The veggie-growing guru sharing her knowledge with fellow Portland gardeners

A great day for Portland’s Catherine Francis almost always involves a pair of overalls and dirt under her fingernails. 

When she’s not growing giant pumpkins for fundraisers, teaching yoga or partaking in one of her many other hobbies, Francis is tending to the 60 square metres of vegetable garden she has under production, nurturing 35 different types of vegetables.

The Brolga met up with Francis in search of gardening secrets and tips for aspiring West Vic greenfingers.

Soil matters

“I call myself a kitchen garden specialist. I know a fair bit about gardening generally, but these days I'm really focusing on growing all our own food,” Francis explained. “I am very much focused on organic; I subscribe to the no dig principles and I also subscribe to being really invested in the health of my soil in my garden beds.”

The no dig principles relate to minimising soil disturbance by avoiding cultivation or turning up the soil, instead layering organic materials on top of existing soil rather than digging it over.

Francis is eager to help other growers create bountiful gardens, sharing her tips on ABC radio and via her gardening Facebook page, Daisy Dover. 

She is also involved with the community garden in Portland: “I have four plots, and I love talking to people down there.” 

Francis, who emphasised the benefits of eating seasonally, has created some ingenious ways to extract the most out of her produce.

Bag it up for later

“I'll roast a big tray of tomatoes, zucchini and basil and bag it up and put it in the freezer,” she said. “The freezer is my gardening companion, really. I’ve got a food dehydrator and I'll dehydrate summer produce like tomatoes. So I've got tomatoes in the freezer. 

“That means if I'm in the middle of winter and I want to make a curry and it calls for a can of tomatoes, I just get out my sandwich bag and I've got my tomatoes; I also do pesto that way.”

The gardener also makes vegetable paste for use on items such as pizza bases.

“So, say I've got extra broccoli or silverbeet or a cabbage, I actually put it in my food processor, take it down to a fine chop, put it in a deep wide fry pan. I'll cook it off until it goes down to a real paste and then I'll get my bar mix and take it down to almost a puree.”

Asked for her favourite season, Francis nominated autumn. 

Can’t beat the sweet

“There's still the late summer produce coming through and eggplants really start to ramp up,” she said. “Tomatoes and zucchinis have been going for a while, but especially in early autumn, they get a real incredible sweetness.

“There are also apples coming through from the orchard, quinces and things like that. Lettuces are thriving. Nearly everything looks pretty fantastic in early autumn, actually.”

Francis said the first two months of winter “can be quiet in the garden”.

“Growth is a bit slower because we've gone under 10 hours of daylight. Keep your winter salad bowl gardens chugging along. It's also a great time to grow broccoli - that's an easy one if you're not an experienced gardener.” 

Winter is a time for collecting mulch ingredients, and for “reflection and planning”.

She suggested checking out seed catalogues online.

“Water your seeds, dream up your garden, what you want to achieve, talk to your gardening friends to get advice, and do your own research.”