Leah Evans is listing all the different winter vegetables she’s busy harvesting from her garden.
She ticks off broccoli, leeks, carrots, silverbeet, spinach, celery, beetroot and broad beans, before joking, “What haven’t I got?”
Evans, from Rotorua, grows vegetables all year round and shares the process, plus tips and tricks, with the more than 15,000 followers she has on her Instagram page, @mrs.evans.garden.
It’s her popularity on social media that helped her secure a book deal.
She started her Instagram page in 2019 as a means to inspire and support people to “get growing”, and in 2021, Allen & Unwin New Zealand’s publishing director Jenny Hellen sent her a direct message asking her if she’d ever considered writing a book.
Evans says her social media following has grown, especially in the last two years.
“The page is meeting a need and a want for people to learn, become a little more self-sufficient, connect with nature, the environment, and like-minded people, [as well as] reduce the grocery bill where possible, and have fun along the way,” she says.
Her debut book Hands in the Dirt was released this week and delivers straightforward advice on how to start gardening, as well as her recipes for home-grown “nutrient-dense” food.
The book is full of photos of her in her cottage garden, which once used to consist of rotten trees and scrub but is now a colourful mismatch of raised beds, sprawling kamokamo and pumpkin patches, pots, tubs, flowers and a bean tunnel.
Evans grows more vegetables than she needs so she can donate a portion to food rescue service Rotorua Whakaora, and she also gives some away from a roadside stall at the end of her driveway in Waikite Valley.
She also volunteers at John Paul College, teaching Year 7-13 students about food growing, alongside doing admin work for the mechanical workshop business she owns with her husband Darryl, GB European.
The 45-year-old says due to supermarket food shortages during Covid lockdowns, the cost of living and a recent spike in the global price of wheat, food security is “one of the most pressing issues today”.
Having grown up on a farm, her book aims to teach Kiwis the basics that have been lost.
She also has an academic background in health science, but purposely wrote her book in a “non-academic” way.
In the book she writes: “I’m an ordinary Kiwi. I don’t know the names of all the plants in my garden, and I have to look things up all the time. I’m just a passionate home gardener and cook who believes that simple things like good food, good relationships, giving back and tuning in to what matters most are the keys to living well.”
Her book includes tips for growing in small spaces; building soil and compost; growing from seed; transplanting; companion planting; information on 11 kitchen-garden staples including herbs; tips for pest and disease control; growing healthy crops and harvesting; preserving; plus 40 straightforward recipes.
She, Darryl and sons Blake, 19, and Logan, 18, moved from town to their 1.6-hectare rural property five years ago,
Their land caters to beef, sheep, chickens, two miniature horses — Paris “Baby” and Elmo “Mo-Diddy” — and dogs Indy and Enzo.
Then there’s their vege patch, which - by Evans’ admission - doesn’t look that flash over winter.
They used many second-hand materials to build it, it’s often blanketed with leaves and never seems to be fully weeded, but it’s theirs “and boy, does it do the job”.
Evans is also a fisherwoman and can shoot and skin a rabbit, but she’s not completely self-sufficient, nor is that realistic, she says. She’s always made the most of what’s available.
For example, her and Darryl’s first home was a small unit and she only had a tiny patio. She put two hanging baskets near the front door with cherry tomatoes in them - officially her first vegetable garden.
She says you can get the most out of growing spaces of any size. And if you’re renting, pots and containers can be taken with you.
With knowledge and experience, a gardener will always have food.
Last summer, despite Cyclone Gabrielle, consistent rain and a lack of sunshine, she was still able to produce 62 kilograms of tomatoes off 12 plants.
She hopes everyone who reads her book will take something from it and adapt it to their environment.
“In the book, I also talk about thinking outside the square,” she shares.
“If you have a small section and a friend has a larger section, maybe you agree to grow one crop each and swap at the end of that season, or every week, and live more communally,” she says, referencing te whare tapa whā, a Māori model for holistic wellbeing.
“The more we can do for ourselves, the more confidence and less anxiety in the future,” she says.
It’s this mindset that has inspired her passion to volunteer in schools.
She helps out one day a week teaching the science and practical skills of gardening, and students love hands-on learning. Food is grown using sustainable methods and then donated to school whānau.
Evans’ enthusiasm has been praised by the long-standing New Zealand educational charity Garden to Table, which likewise works in schools, supporting teachers to implement a gardening and cooking programme they’ve devised.
A survey among Garden to Table students shows more than 40 per cent of respondents went on to grow something new at home, 86 per cent cooked something new at home, and 63 per cent ate something new at home.
Furthermore, children are taught about looking after soil, including from a climate change perspective. And there’s a new financial literacy unit, which gets children to make money from cooking and gardening.
Everything from gardening is transferable in the curriculum: “Aotearoa history meets kūmara, meets the garden. Ratios, meets maths, meets the garden,” says Garden to Table curriculum and community relations manager Victoria Bernard.
In her book, Evans says “children grow in gardens”. And she knows that’s true of adults too.
“Being outside in the fresh air is refreshing and restorative. Hands, minds, hearts and spirits are fully engaged with the productive task of food growing,” she writes.
“It gives a sense of forward movement, no matter how small.
“Even being able to put a salad together, even if it’s just one night a week. There’s a feeling that comes with that, and it’s a good feeling.”
Hands in the Dirt is out now and costs $45.
Mrs Evans’ top tips for starting your first vegetable garden
Prepare
Look at where the sun rises and sets, where any shadows from trees or fences are, or where there is exposure to wind. This means you’ll place veges in the right growing conditions. Note that this will change over the seasons. In winter, I move my carrot tubs to the sunniest spots in the garden. In summer, I move them somewhere where they get great morning sun and are protected from the harsh drying afternoon sun.
Get resourceful
Your growing hardware does not need to be expensive for small, shallow-rooted veg, such as cut-and-come-away-again lettuce. A three-litre milk bottle cut lengthways, with a few holes drilled in the bottom, will happily grow a small salad bar with regular water and feed. Second-hand shops often have pots for great prices, or you can look online.
Start small
It’s tempting to want to dive in at the deep end and grow all the things, but starting small and building your confidence will teach you valuable lessons that can be applied to larger spaces.
Don’t follow trends
Grow what you enjoy eating, not what you see others are growing or what’s trendy. I can remember someone telling me their parents grew kale because all their friends were. Turns out they hated the stuff - something I can relate to. All those resources, including your time, are about what works for you.
Ask questions
Align yourself with people who can help online or in person, and understand that nobody knows everything and even experienced gardeners have failures. We’ve all got to start somewhere.
