Cooma garden secrets revealed by the Robertsons

Fair of face, Mark and Helen Robertson and I met in a skin specialist’s rooms in Civic. They live on a one-acre block in north Cooma, where they have been for 20 years. The rock in Cooma North is metamorphosed sediments with few nutrients and the topsoil is sandy loam, sometimes hydrophobic, shallow and infertile. So when Mark established the vegetable garden he added imported topsoil and old, dried sheep manure that was a good organic fertiliser but also contained heaps of weeds.

The garden needs regular topping up with rotted down lucerne hay. He says the best is at the bottom of an old haystack, not the fresh bales of lucerne hay that is invaluable for mulching the garden. It keeps the soil warmer and, when the crop is finished, gets dug in if it is the type of crop where Mark would turn the soil over.

Canberra has a balmy climate compared to Cooma where their maximum daily temperatures are only about two degrees cooler but heavy frosts come much earlier, from May 1 this year. Spring weather starts earlier in Canberra and is more consistent and they fluctuate from summer back to winter until December.

Helen grew up on an apple orchard near Oakdale in NSW, and the taste and flavour of that fruit could not be equalled so they don’t grow fruit in Cooma. The garden near the house is terraced with large rocks from a local building site and Helen has flowerbeds interplanted with lettuces in a microclimate that means things grow better, especially in early spring.

Because of the late spring then the heatwaves, their beans were best in March but not exceptional. You have to get brassicas in by mid-February before frosts slow them down but Mark plants purple garlic in May. The original cloves came from a friend who was a garlic grower near Berridale.

Mark was raised on a sheep wheat farm between Wagga and Albury. He has fond memories of having to water the vegetables as a kid and a special treat was to put a wet sack over an apple cucumber in summer then, later in the day, pick the cooled cucumber and walk off down the paddock eating it.

This autumn they had crops gold squash, zucchini, lettuce, pak choi, cabbage, silverbeet, rhubarb, leeks and broccoli. Mark says when eating his tomato, basil and bocconcini pasta sauce, made with materials straight out of the garden, you know it’s summer.

As many of the varieties grown by Mark are F1 hybrids he doesn’t keep seeds for those but he does seed-save for Tuscan kale. He finds it hard to get seeds for cavolo nero and seedlings can be overpriced but he says persevering is worthwhile when you cook ribollito soup.

For Mark, cooking started as a wet day happening but now it is an interest, particularly savoury dishes, Italian in winter and Asian in summer, and simple techniques. He likes having good friends round for dinner and wine. He is not allowed to buy any more cookbooks but does have a collection of recipes from food sections of newspapers.

This year’s Mother's Day dinner was ‘'by request’'. Mark cooked roast pork loin with roast kipfler potatoes, sweet potato and Queensland blue pumpkin. A homegrown steamed cauliflower was served with a classic white sauce into which he added finely grated parmesan. Dessert was apricot pie and cream.

Sweet potato

Last month Roy Priest, who owns the farm on which the Pialligo garden lots have been developed, got in touch to tell me that a group had raised an amazing crop of sweet potatoes. Two years ago Priest told the growers that he doubted sweet potatoes would grow because the season was not long enough. Last year they got nothing. However, the plants remained in the ground and grew again this summer.

Mary-Ann Kal is program director at Sharing Places Australia that creates opportunities for adults with disabilities. She says Priest provided a raised garden bed to which they added cow manure. The teams meet two days a week on-site and their crops of Dutch cream potatoes, zucchini and white summer squashes have been harvested and given to parents and staff at the Pearce Community Centre. Their sweet potatoes are a triumph.

• A member of the Food and Wine team wonders if anyone has grown dasheen in Canberra.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.