causing, you know, they say, global warming, but it's global boiling. Now we are at a point where the earth is boiling and we need to prevent as many of those greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere. They do, yeah, they don't go away to create this blanket and, as you can tell, we are sweltering. So to make to know that my food waste is not going in the bin and causing greenhouse gas emissions is is really lovely.

Speaker 1: 20:43

That is fantastic, and I love how you highlighted that, because I think a lot of people assume that oh well, it does the same thing in landfill, but it absolutely does not. I think it's really vital that people are aware of the difference with composting and putting your food scraps in the bin, so thank you for giving that some light today. I think that's really important.

Speaker 2: 21:05

It is because you would think that it would break down right like it's going in the bin. Well, when things go in the bin, they're compacted, they need to fit everyone's landfill in and they're squishing it down with these big machines to make it just absolutely compact and without oxygen, food does not break down.

Speaker 1: 21:24

That's right. So you indeed can compost even while travelling the country with the young family. No excuses, everybody. Could you share that again, grace, please? The app that you were using to do this?

Speaker 2: 21:38

Yeah, so it's called share waste and it's all over Australia and if you're a gardener, I would highly recommend that you become a host, because the more hosts we have, the more able we are to compost, and you don't have to be travelling either. It can be anyone who's living in an apartment or doesn't want to compost. You can just take it to a host nearby. You might have someone on your street who is happy to take your compost. In fact, once you start composting, you want as much food waste as you can get, because it becomes an addictive process. Growing or not growing, creating your own compost is so fulfilling.

Speaker 2: 22:27

I only just tapped into it just before I left. I always just had one compost bin. I would just dump all of my food scraps in there and hope that it turned to soil. But it was in my last few years of composting that I really realised the potential of it, and I would say to everyone make sure you have two compost bins. That was the biggest eye opening thing for me, because while you're filling one bin, once you've filled that bin with a beautiful mix of carbon and nitrogen, you're mixing it regularly, but you also need to let it sit and age, turning it, adding oxygen, but not adding any more food scraps. So having a second bin that you can be filling while that first bin just does its magic and turns to compost is vital, and so you're filling the second bin. You're really wanting more scraps. Maybe you'll have a third. It becomes addictive, and so if you are a gardener and you're wanting more compost, I would definitely recommend becoming a host and yeah, it's easy. You just have awesome people come to your house and give you compost.

Speaker 1: 23:40

That's fantastic and, as you say, a really great way to connect with like-minded people in the community or the communities that you're passing through as well. I think that's fantastic and, speaking of those connections, could you tell us about some of the gardens you've seen whilst you're travelling? Any left a real impression on you at all while meeting these people?

Speaker 2: 24:01

Look, I haven't had a great deal of time to be able to see their gardens. We mainly just chat about the composting process, but I would have loved to be able to look at their gardens but now, unfortunately, with the toddler I had a quick chat and a quick dump of compost and then had to get on the way.

Speaker 1: 24:23

That is totally understandable. So you mentioned that you were composting before you set off. What kind of composting system did you use?

Speaker 2: 24:33

Yeah, so we just had the basic old black bin with the lid.

Speaker 2: 24:39

You don't need anything fancy to compost, but, as I said before, make sure you have more than one. That made all the difference to me and also make sure you are using just as much carbon as you are, nitrogen and carbon being your. You have a great composting podcast actually talking about composting, but, just as a reminder, your carbon is your dry brown ingredients like fallen leaves or ripped pizza boxes and paper and woody material, and your nitrogen is that green stuff. That's all of your food scraps, your coffee grinds, your freshly cut clippings and any weeds or anything. So making sure you have a 50-50 mix. That was huge for me. I was always creating this sludgy, sludgy food scrap mess, and so it was really the biggest thing for me. I just got a bucket and would constantly go around the garden filling it with carbon so that when I went to empty the compost, I could just grab a big handful of leaves and chuck it on top, and so you're adding just as much carbon as you are food scraps and then turning it.

Speaker 1: 26:00

That's actually a really fantastic idea to have the bucket by the compost. I really like that.

Speaker 2: 26:06

Yeah, because otherwise I wouldn't do it. That'd be too lazy Basically. If you're like raking leaves or something, you can keep them all in one spot near your compost and that's your carbon done. Or if you yeah, like I said, coffee grinds or Uber Eats bags, those paper bags and things, if you're not going to use them I'm constantly composting paper as much Because I can't find enough carbon. I find, but, yeah, collecting your carbon. So it's right there, so you can just, you know, one bucket of nitrogen, one bucket of carbon.

Speaker 1: 26:37

I love that. So with the like, having touched on composting and some permaculture as well, is there anything else that you'd like to see more of in the gardening realm?

Speaker 2: 26:47

Yeah, anything else, I think for me it's just making sure that you're you're utilizing the you're using the best soil that you can. I think the biggest mistake and what maybe wasn't talked about a lot when I started gardening was I was constantly trying to do it in a cheap way. I was only 18, I was at uni and buying you know all of these bags of cheap soil from bunnings and then and then spending all this money on organic fertilizers and manure and Charlie Karp and all that trying to keep my plants alive. So I guess, more awareness of, like you said, the microbes. Like soil is alive, apparently don't quote me on this. I like to use this as a stat, but I don't think it's. I don't know if it's real.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Apparently, one teaspoon of living, healthy soil has more microbes in it than stars in the sky or something, or the sand on the sea. There's a lot of life in soil and once you know that, and once you know the difference between dirt and soil, you realize that your plants need a living, thriving medium to grow in. And then you start creating amazing soil with composting and manure and just chop that whole chop and drop. I just was getting into that as well. I was always ripping out my plants and then tilling the soil, but we're realizing now that soil is best left undisturbed.

Speaker 2: 28:36

So if you can just chop and drop it, just make sure that you understand how important taking care of the microbes in your soil is for growing good vegetables. It's just like the microbes in your gut. All of this information is coming out now on how well we can absorb nutrients If we have healthy gut biome. Well, that's the same with plants they can absorb nutrients if there is a healthy biome in the soil. So I guess you know yeah, more focus on that, more focus on soil. There's a great movie actually called Kiss the Ground and that talks about that. It's really, really inspiring.

Speaker 1: 29:24

Fantastic. I'm noting that one down, thank you. In your journey along the way have you learned something? You would have never expected to Like something. Perhaps this came through a triumph or a failure, something that you just really really grabbed hold of and has become a really valuable lesson.

Speaker 2: 29:47

Yeah, I don't think it's been to do with gardening, but I've had so many epiphanies for life. I've had this time with my family to just really think about the way we live our lives. And the biggest lesson that I've had on the way has been about plants and I think I touched on it earlier. We had the plan that we made in Melbourne to go up the centre and down through WA. We kept telling everyone this plan, that this is what we're doing, and talked about this plan. It was blah, blah, blah. The plan, the plan, the plan.

Speaker 2: 30:27

And then, once we'd got to Darwin and we stayed there for a while, it was August and all of the people up there were telling us don't go across to WA right now. It is sweltering Going through Kananara and that whole top section. It's so hot. You're going with a baby without air conditioning, it's dangerous. And these people live up there, they know the area. We're just some city dwellers from Melbourne thinking we've made this plan and we've got to stick to it.

Speaker 2: 31:00

And it was this real epiphany. We ended up not going to WA. We headed instead to Queensland. But it was really eye-opening because we both were like no, we've got to do this plan. This is the plan. This is the plan. We've got to stick to this plan and if we don't do the plan, then everything's going haywire, it's all turned upside down and it's this big issue.

Speaker 2: 31:29

But in the end, you know, we realised that you have to take the information you have at the time, and the information was really important in making sure that we were safe and that we were going to do something that was enjoyable as well. No one wants to travel through sweltering deserts. So yeah, that we really realised that the future is so uncertain and we are living in this time when we don't know what's coming, and here we are spending so long planning this future that it's taking away from enjoying our current lives. We're constantly imagining this future and planning this future and then feeling like failure is when that doesn't happen.

Speaker 2: 32:19

So I kind of had this epiphany that I was like if the future is so uncertain, then why are we spending so long thinking about it?

Speaker 2: 32:29

Why not just seed some ideas and then go on with our lives, living in the present moment and then making decisions when the time we get to that decision, and when we get to that time and when we have all of the information, we can make that decision, and I think people are so scared of not having plans because they feel like they're letting go of control. But you are going to be the person that's making the decision when the time is right. You have 100% control over your decisions. You're not letting you know, you're not just letting go of your life, you're just saying I'm going to make that decision when I have the information, when the time is right, and I'm going to do it when it feels okay. And that way, I'm not feeling let down by you know plans not working out. So yeah, we don't make plans anymore. We seed ideas and we trust that we will make the best decision when the time is right. And for me, that's just been a really freeing realisation and my biggest takeaway from travelling.

Speaker 1: 33:45

I really like that perspective and I can actually see how one of the permaculture principles of observation can be incorporated into that too Learning to let go of what it is that you have set out, like you say, the plans to observe what's happening around you, look at what's going on in nature and the natural rhythm of things, and to adjust.

Speaker 2: 34:10

Mmm, yeah, that's a really beautiful tie in there. Just a yeah, and it's okay. In fact, it's important to adjust because if you're not looking around you at what the reality is and what might be going well or not going well in your garden or in your life, then adjusting is necessary and it's going to lead you to success. But holding on to that plan and you might be fighting against the tide. You're just pushing against what's not naturally occurring, just because you had this one vision of what it should look like.

Speaker 1: 34:48

Exactly so, speaking of fighting against things, what would you say that your biggest pet peeve when it comes to gardening is and that can be a challenge with growing a particular something, or it can be a stereotype, a misconception. What would you say is something that you want to challenge in the gardening realm?

Speaker 2: 35:11

Oh, aphids. I struggle with aphids and I think it's because they always attack my winter veggies and when it's cold and in winter I'm so less inclined to go outside. I just look out my window, like you guys, alright out there, and then yeah, they're just being overrun by aphids. So I'm still trying to work out the best way to do that in an organic approach. I haven't, as you know, got a garden at the moment, so I'm kind of just ignoring that idea. But yeah, I struggle with aphids. Do you have any tips?

Speaker 1: 36:01

Well, I was actually going to ask you if you had applied anything, perhaps anything that didn't help, Because I think there's so much information out there, people saying give this a try, give that a try. Have you tried anything that you found not effective?

Speaker 2: 36:18

We tried neem oil and applying that. I don't think that worked that well. I also learnt that ladybird larvae is the best approach, so trying to grow flowers that are going to attract those beneficial ladybirds. So I can't remember what those flowers are maybe. Oh, and also I think growing white flowers around your brassicas is a really great way to repel cabbage moth, because the white moths think that the white flowers are other moths, so they won't come over to that area if they think another moth is already laying their eggs there.

Speaker 1: 37:12

Yes, they're very territorial, which I was surprised to learn too, but with the plants that attract the ladybugs, I can certainly recommend things like nasturtiums and marigolds. They are ideal for attracting those beneficial insects.

Speaker 2: 37:29

Yeah, perfect. I do love marigolds. I love the smell. So many people hate the smell, but I love them.

Speaker 1: 37:36

I've heard of as well. Garlic spray for aphids Okay, using some garlic spray. Apparently, they do not like the smell of garlic. I cannot speak from experience. I have not tried this one myself, but there are quite a few options to test and try.

Speaker 2: 37:56

when it comes to natural remedies yeah if anybody out there knows, please jump into my DMs and send me your best Acer tips, because I just can't seem to get rid of them other than the old fashioned squish under the thumb.

Speaker 1: 38:12

Oh, yes. Yeah, that's quite effective, though you have to give it that.

Speaker 2: 38:16

Yeah, I just don't like the experience.

Speaker 1: 38:20

Yeah, I understand. I think my preference in that regard is certainly the companion planting and attracting the beneficial insects. I think that's if we can do that in a way that doesn't require the intervention, where those systems operate naturally in slow with one another. I think that's a real winning idea there, if we can, if we can attract enough to make it happen. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 38:43

And I think another way to do that is to spread out those plants that do attract the aphids. So if the aphids are coming to one spot, then maybe the other plants will be all right.

Speaker 1: 38:54

Yes, like a sacrificial crop yeah kale, apparently, is the best sacrificial. Oh, ok, that might work for the cabbage, moths and butterflies too. Mine always get absolutely destroyed.

Speaker 2: 39:08

Destroyed, don't they? Yes?

Speaker 1: 39:10

it's rude.

Speaker 2: 39:12

Sorry, kale, just hang in there I love kale.

Speaker 1: 39:17

Have you tried the kale chips?

Speaker 2: 39:21

Yes, I love kale chips.

Speaker 1: 39:23

Yum, yes, a little bit of salt. Amazing, and it's, it's, guilt free.

Speaker 2: 39:28

Yeah, my dogs love them too. Oh nice, what kind of dogs do you have? I have two little jack brussel crosses.

Speaker 1: 39:38

Oh cute. They're fierce protectors, aren't they, the little dogs?

Speaker 2: 39:42

Yeah, it was that. We took them traveling actually with us for the first few months and realised that that was going to be far too hard, so my mum volunteered to take them, which was the biggest gift I think has been given.

Speaker 1: 39:56

Oh, mum's a good on the team, aren't they I?

Speaker 2: 39:59

know poor mum, they don't have a whole lot of say.

Speaker 1: 40:03

Oh, bless them. We've actually just been planting out some of the cat grass which we've found our dogs absolutely love.

Speaker 2: 40:10

Oh, that's great to know. So they eat it.

Speaker 1: 40:13

Yes, oh yeah, they eat it, they love it. It's, some people actually brand it as pet grass.

Speaker 2: 40:19

OK, I'll have to look into that.

Speaker 1: 40:21

Yeah, it's been really good, really good learning about that and obviously, with you know, not everything you plant is safe for your pets. So, yeah, we plant them around. So if they feel so inclined, then they've got that there.

Speaker 2: 40:35

Oh, that's great. Yeah, I'm going to take that tip too. Thank you, yeah, excellent, no worries.

Speaker 1: 40:42

So, Grace, if you could go back to the very beginning of your gardening journey, back to when you're 18, none of your friends are involved in gardening and you're just starting out, what would be one piece of advice that you would like to give yourself, or something that you would like to say to yourself?

Speaker 2: 40:59

I think I would say don't go so crazy on wanting to go all of the really abstract, crazy, beautiful heirloom varieties I think there's a lot. I found it so fun growing really strange and different colored and different shaped things. But there is a reason that some are more common than others and that's because one they taste better and they might be easier to grow, and heirloom vegetables are often a little bit harder to grow, but they don't have that same kind of pest protection as maybe some of your common varieties. So, yeah, I would say, you know, have a healthy balance. Don't go all unique, strange varieties of things. There's a reason some tomatoes and some vegetables. You know the black. I've forgotten it. Is it black Russian? No, that's the kale, black something zucchini. Oh, the black beauty, black beauty. There's a reason they're the most common, they're the most delicious, but you only find that out through trial and error. So go out there and have fun and you know, maybe I should take that back. There are really cool things to grow as well that aren't common on your supermarket shelves. And that I think was my biggest enjoyment was going on to the seed collection. I think I've bought that many veg, awesome heirloom varieties on the seed collection website. There's you know your common ones, but you just don't realise how many different types of vegetables there are and how beautiful they can be.

Speaker 2: 42:57

Purple king beans just gorgeous flowers and beautiful, crisp, delicious beans to eat and so unique to have purple beans growing that change to green when you cook them. And the same with corn you know as tech corn. It's not going to be your juicy sweet corn, which I found out the hard way, wanting to bite into this beautiful, spotty purple corn. It's not going to be like that. But it's going to be such an experience as well, growing things that you won't find anywhere else Purple basil and, oh, those beautiful kink.

Speaker 2: 43:42

I've, look. I've had two years out of the garden. I've forgotten all the names of all the things I used to grow. What are those beautiful beans that when you open them, they've got big seeds and they're like pink stripes. They're incredible and yeah, there's. And then you can get yellow beans and you can get black beautiful tomatoes and yeah, there's. Actually. It's so much fun that was my biggest enjoyment when I was first starting out was just growing strange and unique things. Oh, banana passion fruit. That was a lot of fun to grow as well. There's nothing more exciting than growing things you've never seen before, and so it's just a surprise. It's just the anticipation builds and, yeah, I loved that. But in saying that, you will find out that once you've grown your beautiful corn, you can't actually eat it. It's more for creating flour, so maybe you'll have to learn how to do that. But yeah, I would say, just have a mix of things that are common, but also have a fun time experimenting, seeing what, what else is out there.

Speaker 1: 44:53

Exactly, and, as you say, you learned the hard way with the corn. That it's not, you know, intended for corn on the cob without dinner. But I'm a big believer of. We learn the most from our failures. We learn more from them than we do from our successes, and those are the lessons that I feel are more lingering. They, they stick with you a little longer. You share them a little more readily as well.

Speaker 2: 45:17

Yeah, absolutely. And on saying that, another thing is really kind of like just grabbing a notebook and jotting down what you're doing so that if you do find that you grew something it may be a different you know the temperature wasn't correct of the soil. You can look back and be like, oh, when did I, when did I plant that? How long did that take to plant? Because you really do lose track of time and you're thinking, oh, maybe it was two weeks ago. I put those seeds in, maybe it was this, and I will, you know, lose the packets of seeds. You've only got one packet of seeds.

Speaker 2: 45:55

So if I don't plant them all out, then making all these DIY tags. If you just write that down into a book, you've got all that information with you in one place and you can actually look back and go oh, okay, I planted that at this time it's taken nine weeks to grow and or however long, and you can really learn then what went well, what didn't go well. So I think I would also give myself that advice write things down. And also that gives you another way of like if you're, say, doing a fertilizer or a worm juice, you can write down when you did it what plants you did it on, and then you know if it's a diary you can set yourself in two weeks time a note to do it again, and then you've got like a little diary to keep track of jobs in your garden so that you are keeping on those things, because I would just put worm juice on some plants and then think, oh yeah, I think I did those ones.

Speaker 1: 46:57

I think, yeah, writing things down would make things a lot easier that is some very practical advice and I think, yeah, lots of people if they haven't started a little plant journal, then it is a fantastic idea, because it really does make all the difference. Yeah for sure, fantastic. So, grace, before we finish, is there anything, any moments in your gardening journey that you feel deserves some, some focus, anything really pivotal or a question that you were hoping I would ask you?

Speaker 2: 47:29

no, I think we've covered most of it. I think my pivotal moments were that feeling of accomplishment. When I finally nailed compost. I didn't realize it was going to be so rewarding and me and my partner were jumping up and down like, look at this, it's so beautiful. And I was so shocked at how quickly it is made as well. If you are just doing it correctly, adding the right amount of things and turning it regularly, it works very fast and it's so rewarding. So I think that was pivotal for me. I'm not going back to slow to compost ever again.

Speaker 1: 48:07

I love that. So and and did you notice as well the the health of your plants improved, the instant benefit in the garden yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 48:16

I was just hope, wishing that I had 10 more barrel loads of it.

Speaker 1: 48:21

I felt I didn't have enough, yeah, and especially because it's something we create from our way. So essentially, it's free. You know not considering our time, of course, but that's all part of the process. You don't have to spend a copious amount of money on on fertilizers. We have everything we need. It's just a matter of knowing what to utilize and how it's actually the best thing.

Speaker 2: 48:46

I think I'm just the compost nerd. I think it's incredible. I think it's one doing amazing things for the planet. It's free and it's utilizing a waste product that would you know. Typically, we don't have any use for those things, so to have it to then turn into this magic soil enhancer is is just so cool.

Speaker 1: 49:10

It's so cool it is, it's, it's quite the form of magic, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 49:15

yeah, for sure lovely.

Speaker 1: 49:17

Well, thank you so much for your time today, grace. I really appreciate it, and I've been quite inspired by stories of your travels, and I know some of our listeners will have too. I'm about to go home and pack up the house, by the way, I'm off oh good, but before we sign off, could you please share with us how our listeners can find out more about you and the and the journey that you're on?

Speaker 2: 49:41

yeah, so I'm. I've changed my name. I used to be gardening with Grace on Instagram, but I found that was just pigeonholing me into only gardening and I wasn't then sharing other things I was passionate with or about. So I'm now live simply with Grace. So I'm talking on there about ways that you can live simply. You know, bringing things back to a simple way, and maybe that's gardening, maybe that's composting, maybe that's just voting for people who care about our environment and our planet. So I share things to do with climate emergency and gardening and composting and reusable nappies and plant-based living and eating. So, yeah, it's quite a quite a variety of things. Now I've opened it right up to just anything I'm interested in, and then I'm also putting up photos of our travels on Rusty Travels Instagram page there too. So, yeah, that's just a small one with pictures of our travels but, yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 1: 50:51

I have seen some of these on on both of those pages and the photos are absolutely awe-inspiring. If you haven't already been following Grace's journey, jump on to Instagram and check out the amazing things that she's up to. That Instagram link again is at live simply with Grace. You've been listening to how I grow, produced by the seed collection in Melbourne, australia. It is our way to make gardening more accessible to more people, and this podcast is one of the many ways we're doing that. If you don't already know who we are, jump online and visit wwwtheseedcollectioncomau. You'll find a treasure trove of gardening information, as well as a huge range of seeds and garden supplies and accessories. That address again is wwwtheseedcollectioncomau. Thanks for listening.