The Canberra gardeners growing gourds as musical instruments

In a Belconnen gardening, gourds are being grown to be made into musical instruments.

Donna Vaughan moved to the house with large garden in Evatt in 2010. Larry O'Shea, who was born in Coolamon in the Riverina, joined her in Canberra two years later. The couple has installed structures in the garden on which to grow crops, particularly gourds being raised by Larry. This season, 20 "usable" gourds are dangling from the rampant vines.

The main supplier of things gourd in Australia is the "gourd father" John van Tol who lives in Maitland.

The ideal gourd for making banjos is the canteen gourd which has a flattish pumpkin shape but, so far, Larry has only succeeded in growing big bottle gourds which have a long neck and fat bottom. Sometimes he sits among them playing the banjo and it is that, or horse manure, which encourages them to grow. The largest gourds will be put in a drying shed for months so the skins will remain thick and strong and the largest should be suitable for banjos and the smaller ones for banjo-ukuleles.

The couple's musical backgrounds are "folk". Donna has played violin most of her adult life and Larry played guitar, bouzouki and drums but now focuses on the banjo. The couple has people round regularly to play old-time American music on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar and double or resonator bass. So far no neighbours have thrown rotten tomatoes over the fence but, being acoustic music, it is not very loud.

Donna Vaughan came to Canberra with her family in the 1950s but she lived in other parts of Australia from the 1960s to 2002. Now she is obsessed with gardening and joined Canberra Organic Growers Society to be among like-minded people who were happy to share experiences and knowledge.

In four raised garden beds, topped with horse manure to encourage worms, sheep manure and compost, crops are rotated. Recent crops included sweet corn, black popping corn, cucumbers, Striato d'Italia and tromboncino zucchini. In a greenhouse made from recycled windows on the north-east side of the house, Donna raises seedlings and places potted citrus and avocados during winter. They have two 10,000 litre water tanks and a chook run with three hens.

One side of the vegie area was filled with Jerusalem artichokes when Donna moved in. They keep popping up every spring but she has now managed to keep them cornered. She likes looking at them, particularly in flower, but has given up trying to eat them, roasted or in soup, as they have a tendency to produce explosive wind.

Pergolas are covered with seedless table varieties of grapes, Selma Peter, Perlette, crimson seedless and ruby seedless. The couple has planted mulberry, fig, apple, nectarine, peach, apricot and cherry trees.

The garden influences what Donna cooks. Crops harvested, prepared and frozen include broad and runner beans, pesto, tomato sauce, stewed apple and rhubarb. Here is her favourite autumn dish. Let the music play.

Cypriot lamb

Cut up chunks of lamb, freshly-harvested potatoes and onions, add seasoning, chopped parsley and cumin seeds. Stir in a generous amount of olive oil. Top with a layer of thickly sliced homegrown tomatoes, dot with butter, pour in a tiny amount of water, cover and cook in a moderate oven for two hours.

Remove the cover, raise the heat to 200C and cook for a further 45 minutes, stirring half way through to give the meat and spuds a chance to brown.