It's FIMBY time

I met, and had a wonderful hour with, two intelligent, motivated and passionate women on Monday. These two women are the brains behind a gardening enterprise named FIMBY, or to call it by its full name, Food in my Backyard. Christina and Juliet are the two women in question.

Their concept is simple: they provide a service for people who are interested in growing their own food, in their backyard, or on their balcony or wherever. It is a service which all manner of people can utilize, whether you’re a time-poor office worker with lofty ideals, or an old-ager with bending difficulties. The girls can tailor a service to your needs.

If you have used them to develop your backyard patch of heaven and need to have a holiday, the girls can come in and maintain your garden in your absence. They will do as much, or as little, as you want them to in your horticultural journey.

They can help you create a productive garden, or be self-sufficient with fruit and vegetables you’ve grown your very own self. They will provide their expertise and enthusiasm; all the seeds and seedlings and soil amendments you might need; a garden design tailored to your available area, sun, and eating preferences. If you want an above-ground, no-bending-required type garden, they’ll organize it. If you want the watering system integrated within your garden, they will assist.

Eating and shopping habits are changing (not before time!) and with that comes the desire and awareness of people generally to regain control of the food they (and their families) consume. The awareness and knowledge of eating seasonally is becoming more widespread, so that people who have previously been disconnected with their food and its origins, are now discovering a whole world out there previously undiscovered and even perhaps unsuspected

Having developed the initial concept, and with their reputation growing daily (mostly through word of mouth), and the obvious direct link and relationship between growing food and eating it, the girls aren’t resting on their laurels, and are now looking at related issues of integrating food with cooking sessions. Also developing such things as Aquaponics – a system of having a fishpond in your backyard where you could farm your own, let’s say, trout, plus have directly above it a hydroponic-type growing system of greens, thus incorporating two eating sources at once. They are also looking into the possibilities of developing the backyard farming of things like rabbits, sheep, guinea pigs and chooks – for eating purposes.

The girls have watched their clients evolve into shoppers who, once they start growing their own produce, resent paying higher prices for food they know with certainty are cheap and easy to grow, and delight in observing the realization (of their clients) of how long food must sit in warehouses and on supermarket shelves before it actually arrives in your fridge then goes ‘off’ the next day! Anyone who has grown their own tarragon, or thyme (it grows like a weed in the pots on Rita’s balcony!) must surely look on in horror at seeing it in the shops for $3.99 for the smallest bunch!

They have also had the foresight to approach a few larger organizations in Hobart with a proposal they are calling Lunchbox Gardens – a brilliant idea which involves staff volunteering in their break times to develop a garden at work which will ultimately produce sufficient ingredients for all to be able to fill a salad roll or sandwich. They say that getting enthusiastic staff to participate in this innovative scheme is the easiest thing in the world – the hardest part is getting the heirachy to commit and act on it!

They are also noticing more of an interest in adding fruit and nut production to the backyard vege garden. The three of us reminisced at great length about some of the more well known old walnut (and almond) trees known to have abounded in public spots around Hobart in days gone by, which have since been chopped down to make way for housing developments - all in the name of progress.

I have had a link here on my blog to the FIMBY website for ages, and encourage you, if you have even the slightest interest in matters of the soil, to call these fabulous women and get digging!

Christina: 0437 009 792
Juliet: 0423 376 530
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