Chris Gordon chats with Jamie Durie about

I love the layout of this book, especially where you show what you grow. Lovely design. Yours?

I’m so happy that you like it, I am very proud of it! The design of the pages where we show what plants are grown in each garden came from the design of a Florence Broadhurst fabric. In fact, the end papers and chapter openers of arranged vegetables are also based on Florence Broadhurst fabrics. I’m thrilled with the whole design of the book and our extremely talented designer at Penguin, Evi O did an amazing job.

How do you think about garden design really – step-by-step or in your mind do you see the finished product and work back from there?

I totally see the finished product and I download that to my team and then they work back from there.

The family in Thornbury are pretty inspirational with their fish farm in their back yard and while you make all that sound pretty easy, I imagine it’s actually quite time-consuming.

Yes you do have to be passionate about it and care very much. As with anything if you care about the bigger picture of what you are trying to achieve, it doesn’t really feel like hard work because the end result is so meaningful and valuable to you.

Given that we are heading into the warmer months here in Melbourne where it can be so dry and windy that you can watch leaves shrivel in front of you, what would you recommend we do to prevent such tragedies?

Watering at the end of the day or first thing in the morning to avoid evaporation is beneficial. And make sure to use a combination of water saving crystals and mulch to help retain water in your soil and the mulch as this will help reduce evaporation as well. The water saving crystals absorb water and provide moisture around the plant roots while a good layer of mulch can reduce evaporation from the soil surface by as much as 70%.

What’s your favourite dish to cook using summer veggies from the garden?

Using fresh peas, I like to crush the peas slightly with a fork and mix with fresh mint, fresh ricotta, grated parmesan, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and then spread on some good quality toasted sour dough bread that has been rubbed with a raw garlic clove and drizzled with a really good olive oil, and there you have it - Fresh Green Pea Crostini.

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