REALLY FRESH VEGES - YOUR PATCH
By Dave Roberts
Dan Depiazzi is in the garden when I ring, and there are voices in the background. “I can hear other voices there, have you got a moment to talk?” It turns out that Dan is doing something that he likes more than most things, he’s weeding in the garden and listening to the radio.
We get all sorts of clues from these interviews, and what’s going on at the other end of the line sometimes gives us all sorts of insight to who we’re dealing with. In the case of a guy who is making his living from gardening, it’s kind of nice understanding that I’m talking to a guy who knows and likes his garden.
The idea isn’t completely new, but it seems that it is an idea whose time has come. Working in a job that had been paying the bills but not providing all the fulfilment he needed, Dan heard a bloke from Perth interviewed on the radio who was growing organic vege gardens for clients in their own yards. You know the moment, Dan had heard the idea that made perfect sense and he was sure that it would work for him, or he would work for it, whatever the case may be.
Telephone calls were made, questions were asked, and before very long the plot was hatched to set up “Your Patch” in the South West. After a discussion with the client and a look at the site, Dan will install a garden in large tubs, filled with good soils, planted and reticulated. After that, there is a fortnightly visit in which someone who knows what they’re on about will help with maintenance of the garden.
The aim of the game is organic vegetables straight from your garden to your kitchen. Getting it right includes year round production, not just a flood of stuff in the summertime. To do this there are simple design issues that are important - sunlight, planting times, pest control, and these things which might become simple over time are where the regular visit from a real organic gardener come into play.
The way we’re living in Australia is changing because of economics (land isn’t cheap) and because it has to (our environmental footprint is just too big). Dan’s design stuff is showing how to get serious production from some fairly small plots. The knowledge even of simple things as when to harvest make sure that the veges get to the table in the best possible shape.
So what’s the background of a guy who wants to spend his life gardening in someone else’s back yard? Could be anything I suppose but in this case there are tertiary qualifications in Botany (of course) and teaching (hmmm). Discussing what the business is going to do, Dan is keen to talk about sharing the skills and joys of the garden with people, and especially with children. As we speak discussions are underway about an installation at a school, and there’s a bit of excitement about what that might mean.
For most of 2005, Dan his new wife Nicola honeymooned in New Zealand, supporting themselves through a project called WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms). As WWOOFers they lived on the smell of an oily rag, but one soaked in completely organic natural oils. The life provided a taster and a whole lot of skills and understanding about organics.
Other trips abroad included the Depiazzi ancestral home, where all the Depiazzis are mature women, so there is an understanding that the name lives on in the South West, but not back in the old country. The other thing to gain from there was that the gardens were fantastic, and Dan suspects that he may be a vege gardener by genetics.
2006 has been about settling into Bunbury, finding work, looking for what will carry him into the future. Other jobs have been good, there’s tutoring that uses the teaching skills, and some landscaping where the boss has been incredibly understanding and allows time flexibility that has allowed the development of Your Patch. Of course the year has also seen the germination of the Your Patch idea.
Dan has talked with Tim, the Your Patch guy in Perth, and there might be a partnership developing there. Even though gardening for a living sounds like a dream to a fellow who loves his garden, the business man comes out now and I hear talk of “developing the product” and gaining access to Tim’s business experience. It’s a great balance because I’ve already started to really like the sound of taking a zucchini straight out of the garden and cutting it up for the barbecue.
We’ve learned in the past that running enterprise stories on really new businesses might lead to disappointment as people go searching for a service that lasted only weeks or months. It’s true that the first Your Patch garden installation was not until December 2006, but the combination of a real gardener’s expertise and design, and the desire so many of us have to really know about our food, convinces us it’s worth the risk.
February 2007
