High Contrast

Harriet runs the edible-bed and soil coverage for Garden Care. She and her partner Tom (a primary school teacher) live in the Adelaide Hills, on a 1,200 sqm market garden Harriet took over from her parents fifteen years ago. The block sits in a frost pocket about fifty minutes east of the city, with a cool-temperate climate that is brutal on tomatoes in October and gentle on brassicas in July. Harriet grew up walking the rows with her father — a third-generation grower — and likes to say she learned to weed before she learned to read. These days she runs the kitchen garden almost single-handedly, sells excess at the local farmers' market each Saturday, and writes for us on weekday mornings before the heat hits the polytunnel. She has strong opinions about hot composting (yes), no-dig (mostly yes), and the marketing copy on commercial seedling tags (no). Her current obsession is heritage tomato seed saving — she has a freezer drawer of envelopes labelled in her father's handwriting going back to the 1970s. She gardens with a kelpie cross called Wattle and two laying hens, Phyllis and Rita. If she is not in the garden, she is probably reading Eliot Coleman or arguing with the Diggers Club newsletter.