In the red soil of her outback garden, a heavily pregnant Sammy Anderson lovingly tends to an oasis of neatly planted tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis.
The expectant mum is 32 weeks pregnant in a desert town where the average maximum temperature at this time of year is 33 degrees Celsius, but nothing will stop Sammy from getting out in her garden.
A few streets away, fellow Broken Hill gardener Molly Clemens and her four-year-old daughter Emmie are also getting their hands dirty in a veggie patch they have grown from scratch.
Filled with a variety of flowers that include billy buttons and lavender, as well as tomatoes and strawberries, their garden is a place of connection to both nature and each other.
For Molly and her daughter Emmie, the garden is for “girl time” where they can laugh and connect. (ABC Broken Hill: Coquohalla Connor)
As native birds make use of the green space around them, Molly and Emmie are trying to decide if their nasturtiums are ready to be picked.
The young mums are not alone in their desire to grow their own food, with four in 10 Australians growing some of their own produce, according to a report released last month by The Australia Institute.
While the most common reason for growing food among survey respondents was for better access to healthy food (69 per cent), for Sammy and Molly, their respective gardens offered a place of solitude, safety and freedom.
‘Grow through what you go through’
About five years ago when Molly was seeking a fresh start, she came across a quote that struck a chord with her: “Grow through what you go through”.
She had just moved into her one of her mother’s rentals with her baby daughter in tow where the yard was paved with bricks.
She got to work and, once the soil was exposed, she planted a few seeds.
Molly recently got chickens and Emmie dubs the chicks “rock and roll” for their mohawk hairdos. (ABC Broken Hill: Coquohalla Connor)
But developing her green thumb took some time.
“The first two lots died, completely shrivelled,” she recalled.
“So I decided to try lettuce because you can’t over water lettuce, so I started with six rows of lettuce.”
Soon Molly had grown 20 kilos of zucchini and a new outlook on life.
“The more that grew the more I felt things improved in my life, it was nice to look at what I was accomplishing in my front yard,” she said.
It became clear as Emmie neared two that the veggie patch was vital to her too.
Emmie enjoys harvesting the strawberries in the family’s front garden. (ABC Broken Hill: Coquohalla Connor)
The happy toddler had become very ill and inexplicably began to throw up blood.
She was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis, an allergic inflammatory condition that has no cure, and requires a modified diet.
Suddenly the family’s veggie patch became even more important.
“We don’t have to worry or panic about if fresh produce has been washed or if it’s been sprayed with something because we’ve grown it,” Molly said.
“[It’s meant] we’ve been able to regenerate her diet with no restrictions or anything.”
Weird, wacky, wonderful
Sammy Anderson first turned to gardening after having her son in 2022.
Sammy’s son Louis likes to help out in the garden. (Supplied: Sammy Anderson)
In the chaos of motherhood, she needed something that she could turn to, so she asked her husband Brett Anderson to build her some raised garden beds.
Pretty soon she was looking for the weirdest, wackiest things she could grow.
“I grew loofahs [luffas], they’re the things you find in the shower, they’re plastic nowadays but originally they’re a plant, sort of a zucchini-looking thing that grows on a vine,” she said.
This year’s “wacky” crop is white, flat, boer pumpkins, a rare ornamental and edible variety of white pumpkin with orange flesh named after the Dutch Boers.
White flat boer pumpkin have a white skin and an orange flesh. (ABC Broken Hill: Coquohalla Connor)
Like Molly, Sammy said her garden offered her time away from the chaos of life.
“You spend a lot of time being a mum and I work as well, so it’s time that can be yours although my little boy does help me from time to time,” she said.
Sammy also thinks the choice to grow has helped the family financially as well as with their diet.
“I think my little boy eats better because he’ll sit out in the garden and eat a cucumber off the vine, which is awesome,” she said.
Building community
With her partner, Molly bought a new home in Broken Hill this year with a spare plot she hopes to turn into a community garden to help others struggling with their mental health or the chaos of everyday life.
Molly hopes to turn the vacant block that came with her new home into a community garden. (ABC Broken Hill: Coquohalla Connor)
“I just want to open it [up] and invite people to come in and garden if they need a safe space and just make it a welcoming environment for whoever might need it,” she said.
With the garden in the early stages with gravel being laid, Molly is already looking ahead to when it will be ready in a few years’ time.
