John Ditchburn's open garden event scheduled for this Saturday has been cancelled

"Unfortunately, due to changes to the coronavirus restrictions, I have had to cancel the Urban Food Garden open day this Saturday." Mr Ditchburn said.

More details can be found on his Facebook posting for details (https://www.facebook.com/urbanfoodgarden.blog/posts/4402075486485880).

EARLIER

Ballarat's pre-eminent organic food garden expert - and The Courier's beloved cartoonist - John Ditchburn will open up his home garden to let people learn first-hand.

Mr Ditchburn, who also runs urbanfoodgarden.org, said he wanted to make home gardening accessible - not self-sufficiency, but supplementing diets with healthy home-grown produce.

READ MORE: Food is Free to broaden food education focus

"If you do nothing else but grow a tomato plant, that's a good start," he said.

"If you have an interest in growing more, I can help them with a bit of advice and show them how it's all laid out - gardening is about management as much as anything else."

One thing Mr Ditchburn is particularly proud of are his greenhouses, which have served him well through Ballarat's cold winters.

The garden includes fruit trees and berry bushes, a chicken run, compost bins and a seedling propagation bench.

He said his veggie garden has been growing for about 30 years, and interest in the hobby has grown immensely over that time.

While it has peaked during coronavirus lockdowns - many people reported seeds being sold out as spring approached - Mr Ditchburn said it has been a much longer trend.

It's an accessible hobby, from small places like sunlit balconies to grand food gardens like Mr Ditchburn's, and rewarding when the first crops come in.

"I used to run an organisation called Ballarat Organic Growers, and we'd go around to various houses and properties to talk about gardening - we'd have maybe six or 10 people, and if you'd said to me there was going to be as much interest in growing food as there is today, I'd have said you'd have rocks in your head," he said.

"It's taken off incredibly, and that's great, but there's also a lot of people who simply have no idea about how to garden, or grow food, or keep chickens."

The gate will open at Mr Ditchburn's house, at 104 Crompton Street, Soldiers Hill, at 9am on Saturday, January 9.

IN THE NEWS

Entry is a gold coin donation for the Ballarat Community Garden - "a good cause", Mr Ditchburn added.

"It's been a bit hectic, the world is changing at a rapid rate and we face serious challenges environmentally- growing just a little bit of your own food is a good start," he said.

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.