Tammy visits a self-taught gardener in her extraordinary garden packed with produce inspired by Lebanese culture and cuisine. Subscribe 🔔 [ Ссылка ]
During the strict western Sydney lockdowns, Sahar El-Chiekh transformed what was a dusty backyard into an extraordinarily productive cultural food bowl. By gathering advice from the online garden community and her creative approach to gardening in a rental property, Sahar's backyard has become a sensation. "I came out here to hide in the garden," says Sahar, but it prompted a pursuit to create a place of solace and empowerment. "If mummy can't be found (in the house), she's out in the back."

Sahar is passionate about cooking food from the garden and admits, "I'm not actually a great cook, but it's different when the produce is from your garden. I don't like to see anything go to waste." Much of her produce connects back to her Lebanese roots, with plants such as Egyptian spinach, eggplant, beans and chickpeas. Sahar says, these are "the flavour of my childhood." Egyptian spinach, traditionally known as Molokhia, has a gelatinous texture and is best suited in soups. Sahar says, "I find it easier to grow than English spinach" however seeds for this traditional variety were not easy to find when her parents moved here as teenagers. "Now you're seeing a lot more of them in middle eastern grocers, but in the past my parents had to go to a farm that grew them, just to be able to enjoy them in their home."

With an organic approach to her gardening, Sahar's advice is to harness companion planting. To control pests, Sahar grows marigolds to deter thrips, hibiscus to attract flea beetles away from her eggplants, and chickpeas to deter caterpillars from her tomatoes. To avoid powdery mildew, Sahar trains her zucchini vertically and removes all leaves growing below the developing fruit to improve airflow. "This is the first year I've done it and it's made a huge difference," says Sahar, who has also adopted an ingenious t-shirt support for heavier fruits that will be harvested for seeds. "I need to support the ladies" says Sahar.

Growing a garden in a rental property has its challenges, so to create a transportable garden, Sahar's uses large growbags for her various fruit trees. Her prized possession is a pomelo tree, which Sahar says is "in between a grapefruit and an orange." Her obsession with pomelo started twenty-two years ago. "I went overseas to Lebanon for a holiday… my auntie has a big citrus orchard in her backyard, and I used to sit under the trees and freshly pick and eat them. Then I came back to Australia I couldn't find them; it took me 20 years to hunt down this pomelo. Last year was the first year I tasted it… It's not bitter like a grapefruit, but not wet like an orange, it's perfect."

There are some standout structures in the garden, such as a rustic ladder and a walkthrough archway. "I always loved the idea of being able to walk through an archway," says Sahar, "I wanted to grow vertically this year so I could fit more in." Growing on the arches are tromboncino, Lebanese cucumbers, various tomatoes, snake beans, Richmond green cucumbers, and Cucu-melon. And they're not only lovely on the vine.

Sahar invites Tammy to taste some of her homegrown heritage saying, "we have gardened and now we're going to graze," with traditional dishes such as hummus, Fattoush salad, cooked beans and mloukheya a banadoura, a dish made with Egyptian spinach and tomato. "I think gardening and being able to cook from my garden, gives me a sense of empowerment," says Sahar, "Especially to be able to feed my kids and my family from something that I've grown, it brings us together. As we know, food is all about community, family, laughing and building memories. I think gardening and cooking go hand in hand."

Filmed on Dharug Country | Chester Hill, NSW
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Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia's leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content.

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