A story about fighting over compost with James Hart

James Hart joins us on the podcast to tell us his gardening stories.

To find out more about James visit...

https://www.jameshart.com.au

Please review, rate, subscribe, follow and like the show. Your support will help us keep this podcast going.

To find out more about R.A. Spratt visit raspratt.com
To find out more about Jacqueline Harvey visit jacquelineharvey.com.au
To find out more about Tim Harris visit timharrisbooks.com

Transcript

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Rachel Spratt: Hello, and welcome to real stories with random writers. I'm Ray Spratt, and I'm here with Jacqueline Harvey and Tim Harris, and today's special guest is James Hart. Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: James is the illustrator of the Mr. Bambuckle books, Sky Dragon Fart, Boy Fighty Pets, and a lot of other books about farting the unfunny Bunny, and how to save the whole stinking planet and many, many more. He also wrote and illustrated the Super Geek books, and James' most recent book is Showerland. Welcome to the show, James.

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James Hart: Hello! Thank you for having me guys.

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Rachel Spratt: Well, yeah, well, thank you for coming. And and just so, you know, listeners.

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Rachel Spratt: we were supposed to have Felicia Rene on, and he pulled out like 10 min ago.

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Jacqueline Harvey: He's really sick, Rach, like we gotta give him that. It's really he's really sick.

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Rachel Spratt: Of course he's really sick. Yes, that goes without saying.

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Rachel Spratt: and james kindly has nothing to do in his life. So he just

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Rachel Spratt: but last minute.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Were you just sitting around at home hoping that some random writers would call you up this morning, James, and put you on a podcast?

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James Hart: I hope there's a podcast. I can get on today.

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Rachel Spratt: To save me having to do any work

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Rachel Spratt: alright. Well, we're all book creators, which means we're storytellers. Normally we write our stories down or illustrate them. But for this podcast we're going to tell them out loud instead. And today we're going to be telling stories about gardening. So let's get into it, Tim. You're up first.

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Tim Harris: Okay. Well, the thing about gardens is you. You sort of have quite a few as you go through life, don't you? And you know we we when I say we so Heidi, Jan and I started in a little apartment, and our garden was 3 pop plants on the balcony, so gardens can can come in all different shapes and sizes.

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Tim Harris: At the moment we have a fair bit of grass on our front lawn. So after we moved out of our apartment, we we had a little villa with a veggie patch that we grew some veggies, and the kids love just picking fresh carrots. And have you guys ever grown your own carrots.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, yeah.

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Tim Harris: They are.

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Rachel Spratt: To grow, though they don't.

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James Hart: And Crestron, unless you go.

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Rachel Spratt: Really sandy soil.

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Tim Harris: They just taste so carroty.

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Tim Harris: Like it's it's almost like.

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Tim Harris: you know, when you get those lollies in their strawberry flavor, and they're exaggerated strawberry.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah. Bananas. Lollies, too. Yeah.

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Tim Harris: That's what I think. Carrots taste.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Home, grown, carrots.

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Tim Harris: I'm blank.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Over. Yeah, like, like, they're not real. Yeah, yeah, that's a bit like.

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James Hart: Have you got carrot lollies? I reckon.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah, tomatoes are like that, too, though I I grow my own tomatoes, and they taste so much better than anything you buy in the shops.

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Tim Harris: I like the idea of carrot lollies, Jed, so.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And.

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Tim Harris: Well, if you're coming, if you're cooking.

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Rachel Spratt: And and you want to add sugar to something adding, carrot is a good way to do it, because.

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Tim Harris: Sweet! I can do my.

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Rachel Spratt: Can Bolognese or something. You want it to taste.

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James Hart: Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: Grating, some carrot.

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Tim Harris: Say, come to Mcdonald's and never have a new Nick Carrots Burger. That would be interesting. So we've got a bit of grass and the suburb we leave north Epping has got a whole bunch of wild rabbits, and they're just everywhere.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, I'm amazed. They local, because I am from Epping, and I know what the people in Epping are like. I'm amazed. The locals don't catch and eat them.

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Tim Harris: That's.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Where.

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Tim Harris: Yeah.

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Tim Harris: to them.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Where where I live. They do.

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Tim Harris: Well, here we catch them and pet them.

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Jacqueline Harvey: No.

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Tim Harris: Not almost and they're often those sort of you know. The the wild ones have got the the different shades of brown and gray like you can sort of tell. You know these are the wild ones. Well, there's a

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Tim Harris: I'll say, inverted quotes here inverted commas rather. There's a wild black one that was must have been someone's pet, and it's the healthiest looking rabbit you have ever seen.

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Tim Harris: and it pretty much owns the section of North Epping that we live in, and it's got to the point where where this carrot has this, with this carrot.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And it's.

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Tim Harris: This carrot loves eating rabbits.

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Tim Harris: This rabbit has sussed out the good houses, the houses with the people that are kind, and the houses with the people that

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Tim Harris: offer carrots. And so yesterday I had a home day working from home, and just sort of took a stretch and was walking around. And what do I say on the front lawn? But Mr. Black Rabbit, just sitting there? This, you know, his coat shining in the sunlight.

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Tim Harris: and I thought alright time to grab a little bit of carrot from the fringe and and take it out. So much is his trust in the Harris family that he'll actually come, and he'll practically eat out of your hand. Now this wild rabbit, and so.

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Rachel Spratt: I thought you were. Gonna say, he'd come into your house and get things out of the fridge.

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Tim Harris: I think that's the next step. Rachel, have the free jump, and in fact, he has. So we've got steps leading up to the front door, and he actually has climbed the steps and sort of sat outside the front door waiting to be invited in. But he's so time. But it's got to the point now where we've started to care for these black Rabbit, and every time we drive around we'll say, Well, where's Black? We haven't given him a name yet. Just Black Rabbit. Where's Black Rabbit? Where's Black Rabbit? We hope he hasn't been hit by a car yet.

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Tim Harris: you know, cause we cause sometimes if you don't see him for a few days with, we think, oh, no, he's gone like that's the end of the Black Rabbit era. But no, he's pushing on strong. It's been. What do you reckon? How did that 3 years

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Tim Harris: that 2 or 3 years, at least 2 or 3 years that this Black Rabbit has just been loitering around our house, eating from our our hands. So our garden has produced a wild pet for us, which is pretty cool, and the other wild pet we have was during covid lockdown we we had in the kidna wander through the front yard because all the wildlife, you know, crept out because there wasn't much traffic moving around.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, that's really cool. I remember I went to the Botanic Gardens during Covid because I was doing an audio book, and no one had been in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney for like a year.

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Rachel Spratt: and there was all these like huge lizards that obviously, instead of being besieged by tourists, the the gardens in the center of Sydney had, like Re, the animals, had reclaimed the gardens for themselves during Covid. It was really great to see.

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James Hart: That's cool.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And not just the bin chickens.

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Rachel Spratt: Actual native lizards.

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Tim Harris: There'd be some inner city people who have got 15 pet bin chickens.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Would.

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Rachel Spratt: We've started to get them here in barrel. I've never seen them until like the last couple of months, so they're spreading.

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Rachel Spratt: It was.

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Tim Harris: Yeah, so that's our garden story. So the garden is just a bit of grass and yeah, and it's given us a pet which is pretty cool.

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Rachel Spratt: That's very cool. Hey? Do you follow? Like, as I said, I grew up near where Tim lives. Do you follow humans of Eastwood on Facebook or Instagram?

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Tim Harris: I think my wife does.

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Rachel Spratt: Because it's like it's a very eccentric part of Sydney, and they just it's it's very warmhearted like you should follow it. It's very funny like. It shows all the bad parking and stuff like that. But every year they have the crimes of the year committed in that area, and last year. Someone in your area, Tim.

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James Hart: Trouble! They go.

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Rachel Spratt: Fined for killing and eating a bush turkey.

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Tim Harris: Oh, goodness! I was hoping you! I was hoping you.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Well.

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James Hart: Yeah, you don't call it rabbit.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Don't quarantine.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And in fact, when when we lived in pimble when our cat lived in Pimble, he, my father, says that there are wanted posters all around Pimble, because my cat he was a bit of a champion at bringing down the odd bush turkey or 2, and and it it was pointed out to me that that comes with a a fairly whopping 20 something $1,000 fine. If you kill.

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James Hart: Take.

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Jacqueline Harvey: But then I mean.

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Rachel Spratt: I remember when they first came back, the Bush turkeys, and everyone was so pleased to see them. It's like this, you know. They're magnificent, you know, old birds, and they they make that really cool goble sound. That's just funny to hear. But then, you know, you get quite a few, and they're really destructive to people's gardens, and people do not like having them in their garden. So.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Once we had in Pimble. They used to build these enormous nests, and they were probably about 2 meters high, and they would. The gardeners would come. I lived in a apartment complex, and the gardeners would come, and they would put all the mulch out, and it was all looking really beautiful, and the very next morning it'd be this like mound, mountain mulch, and the bushes would be laying the eggs in there and our cat, while you know I never encouraged this behavior. He was a bit of a legend

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Jacqueline Harvey: apartments, and when when he moved to New Zealand I've had people lamenting the fact that, you know, could you bring him back again.

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Rachel Spratt: Thank you.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Like right.

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James Hart: Mercenary. Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: At one stage he was up to about $400,000 in fines. If I really.

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Tim Harris: Whoa!

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Jacqueline Harvey: And at all.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, that's that's bad. You should still be.

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James Hart: Fancy it out.

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Rachel Spratt: Reward, very.

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Jacqueline Harvey: That. Yeah. Very happy.

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Rachel Spratt: Have any pests in your garden, James, that cause you headaches.

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James Hart: I'm not afraid.

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Rachel Spratt: And obviously like.

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James Hart: Oh, yeah, there!

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James Hart: What have we had?

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James Hart: Well, the other day we we noticed like a lot of the King parrots. We get.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh yes!

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James Hart: And they're beautiful, and they're raising, and we feed them, and we probably please shouldn't. But they may come. Everything else.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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James Hart: And they like Chili.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, really.

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James Hart: Surprise that chilly.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah. Chickens do, too, because they don't have the thing that makes them feel the hot. So there's actually a place in Italy where they only feed chicken's chili, and then they get like

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Rachel Spratt: eggs with red

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Rachel Spratt: yokes, and even the whites are a bit.

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James Hart: Real.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And they're the ones they cook for like a porto with the Chili cheese.

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James Hart: Yeah, yeah, why did you say it really just makes sense.

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Rachel Spratt: Mexico red. But yeah, yeah. And also King Paris. Did you know that? Do you have an oak tree in your garden at all?

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James Hart: Yes. Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: They will get drunk on the acorns, because I have a huge oak tree, and they eat the acorns. They get really drunk, and then they slam into the house.

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Tim Harris: Whoa!

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Rachel Spratt: And they they die from any hitting the house so hard, cause they're just so off their face drunk.

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James Hart: Yeah, we've had a few birds that have hit windows and died tonight.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah. It's sad.

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Jacqueline Harvey: They? They strip the timber to a lot of the parrots, they they if you have a lot of timber work on the outside of your house, they'll actually strip the timber off your house so they can be incredibly.

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James Hart: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Disruptive.

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Rachel Spratt: Because I ring church bells. Cockatoos will do so much damage to the outside of bell towers.

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James Hart: Wow!

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Rachel Spratt: Rip the louvers off and stuff, and because it's so high off the ground, no tradie wants to come and fix it. So it's quite a problem. They did something like $60,000 worth of damage.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Wow!

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Rachel Spratt: Power at All Saints in Parramatta. These cockatoos. Yeah.

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James Hart: These animals are adding up.

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Jacqueline Harvey: So much damage, so much damage. And you know you asked them about whether we have any pests in the garden? Right? An interesting thing. Because I'm I'm in New Zealand at the moment, and we have a hedgehog that lives in our garden. Because in in New Zealand they? We don't have any, you know, like kidneys. Well, I I say, we don't have kangaroos. They are actually kangaroos in New Zealand now, but a kit hedgehogs. Rather they are super cute, but they are considered. Really, they're just vermin.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And New Zealand has a. They have a program here called Predator free 2050. And it's basically about trapping everything that's not native. So all these trends, we go home by.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, I was gonna say.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Fantastic!

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Rachel Spratt: Wrapping and deport.

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Jacqueline Harvey: All of us as well. But no, it's things like fox has never made it here, which is great.

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James Hart: That is good.

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Jacqueline Harvey: But some of stoats and weasels and ferrets, and I've seen them out in in the, you know, in the paddocks, rabbits, rats, hedgehogs

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Jacqueline Harvey: and and a lot of wild deer. So there's a safe carrier.

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Rachel Spratt: Was that thought, you know, I'm Co. Going to New Zealand from England on a ship must take my hedgehog with me. Decision, I mean stoats, you can sort of think. Oh, you're going to use them for.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Wrestle so.

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Rachel Spratt: Thing. Okay.

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Jacqueline Harvey: That the rabbits weren't here until they came either. So.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

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James Hart: Matter. Some little boy like had it in his pocket.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: They're actually I mean, the the hedgehogs are really cute, but if you see them during the day they're not very well. And they're probably going off to die and and then you really shouldn't touch them, cause they they're not very healthy, even though they're cute so. But no, I do. I have a garden story and a a proper garden story. Okay? So mine is a story from

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Jacqueline Harvey: childhood, from when I was very young. So I've I've grown up with, you know, numerous different houses and different gardens, and at the moment, Rachel, you've seen that I I live on a house that has not a lot of garden, but I am surrounded by paddocks, so you know, I've had all iterations. I lived in barrel on 10 acres. So you know, I've had the big garden, and I've had the the small gardens. But this was a story from when I was a little girl, and it was the first house my parents built.

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Jacqueline Harvey: and it was at Ingleburn, and we'd moved all the way from Fairfield, where we lived with my grandparents in the in the garage down the back that was converted into a flat, and we'd moved to Ingleburn. You would have thought we moved to Perth actually cause my grandparents used to complain so much about how far away it was. But anyway, my mom and dad had built this new house and my mom they'd got all these roles of turf.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And so my mom, you know, she's thinking, oh, well, I'll lay some turf. And and I was about 4 at the time, and my I had a new baby sister who was only one.

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Jacqueline Harvey: anyway. So I'm out in the garden, and Mom's got Sarah, you know, in her little baby crib thing and and Mom's rolling out the turf, and you know she's a she's real. Get go go get up

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Jacqueline Harvey: anyway, my mother says to me.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Look, I'm just going to take your sister and put it a bed, so don't touch anything.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And so, me being very helpful, very helpful child. I pick up a brand new pitchfork, but it's not like the pitchfork with the like. The spiky times. It's the like a garden fork with the the squared off times, you know.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Brand new one, right? So anyway, I thought, I can dig the garden. And so I'm going dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. And I realized I went

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Jacqueline Harvey: and I put one of the times right through my foot.

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Rachel Spratt: R.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Through my foot, and I didn't realize quite how strong I was. Clearly. And I I'm standing there and I'm stuck to the ground. I couldn't move, and my mom's inside, and I couldn't.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, be a story.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I know it's a horrible story, but I've got the scar. It's you know. It's a very prominent scar in the middle of my foot.

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Rachel Spratt: So later.

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James Hart: What's.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Okay. So the man across the road from us, Bruce, he was mowing his grass, and I'm there, and I'm kind of like I'm waving, waving like help because I couldn't scream. You know, when you have that reaction that you are so shocked that you can't make a noise.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Anyway, he's just like giving me a wave. Jack, how you going, darling! Anyway I am. I thought I have to do something about this, so I reefed it out and.

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Tim Harris: I thought you were. Gonna say, your pogo sticks.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I think.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Hold it out, and there is a lot everywhere. Anyway. My mother gets out. She goes. Oh, my God! Anyway, she grabs me and takes me to the side. The porch at the side of the house, and she's like runs inside. She just got tissues, and she's mopping up the top of my foot, and she's kind still waiting. Anyway, she takes off my brand new sandal that I had put a hole straight.

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Rachel Spratt: Go.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And she realizes that the reason it's still bleeding is that I had put it straight through and out the other side, and so I'd gone all the way through.

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Tim Harris: Whoa!

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Jacqueline Harvey: Mom didn't have a car. We had to get the next door neighbor to drive us to the doctors, and you know what they couldn't do anything about it, because it was a hole like through my foot. They couldn't.

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Tim Harris: Yeah. Must have missed the bones. Then did miss the bones.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Every bone, every tenden like. I missed everything which is a miracle, and so I just had to go to. I remember it. We? I went to the doctor and had a technic shot, and then he just bound it up, basically, and said, it has to heal from the inside out.

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Rachel Spratt: That is good.

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Tim Harris: 17.

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James Hart: Oh!

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Jacqueline Harvey: It was probably 19. I don't know. 73, 74.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh!

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Jacqueline Harvey: So there you go. So that's my that was my, you know. Introduction to gardening. Put a picture.

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Tim Harris: Have you used a pitchfork since.

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James Hart: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I have. I? I have used a lot of garden tools since then, you know. I'm quite, quite the dab hand with a whippet snipper, and I used to often be on the ride on Mower. In fact, you know, you would have thought that it would have turned my father off teaching us how to mow the grass. But I was about 9, and Dad said, Right, you're gonna learn how to use the mower.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh!

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Tim Harris: You know those movies when the like, all the townspeople go after the bad per people with the pitchforks.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

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Tim Harris: We imagine, like they're all waving them up in the air. And here comes Jackie, just using it as a pogo stick.

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James Hart: That's I was kind of.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

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Tim Harris: Going to.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Fairly horrible, and then about I don't know. A couple of weeks later and I fell on my head, and I got a fraction skull. So I was. That was my that was my very bad time, as far as you know, being that was the childhood injury time.

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Rachel Spratt: That's a horrendous.

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Tim Harris: Wondering why the why the garb needed ironing.

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Jacqueline Harvey: No, that happened when I was, I was actually on my hands and knees playing with my aunty around the my, my!

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Rachel Spratt: Don't tell me the iron was on at the time.

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Jacqueline Harvey: No, it wasn't on, but she knocked the ironing board, and I I couldn't. I couldn't do anything because I was on my hands in these because I couldn't walk because of the pitchfork incident, and my auntie knocked the ironing board, and the iron fell on my head.

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Jacqueline Harvey: and there was masses blood, you know what head injuries like, you know, head injuries and kids. There's lots of blood, anyway. So my poor Nana, she's looking after me. She's like Oh, my God, you know, anyway. It! A again. A real 70 story right?

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Did we go to the hospital? No.

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Rachel Spratt: No.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Get any sort of, you know. Exam. Night, and it wasn't until I had a Ct. Scan as an adult, and it said that I had a former compression. Fracture of the skull.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh!

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Tim Harris: Okay.

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Rachel Spratt: That is so hardcore, yeah. And kids.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah.

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Rachel Spratt: They wouldn't believe it like our parents wouldn't have dreamed of calling an ambulance for us like you think there's a hole in your 4 year old's foot, like I would call an ambulance.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Not.

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Rachel Spratt: No.

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James Hart: Tastes like.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Neighbors. We went to the neighbors, and I remember I think the neighbor I can't remember she she drove us to the doctor down the road.

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Jacqueline Harvey: But that's okay. I've lived to tell the tale, and you know I never ever told my Nana that I had a fractured skull, cause I thought it would upset her too much if she knew so.

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Rachel Spratt: Well, Jackie and I are going to a very posh dinner on Friday.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, we are! Yes.

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Rachel Spratt: The Dimocks children's charities, and don't wear stockings, Jackie, because I want to see that. So I'm going to make.

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James Hart: So everyone!

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Jacqueline Harvey: You want to see the scout alright, I'll make sure I wear sandals on on Friday night.

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James Hart: Free up on it's like.

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Tim Harris: Guys, could we? Yeah, could we please have a spotlight over.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah, I want to see that this story is actually true. Well, no, it totally is, you know.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Many years later, you know, 51 years later, I.

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Rachel Spratt: We'll get you to tell that story while everyone's eating as well.

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James Hart: Yeah. Alright.

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Rachel Spratt: Right, James, do you have a story for us about gardening?

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James Hart: Not really validators, but.

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James Hart: Not not a gruesome one. I was just gonna explain, like

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James Hart: where my garden is now, I guess so.

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Rachel Spratt: That's awesome. Because I remember I met James. What was it? 5, 6 years ago we did a tour together.

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James Hart: Go ahead and.

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Rachel Spratt: Because I love gardening, and you was to explain how you'd like buried a tree in your garden to nurture the soil, and I'm like that is awesome.

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James Hart: Yes.

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Rachel Spratt: Tell me more.

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James Hart: Well, we don't live there anymore. So we move. We moved to a different

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James Hart: outside of Victoria, where we've got a bit more land, so I could expand that gardening adventure.

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Rachel Spratt: But some.

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James Hart: But yeah, so what I did in the old place was I did. I dug like a made a deep trench. People probably looked over the fence. Probably. Still, I was digging graves.

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Rachel Spratt: You're a prepper, you know, one of these people preparing for doomsday.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Take care.

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James Hart: I've done that as well, but

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James Hart: they would. Everyone else was rushing out toilet paper and stuff I'm like, well, I already have it.

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James Hart: yes, I would. I dug this big

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James Hart: trenches because I've learned about this thing called Google Culture.

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Rachel Spratt: Dougal culture.

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James Hart: Who go with it.

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Rachel Spratt: Okay.

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James Hart: It's it's a German, I think. Word I I don't remember what it actually means. But

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James Hart: you you build like mounds of

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James Hart: So you start with logs, and you put on just garden waste and other stuff like a big

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James Hart: compost, really. But it's on the outside. But I did it. I did it inverted underground so that I could then plant trees into that cool.

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James Hart: And it worked. Okay. We grew a cherry tree almost as tall as the house. In a year or 2.

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Tim Harris: Oh, it just.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Impressive.

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James Hart: It worked. It really. Helped the soil, and I was learning about how food, forest work

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James Hart: and how trees all talk to each other

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James Hart: underground through the fungus.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh!

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James Hart: Yeah. So I was learning how like by adding all that stuff under the ground I was actually producing. It's called mycelium, I think, which is like all the fungus that then streams together and talks to each other. And it feeds sugars into trees which helps the trays grow bigger.

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Rachel Spratt: Also it fixes nitrogen from the air.

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James Hart: Yes.

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Rachel Spratt: Nitrogen is the most common element in the air.

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Rachel Spratt: but there's not many ways of getting that nitrogen into plants and then we eat the plants like we need nitrogen for our bodies. So it's really. And this fungus and bacteria and things like that are key in like life and taking stuff from the air and making it into something that life forms can consume.

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James Hart: Yeah, yeah, and so now, we're on just 3 acres now. And I've just been

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James Hart: experimenting and doing lots of different things.

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James Hart: And I really love building compost

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James Hart: and my kids have started getting into that this morning. They were fighting over. Who's gonna get the scraps.

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Tim Harris: Compost.

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James Hart: To put into their own copups. I'm like, whose kids do that. But.

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Rachel Spratt: Weird kids.

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James Hart: Yeah, our hard school kids.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Oh, no! When when I worked in school, James, we had we had a like a worm farm and compost, and whatever and the kids used to. I can remember down when I lived in in barrel and worked at the school in Vidagon. We introduced it, and it was literally like a punch up to things.

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James Hart: Aye.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Fuck it out and look at the worms. That's good.

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James Hart: Like, yeah, so you.

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Rachel Spratt: Boss. Heap's getting hot.

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James Hart: Yeah. So at the moment, I've just started the new one, because I've been really slack, and I've got the chick, maybe to have chickens around it as well.

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James Hart: But I was building. I could build a compost.

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James Hart: and you turn it every day, and you have to water it and just get it going. And it was getting really hot. And it was. It's exciting to take the kids out

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James Hart: like early in the morning, and I would just put a pitchfork into it, not my foot, but into the compost. And I

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James Hart: and the kids. I was like, Watch this, and then all the stainless.

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Tim Harris: Same, yeah.

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James Hart: Glowing out of it, and you put your hand in it, and you couldn't keep it there for very long, because it was so hot.

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Rachel Spratt: So awesome. Now you gotta harness that energy.

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James Hart: Yeah, now, to become.

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Rachel Spratt: Self-sufficient.

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James Hart: That's what I thought. I'm like, how can you put like

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James Hart: a bag over that to like, use that heat and.

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Rachel Spratt: Or put like a water tank in it, or something. Make hot water.

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James Hart: What I realized, too, is, if if the

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James Hart: concept of that's quite simple where you're using like dead brown material and a living grey material together.

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James Hart: and that then heats up

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James Hart: in pretty much overnight like you. We got some made some mulch, and that did the same thing. It hates up in the middle. So I thought if you were stuck out like in the bush, or something in a survival situation.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, he's trying to say warm.

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James Hart: If you grab like.

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00:40:50.410 --> 00:40:53.249
James Hart: did like dead material and living material.

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James Hart: chanted it all up.

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James Hart: The other thing you probably should do is actually have a way on it.

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James Hart: 7 and.

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Rachel Spratt: You or 2 gets on that wombat? Who in there.

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James Hart: It adds, adds a bit of that nitrogen to it, and then, if you just left that, and then you put like a blanket on that and lie, and overnight it's going to keep you warm.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, but the.

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Tim Harris: Rescue, as well.

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Rachel Spratt: Want to let you in the event.

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James Hart: Yeah, probably not. You probably don't need to wear it. It would help.

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Rachel Spratt: But when you're in a survival situation, you wee on everything you know you drink your wee, you wee, on all your injuries.

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James Hart: Sit.

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Rachel Spratt: You do.

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James Hart: That's.

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Tim Harris: James last week. I was lucky enough to actually see your garden in person. We traveled down to spend some time in Victoria, and James gave us a tour, and we were walking along and having a look at all these amazing things that James was growing, and because it's you know. Nice generously sized property there, patches of grass, and in the middle of the grass, James, you just had some random vegetables growing that look like you didn't plant them.

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Tim Harris: did I?

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00:41:55.020 --> 00:41:57.042
James Hart: Stuff just comes up from nowhere.

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Tim Harris: So it's that. So how? How is that possible?

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James Hart: Yeah. So when I was planning a few things, I would use some compost that I'd already had, and then I'll put that in the ground first.

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James Hart: And obviously there's still saves that are living and wanting to

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James Hart: become plants. And they they just come up.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Don't you get that one guy, too.

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Tim Harris: That's right.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Sometimes birds just drop like.

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James Hart: But let's do that.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I had a tomato plant, a cherry tomato plant that randomly grew in her back garden a couple of years ago, and it was probably just from a bird that it dropped, you know.

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Rachel Spratt: Had tomato plants grow in my gutter. Yeah.

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Jacqueline Harvey: I mean, I just yeah. They just do tend to pop up at times, and that's often just from birds or from, as you say, James, from the mulch that you put around, or whatever, and you could get lots of things growing.

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James Hart: We've got. We have parsley everywhere, and we we call it gutter parsley, isn't it?

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Jacqueline Harvey: Just.

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James Hart: All through the cataclysm.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And mint is like.

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Rachel Spratt: Like to get.

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Jacqueline Harvey: And kill them with an x.

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James Hart: That.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Part of thing to get rid of once you've got parsley and me forget it. They're all through my veggie gardens as well cause, even though I live on a small smallish block of land. Rachel has seen the fact that I do have a raised vegetable gardens out the back that are quite productive. So.

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

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Tim Harris: Yeah, where you get the home shopping delivered Jackie.

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00:43:15.910 --> 00:43:16.915
Jacqueline Harvey: No.

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Tim Harris: Tap in the door in the morning.

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Jacqueline Harvey: Celery I currently have. I pulled the tomatoes out the other day, but I do have celery and.

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Rachel Spratt: I've got tomatoes. That's impressive, cause it's it is cold where you live.

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Jacqueline Harvey: No, I pulled. I just pulled the tomatoes out, cause they were at the end of their

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Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

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00:43:31.933 --> 00:43:34.869
Jacqueline Harvey: Their use. But no, we've had brilliant tomatoes all through.

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Rachel Spratt: Oh, well done, you! That's awesome, very good, all right, although I better tell my story. So my story

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Rachel Spratt: I was cause we, since. James agreed to be on just like literally minutes ago, and I and it was my idea to do gardening stories. And then I'm like, Oh, my goodness.

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Rachel Spratt: because it's like gardening can be quite dull, for people aren't into gardening. But then, I remember, I I like James. I have chickens and chickens are a never ending source of drama, because, you know, they get eaten by foxes and they attract rats. But during covid times you know how we all went nuts in covid times. I know I went pretty nuts because you don't have any

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Rachel Spratt: connection with normal adults. And so you start doing things, and no one says you're nuts, stop doing that. So I went a little nuts because

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Rachel Spratt: I was paying more attention to the chickens than usual, and it was kind of odd. The eggs

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Rachel Spratt: they start to get holes in them, and I'm like what is going on. Why do my eggs suddenly have holes in them. You know that this is something wrong with the chickens, rats getting in and eating the eggs. And then one day I'm sitting at the dining table with my kids. They're doing their homework at the dining table.

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Rachel Spratt: and I'm looking out. And I see a raven like a normal person would call it a crow. But my mom is a bird watcher, and she just yells at you. If you call a crow a crow, it's a raven, but it's think a crow. It's a black, huge black bird. I see it just like, Buy my chickens. And I'm looking at thinking is that you know a satin bow bird. It's like, no, it's too big. It's a raven, and then I watch it go hop down and walk into the chicken coop, and I'm like, is it? Stealing the food, and it's like, no, it comes out with the whole egg in its beak.

483
00:45:11.300 --> 00:45:15.220
Rachel Spratt: and I'm like you, and what's a word that I can use.

484
00:45:15.540 --> 00:45:16.370
Tim Harris: You raven!

485
00:45:16.370 --> 00:45:17.000
Jacqueline Harvey: Rotten.

486
00:45:17.422 --> 00:45:19.110
James Hart: You chrome, it's good.

487
00:45:19.110 --> 00:45:23.460
Rachel Spratt: To start with a bee. The word I used started with a bee. You bum head. Okay.

488
00:45:23.460 --> 00:45:25.319
Tim Harris: That'll do it, Bob.

489
00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:51.570
Rachel Spratt: Go ahead, you know, like I work so like chickens are hard work, you know. I keep them alive. I muck out their poop. I feed them, and you know you. You have to carry bales of straw which hurts you back, and it's like I do all this to get like my 3 eggs a day, and you're stealing one, and an egg is a entire day's work for chicken. I got really angry, so I'm running out in the garden, trying to find things to throw at this raven to get to drop the egg, and of course it drops the egg and it smashes, and then it

490
00:45:51.570 --> 00:46:15.850
Rachel Spratt: just comes down and eats it anyway. And I was so angry, so like from then on, like that became my covid. Activity, was watching, and then running out into the garden and chasing off the ravens, and they were just so much better and smarter than me like cause this really smart birds, and as soon as you turn you back they're in there, and they're flying off with them, and no one believed me, because no one believed that a raven could hold an egg in its beak. Cause you think like they're they're

491
00:46:15.850 --> 00:46:29.889
Rachel Spratt: they're flat surfaces. How can you hold something around? And I'm like it's and the kids are like, Oh, Mom, you go insane. You've been locked in the house too long, and I'm like, I swear. And then they saw it, and they're like, Oh, my gosh! Mom isn't crazy. And it's like. And so I thought.

492
00:46:29.930 --> 00:46:38.939
Rachel Spratt: I've got to do something about it. You know, the chasing them off isn't working. They're too smart. They just wait till I go back in the house, or I'm upstairs working. And then I remembered.

493
00:46:39.221 --> 00:47:06.470
Rachel Spratt: Cause we live. They have the International Cricket Hall of Fame here in Beryl, and so they've they've got a gift shop, and I had been to the gift shop once buying stuff for for foreign visitors, and they had these rubber eggs, and it was like a gag egg where you'd pretend to drop an egg, but it would be rubber, and then it would bounce. And so I thought, Oh, that's just I don't know what I'm gonna do with it, but just seems like something that would be useful in life to have a rubber egg. So I had bought one many years earlier. And so I'm like

494
00:47:06.470 --> 00:47:14.820
Rachel Spratt: fighting with the raves, and I thought the rubber egg I'm going to put a dummy egg in there. First of all, I'd actually boiled a bunch of eggs and put them in there to.

495
00:47:15.310 --> 00:47:23.990
Rachel Spratt: but then I thought the rubber egg. So I put the rubber egg in, and then I gleefully sat by the window waiting.

496
00:47:24.060 --> 00:47:50.839
Rachel Spratt: and the kids are like, Oh, mom, it's a poor bird, and it's hungry. Leave it alone, I'm like, no, it's not stealing my. So I'm watching, and the raven comes and it gets the rubber egg, and I am so gleeful it was so funny to watch cause the raven it pulled it out, and then it's like trying to smash it, and it won't smash. And it's a really smart, but this is what it did like. It was smashing it on the path that didn't work. So it took it up onto the garage and it put it

497
00:47:51.548 --> 00:48:08.540
Rachel Spratt: we've got these what they call them leafetars, so that the the the gutter on the garage goes along to the drain pipe goes into the drain, the downpipe, and then there's a like a gap and a grill, so that if there's any, you know, leaves and stuff, yeah, leaf gut.

498
00:48:08.540 --> 00:48:09.160
Jacqueline Harvey: Like gods.

499
00:48:09.160 --> 00:48:26.982
Rachel Spratt: And then it will roll, but the water will go straight down into the down pipe, so the the the raven is is put it, rolling it along the drain the gutter down the down pipe, hitting the leaf guard rolling up it hits the path because it knows that should break an egg, and the egg is just going Boing.

500
00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:28.700
James Hart: Ha!

501
00:48:28.700 --> 00:48:37.909
Rachel Spratt: It's like the best thing I've ever seen. I was cackling, and I was video in it, and my my children thought that they should they were very concerned for my mental health.

502
00:48:37.910 --> 00:48:39.929
Jacqueline Harvey: Did it? Did it fix the problem.

503
00:48:39.930 --> 00:48:53.899
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, it totally did. But and I I would go out, and I would find the egg where it was abandoned after all these smashing attempts. But about the sixth time it obviously thought, I'll I'll take it off to a workshop and use a power drill or something, cause.

504
00:48:53.900 --> 00:48:54.910
Jacqueline Harvey: That just went.

505
00:48:55.240 --> 00:48:58.150
Rachel Spratt: But it it was enough to to fix the problem.

506
00:48:58.150 --> 00:49:21.689
Tim Harris: What I love about stories. And you know why we do this podcast is when when we listen to stories, I think our brain is trying to work out. Where's this heading? You know. That's always good. And and you know, most stories will have an introduction, a problem and a solution. You know, my black rabbit one, but we didn't really have that. Rachel certainly did, and it got to a point, Rachel, I thought, this is where the story was going. I thought, you're gonna say.

507
00:49:22.130 --> 00:49:31.005
Tim Harris: and where I live there's a an international cricket museum. And so I went down there because they were having a sale on scare crows.

508
00:49:31.687 --> 00:49:32.669
Rachel Spratt: I don't thought.

509
00:49:32.670 --> 00:49:35.200
Tim Harris: And that possibly that couldn't possibly be what it is.

510
00:49:35.200 --> 00:49:35.790
Jacqueline Harvey: And.

511
00:49:35.790 --> 00:49:37.390
Tim Harris: Absolutely ridiculous.

512
00:49:37.390 --> 00:49:40.500
Rachel Spratt: They do have a scarecrow festival in the area.

513
00:49:40.500 --> 00:49:45.710
Tim Harris: But you know you've actually got a ready made scarecrow. Rachel, you just use your pull up, author, banner.

514
00:49:45.710 --> 00:49:46.970
Rachel Spratt: Oh, yeah.

515
00:49:46.970 --> 00:49:59.340
Tim Harris: Okay, you know the one that we. So for listeners, so often, we'll get sent by our publisher. These pull up banners that have got any large photo of ourselves in our books. And, Rachel, you could just use that.

516
00:49:59.340 --> 00:50:04.460
Rachel Spratt: Or I could use. I've got a cut out of you, Tim, with a life size picture of your.

517
00:50:04.730 --> 00:50:05.840
James Hart: Cause we we took.

518
00:50:05.840 --> 00:50:09.229
Jacqueline Harvey: We took that with us to story first, so that you were there with us in

519
00:50:09.570 --> 00:50:12.419
Jacqueline Harvey: hear it, and you know, partly in body.

520
00:50:12.420 --> 00:50:13.219
Tim Harris: Thanks, ray.

521
00:50:13.220 --> 00:50:22.219
Rachel Spratt: So bold like the rock could be in the garden, and you know, with a baseball bat, and the ravens would just be sitting there smoking a cigarette, going.

522
00:50:22.220 --> 00:50:34.210
Jacqueline Harvey: When we lived in Byron Bay for a while. Rachel the well, we called them crows, but I'm sure your mother would have take issue with that, and that probably ravens as well. But we had a lot of cane toads

523
00:50:34.440 --> 00:50:52.549
Jacqueline Harvey: and cane tones are not well loved coaches, and we actually saw, you know, we we had a few dead ones in our garden. We're like what's killing them, cause you know, we're not killing them. And we saw a a raven fly down off the back fence, and it picked up the this massive like cane tone.

524
00:50:52.550 --> 00:50:52.870
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

525
00:50:52.870 --> 00:50:58.890
Jacqueline Harvey: Of a dinner plate, and it flicked it, grabbed its back leg, flicked it onto its back, and then

526
00:50:58.950 --> 00:51:13.200
Jacqueline Harvey: put its beak straight through the middle of its guts and then and then picked it up and flew away with it. We're like, yes, these guys are awesome, and the cleverest birds going around. They're the only ones who are a predator for a cane toad.

527
00:51:13.200 --> 00:51:17.620
Rachel Spratt: Oh, that's awesome! Do you think they eat them to get a high? You know how some people lick cane toads. Do you think.

528
00:51:17.620 --> 00:51:20.900
Jacqueline Harvey: That's what they're after, who looks nice.

529
00:51:20.900 --> 00:51:22.569
James Hart: It looks kind of lovely.

530
00:51:22.570 --> 00:51:24.780
Rachel Spratt: Cane toads. I didn't make that up.

531
00:51:25.100 --> 00:51:25.755
James Hart: Really.

532
00:51:26.410 --> 00:51:27.040
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, you don't.

533
00:51:27.040 --> 00:51:27.599
Tim Harris: We'll do.

534
00:51:27.600 --> 00:51:29.309
Rachel Spratt: Don't try it at home, but they.

535
00:51:29.310 --> 00:51:30.910
Jacqueline Harvey: Because there's lots of poisoning.

536
00:51:30.910 --> 00:51:32.590
James Hart: I like different flavors.

537
00:51:33.410 --> 00:51:35.129
James Hart: I never liked.

538
00:51:35.130 --> 00:51:40.554
Rachel Spratt: Cane toad. But next time I'm in tour on tour in Queensland I will try it and tell you.

539
00:51:40.840 --> 00:51:46.049
Jacqueline Harvey: No, you won't, you won't it? You may end up, you know. Like I I'd say certain mushrooms are off limits at the moment, too.

540
00:51:46.050 --> 00:51:54.999
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, before we wrap up, I just have another. I would just want to. I'm very curious about your garden, James. I'll have to come to Victoria and see it.

541
00:51:55.250 --> 00:52:00.120
Rachel Spratt: Do you get rats? Because with all the compost, because I I have tremendous rat problems.

542
00:52:00.120 --> 00:52:02.014
James Hart: So there was mice in it.

543
00:52:02.330 --> 00:52:04.280
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, but they're cute.

544
00:52:04.280 --> 00:52:06.170
James Hart: Yeah. And after a while, like.

545
00:52:06.170 --> 00:52:06.740
Jacqueline Harvey: Football.

546
00:52:06.740 --> 00:52:09.149
James Hart: I figured they're part of the process right.

547
00:52:09.150 --> 00:52:10.140
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

548
00:52:10.140 --> 00:52:13.879
James Hart: They're gonna they're living in it and pooing in it and weighing in it. And then

549
00:52:14.670 --> 00:52:18.070
James Hart: they're they're just eating any of the scraps. And once they've died down and

550
00:52:18.090 --> 00:52:20.378
James Hart: compost, if they're gonna they leave

551
00:52:20.760 --> 00:52:21.573
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah.

552
00:52:22.261 --> 00:52:23.949
James Hart: Fan, but there are rats around.

553
00:52:23.950 --> 00:52:30.639
Rachel Spratt: Mum always says when I'm trying to kill the rats in my garden. She's like, but they're native marsupial rats, and I'm like.

554
00:52:32.480 --> 00:52:33.490
Jacqueline Harvey: So terrified.

555
00:52:33.490 --> 00:52:36.190
James Hart: How can you? How can you tell the difference.

556
00:52:36.710 --> 00:52:50.539
Rachel Spratt: Oh, we had one, and we called it the Scar Rat, and it was so bold it had, like a part of its fur missing on its back leg, and we had it for about a year, and every time you go in the garden it would just stop and make eye contact with you and like, What are you gonna do.

557
00:52:50.540 --> 00:52:51.240
James Hart: Caught.

558
00:52:51.240 --> 00:52:55.110
Rachel Spratt: And they would just walk slowly away and go about its business.

559
00:52:55.110 --> 00:52:56.970
Jacqueline Harvey: I could rent you. Belly my cat! He.

560
00:52:56.970 --> 00:52:57.520
Rachel Spratt: Yeah.

561
00:52:57.520 --> 00:53:01.250
Jacqueline Harvey: Good at getting the rats as well. He was a Bush turkey and rat champion.

562
00:53:01.250 --> 00:53:10.290
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, we we had a cat like that. But now I'm allergic to cats. But I'm seriously thinking about getting the injections so that I'm not allergic, so that I can get a cat to deal with the rats.

563
00:53:10.460 --> 00:53:10.930
Rachel Spratt: anyway.

564
00:53:10.930 --> 00:53:30.886
Tim Harris: The rats. The rats in Victoria are quite bold out there, James, cause we had fish and chips with the families about a week ago, and we're sitting in this park, and that's starting to get a bit. You know, the sunlights going down. I think there was some back burning going on. It was a little bit smoky and hazy, but there was all this rustling in the park garden just near the table that we're eating at, and then

565
00:53:31.380 --> 00:53:43.939
Tim Harris: James and his wife are saying, you know that's the rats. And suddenly all these rats, literally they start running out very boldly and grabbing chips that have fallen to the ground. One must have been about an inch from your foot, James.

566
00:53:43.940 --> 00:53:44.740
Jacqueline Harvey: Yuck!

567
00:53:44.740 --> 00:53:47.801
James Hart: Yeah, I know I didn't want to go there.

568
00:53:48.180 --> 00:54:14.088
Jacqueline Harvey: I was at I was at the actually I should I should I name the the venue? I was at the Terry Hills cabin 2 weeks ago, having dinner and anyway, we was sitting the outside part. It's a very nice pile, but it's very, very well, you know, done up, anyway, the girl who came and delivered the food. As she turned around I saw this great thing run along beside her, and I said, Oh, my gosh! There's a rat, she said. No, it's not. It's a bandicoot.

569
00:54:16.270 --> 00:54:26.199
Rachel Spratt: I ate at a restaurant on Green Island, which is like a beautiful tropical paradise. The birds were so bold they would eat the food out of your hand as you were bringing it to your mouth.

570
00:54:26.200 --> 00:54:26.550
Tim Harris: New look.

571
00:54:26.771 --> 00:54:40.080
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, they would, because and they would go for kids because they knew kids couldn't fight them off. So I had my daughter in a high chair. She was 2, and she'd have a hot chip, and she'd be bringing it to her mouth, and a beautiful little tropical bird would like, fly down and snatch it out of a.

572
00:54:40.080 --> 00:54:40.780
Jacqueline Harvey: Didn't

573
00:54:40.910 --> 00:54:59.209
Jacqueline Harvey: we saw that happen? You know the old Clive well, it is now the Clive Palmer resort. It used to be used to be a Hyatt up on the Sunshine Coast, and it was a beautiful like golf resort, whatever. And we we sat down to have lunch one day, and this kid is walking along with a big plate of chips across the courtyard, and

574
00:54:59.210 --> 00:55:11.070
Jacqueline Harvey: and Ivus came in and just took the whole thing off, the kids screaming, etc. So yeah, these. They're pretty vicious. Some of these birds.

575
00:55:11.070 --> 00:55:17.249
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, yeah, alright. Well, let's wrap it up. Thank you so much for being on the show this week, James, and at last.

576
00:55:17.551 --> 00:55:19.660
James Hart: Thanks for having me. It's been good.

577
00:55:19.660 --> 00:55:20.450
Rachel Spratt: All right. We.

578
00:55:20.450 --> 00:55:21.919
Jacqueline Harvey: Having nothing else to do.

579
00:55:21.920 --> 00:55:22.930
James Hart: Wow!

580
00:55:23.940 --> 00:55:31.350
Rachel Spratt: Okay, that's it. For now, if you want to find out any more about any of us you can find out about me at rapp com Tim.

581
00:55:31.980 --> 00:55:38.160
Tim Harris: Just caught me off guard there I was. Gonna say, wwf! yahoo.com. Now, Tim Harris books com.

582
00:55:38.160 --> 00:55:38.800
Rachel Spratt: Becky.

583
00:55:38.800 --> 00:55:40.750
Jacqueline Harvey: Jacqueline harvey.com dot are you.

584
00:55:40.750 --> 00:55:42.290
Rachel Spratt: And James, what's your website?

585
00:55:42.290 --> 00:55:46.479
James Hart: It's James heart.com WI broke my website.

586
00:55:46.730 --> 00:56:00.760
Rachel Spratt: Yeah, I know I was. I was looking at it, doing research on you. I had to do research on the Penguin Random Mouse website. And then I thought, I'm sure he's illustrating things for other publishers. So I had to do more research. But thank you so much for coming, and until next time. Goodbye.

587
00:56:01.310 --> 00:56:02.049
Jacqueline Harvey: Bye, everyone.

588
00:56:02.420 --> 00:56:03.120
Rachel Spratt: Bye.