Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art is ripping up its lawns and planting vegetables and herbs, inspired by wartime victory gardens. And MONA wants you to get involved by planting your own edible answer to supermarket hoarding and lots of home time.
The MONA Victory Gardens are the brainchild of contemporary artist, curator and sustainable architecture proponent Kirsha Kaechele, known as the Queen of MONA (her parking spot says 'God's Wife', as she's married to MONA founder David Walsh).
Inspired by a commendable wartime make-do-and-mend attitude, she's dug up MONA's pristine lawns and sown some serious seeds. Channelling the 'Dig for Victory’ campaign launched by prime minister John Curtin during WWII, Kaechele is encouraging households across Australia to grow their own veggies. A smart way to fill ration-hungry tums and keep fit and healthy, victory gardens seem particularly apt in these times.
You can get inspo on how best to transform “fucking useless lawns into a bountiful vegetable garden” by checking out Kaechele’s MONA Victory Garden Insta here. Post your own progress using the hashtag #monavictorygardensproject. While there are prizes up for grabs, they're restricted to Tassie residents only.
The MONA crew have also planted some handy links to help you get growing, including Goodlife Permaculture, Milkwood, and the good folks over at the Kitchen Garden Foundation.
Even better, once you’ve worked up a sweat digging for victory, you can lather up your grubby paws (for at least 20 seconds, naturally) with the help of MONA’s *ahem* interesting soap range…
Lacking a lawn? Have no fear, learn how to grow a balcony farm here.