The Doula's Garden



A neglected spot in Vickie's garden



The word "doula" , I am reliably told by my wife, literally means "a woman who serves". Far from the connotations of oppression, however, my impression of a doula is one of wisdom, strength and empowerment.

This impression comes from having known Vickie - a local Doula from Canberra who was our "support person" during my wife's pregnancy and throughout her labour and childbirth. Vickie is an amazing woman who provided us with friendship, encouragement, information, education, support and tenderness during an amazing period in the life of our family.



Restored into a fully-functioning vegetable garden complete with a Bay Tree.



So, for me it was a great privilage to recently be asked by Vickie to turn an neglected corner of her garden into a source of food and fun for her family. Although it can, a kitchen garden does not need to have a massive scale, immaculate landscaping, or a complex system of crop rotation. It can simply be a humble patch of dirt that provides a few extra vegetables to supplement the kitchen table. A garden like Vickie’s was relatively low-cost to set up, and is manageable even by the busiest of families. The benefits are not only from the food itself, but as Vickie herself says, simply from the joy that comes from walking out the back door and picking your own bunch of stuff and from adding and changing the variety as the seasons come and go.