Over the summer I received a note from Canberra Organic Growers Society.
"One of our gardeners, Sister Veronica, is turning 100 in March," the member wrote.
"She is still a very active gardener and we thought you would like to interview her."
I was especially thrilled as I had featured Les Cook (Kitchen Garden, March 8, 2022) and he turned 100 on January 10 this year. So here was the perfect complementary female gardener.
Veronica Dunphy returned from a trip to New Zealand to see relatives, travelling solo, in December so I drove to Hackett to meet her at the start of Christmas week. We walked along the footpath holding hands, her idea. The front garden of her townhouse, where she lives independently, is filled with colourful potted plants. Her dear fellow Sister lives just across the way.
Our conversation was lively. She is modest but told me about growing up with six siblings on the family farm where, in Canberra Organic magazine in Autumn 2016 and 2020, she was described as "fit as a fiddle and sharp as a tack". She milked cows from the age of four, and ploughed the land using a horse. She joined the Church, L'Arche, working with people with disabilities.
The Order bought an old Fairfax house in Burradoo which was a boarding school and Veronica helped cater for 200 people for 20 years. She spent six years running a motivation garden for Aboriginal people at Three Springs, four hours from Geraldton in Western Australia, "almost in the desert". Her first crop there was potatoes, including the King Edward variety. The Indigenous people so trusted her that they allowed her to massage them, one of her occupational roles. Her warm nature attracts people.
Nine years ago she got her first plot at Dickson community garden. There she is known for her magic compost to which she adds mushroom compost and horse manure collected from stables. She also enjoys working with students from Dickson College who visit the garden and to whom she offers her experience. Then there is the bounty from her vegetable garden which she shares. Veronica loves nature, birds, worms and believes in "knowing your soil".
Among her crops are snow peas, organic celery, broadbeans, radishes, lettuce, beetroot, garlic, leeks, silver beet and huge cauliflowers. The harvest keeps her in vegetables year-round.
In her plot she finds possums do not eat anything from the garlic family, celery, tomatoes and climbing beans or dwarf beans. Meanwhile, every leaf on this writer's grapevine and semi-espaliered crabapple has been eaten by the possum, first time ever for both. Sarah, a keen gardener from Watson, who has had rats eating low hanging tomatoes, told me having a dog is the best protection, even their lingering smell. She had heard even dog hair clippings help.
So I asked a dog groomer for hair, which is washed before clipping, and was told if it is placed in the sun for a few hours the dog smell could return. (For health reasons, dog hair is usually bagged and discarded.) The hair has been spread and some new leaves have appeared. Is it a coincidence?
Artist and designer Michele England of Braddon (Kitchen Garden, March 2, 2020) whose garden has welcomed visitors for Open Gardens Canberra, is a co-plot holder at Dickson community garden. She is a friend of Veronica and kindly agreed to photograph her at the Dickson community garden (as Veronica did not want the fuss of a The Canberra Times photographer having to visit the garden.) Michele captured our marvellous 99-year-old with her rare baby pumpkins, holding a bunch of mint and at the recent working bee.
When we met, Veronica was harvesting fresh raspberries, blackberries, and 500g of antioxidant-rich goji berries (lycium barbarum) which she says grows easily and shoots everywhere and are a fine addition to muesli.
Veronica's favourite recipe comes from her time at the Burradoo residence. It was carefully guarded; a secret formula from Albert Herbert Shelley, manager of Shelley and Sons who made cordials. He was famous for his mint sauce. We've given the imperial measurements as per the original recipe, with my conversions.
Bert's mint sauce
Ingredients
- 15 fluid oz malt vinegar (444ml)
- 9 fluid oz water (266ml)
- 1 full 8 oz cup sugar (227g)
- 3 heaped tbsp dry mint
Boil above ingredients together for 10 minutes. Leave the lid on the pot until the mixture is cold.
Place the mint sauce in two 6oz bottles and seal.
