BIRKDALE’S Jill Nixon doesn’t have to travel far to pick up dinner.
As president of the Redlands Organic Growers Inc, the 74-year-old is committed to growing her own food, taking up every bit of her 749sqm suburban block with fruit trees, vegetable plots and a thriving chicken coop.
“I grow on the front, the side, the back and I even grow on the footpath and have been known to stand out the front and offer fruit and vegetables to people walking past. I’m sure they think of me as that crazy lady.
“I have vegetables growing between the driveway tracks – every spare space,” she said.
In so doing, Jill has aimed to create a natural habitat with 37 fruit trees including exotic varieties grumichama (Brazilian cherry), jaboticada, cinnamon, peanut butter and chocolate pudding fruit. There are lemons, bananas, blue berries, mulberries, finger limes, custard apples, dragon fruit and a huge variety of herbs. Jill said she sold some of her produce to The Farm at Wellington Point, which accepts locally grown goods.
“I encourage bees, birds, butterflies, magpies, blue tongues and I offer bird baths and butterfly baths. It’s so satisfying. I am used to having this garden, but every now and then I am reminded that this isn’t normal,” she said.
Jill was raised in a family that grew as much as it could on a sandy block at Palm Beach.
“I worked as a home ec teacher and I think it’s important for kids to know where food comes from.”
Jill joined ROGI in 2009, after completing a course in permaculture.
“It’s fantastic. Everyone has the same interest,” she said.
“We share plants and cuttings and ideas. Really it’s my husband who does the watering and weeding and I do the sowing and planting.”
Jill also enjoys making jams, relishes and tinctures with the produce.
“Rosellas make the best jams and I always make tinctures with elderflowers for colds and flu.”
