Nursery owners offer fresh perspectives on healthy growing

6 Jul

**Dave Jarrett and his wife Amanda Lamb in the nursery ... “We love the idea of helping people create their own chemical-free food gardens”.**

One of soil guru Dave Jarret’s dreams has long been to do for backyard gardeners what he does for Aussie farmers. That’s why he and his wife Amanda Lamb set up The Garden Shed Nursery and Cafe in Flaxton.

In a natural extension of their existing Sustainable Soil Solutions business, Dave and Amanda opened the nursery and cafe just six weeks ago.

The popularity of the cafe only serves to prove that many people are indeed looking for fresh, local and chemical free offerings.

“We have ten people working here and we all share the same passion for and commitment to chemical free, fresh food production,” said Dave. “In fact, we nearly all have the same training in horticulture and regenerative and sustainable living. Even our barista!”

A biological agronomist and farmer by trade, Dave’s passion is to bring the benefits of sustainable organic farming to the backyards of Australia. “Even if your backyard is a high rise balcony on a city block, organic gardening is possible,” said Dave.

“The secret to successful gardening is getting the right nutrients back into your soil at home, and to do that we need to know where your soil needs help. Once we understand that we can get the micro-biology correct and set you up - whether it is one fruit tree in a garden or you are starting a whole food forest.

“Healthy organic soil is a living organism teeming with microscopic life that is essential to maintain life on the planet and it is maintained by chemical free gardening.

“We love the idea of helping people to grow their own chemical free food. It has never been more important that we eat fresh, healthy, seasonal real food,” Dave said. “We are constantly being told to eat more leafy greens, but in Australia, most of the commercially produced leafy greens are grown hydroponically. They are not grown in nutrient dense soil.”

The Garden Shed Nursery and Cafe

The Garden Shed Nursery and Cafe is open every day except Monday, and serves breakfast, morning tea and lunch. All food is available to take away.

“We serve delicious French baguettes and croissants which are baked fresh every day and we will be concentrating on changing our menu every 30 days in line with seasonal produce. The idea is to keep our food fresh, clean and green for our customers. We have been particularly happy that people have continued to support us during this most recent lockdown which is just devastating for small businesses.”

• The Garden Shed Nursery and Cafe is at 342 Flaxton Drive, Flaxton. You can call on 5478 6193 or book the best seat in the house on their Facebook page @thegardenshednurseryandcafe