IT’S an age-old tradition; growing fruit and vegies in your back garden, swapping your produce with your next-door neighbours.

But a cluster of five neighbours in Elizabeth Grove has taken that concept a step further.

Just a couple of streets over from the chaos of Main North Road is a green oasis for the keen backyard horticulturalist.

The neighbours have removed their fences and put gates in their place, creating one big interconnected garden across their boundaries to form Joe’s Connected Garden.

Joe has been a resident of the area since the mid-1990s, but the gardens started when Rosanne moved into the area in the early 2000s.

It was a lot different in those days, though. In Rosanne’s garden there were a couple of plants but it was otherwise bare.

“Joe knew a bit about gardening and he had compost, so I started growing a few things,” she said.

At the time, Joe was working full time, so Rosanne would water his plants for him.

In return Joe would help out in Roseanne’s garden when she needed an extra set of hands.

From there, Mary came on board and was followed by Jess and Jesse, who originally owned the property next door to Joe but eventually moved across the road.

John (pictured) is the latest to get in on the fun, buying the former house of Jess and Jesse.

Sadly, Mary died the week before the gardeners met SA Farmer. 

The Argent Street wonderland is home to more than 700 varieties of fruits alone, but also houses different types of vegetables and herbs from the rare and exotic to the family favourites. 

In Joe’s garden, he plays around with microclimates ranging from tropical to arid to cool.

He has fruits from Brazil, spinach from Nigeria, saba nut from South East Asia and ginger from Japan.

Rosanne is the strawberry queen, being the main supplier of Cambridge Rival in Australia. She has also cultivated her own variety of strawberry.

John’s garden is home to an abundance of chili, from jalapenos to the Carolina reaper. He also has an herb and vegie patch where he grows pumpkin, cucumber and zucchini.

There has recently been a cross-pollination of cucumber and a zucchini in John’s garden, creating a mixed vegetable that can be used in stirfrys and salads. He plans to cultivate and propagate it and see where it goes.

Jess and Jesse’s garden contains a community fruit tree nursey, a fig circle and many raised vegie beds.

But there is always something new being added.

Whether it be a new tree planted or a new shed, it’s never the same as when you last visited.

They don’t see each other all the time, sometimes going months before they meet again. But Joe says you don’t have to.

“You just connect, and you’ve got a gate to their place,” he said.

The rules are different for everyone; some people you wander in any time, some people you’ve got to ask and others only when they invite you.

“That is the way it works.”

Joe said it was about bringing the old community spirit back into the neighbourhood. 

Beyond the core five though has emerged a growing network, with “satellite gardens” popping up both near and far, all operating under the same ethos. 

Some are just a couple of streets back or over Main North Road into Elizabeth East, but others are as far away as Gawler, into the Adelaide Hills and out at Morgan.

One of those is Andrew’s almost urbanised farm, which features ducks, chickens, honey and an additional nursey to complement Jess and Jesse’s.

Andrew said that the ultimate goal of the group was education, and getting people to reconnect with their own backyards.

We are trying to show what people can do in their own suburban yards,” he said.

The connected garden forms part of Open Gardens South Australia, sharing their love and knowledge to the wider community.

Each year the five core gardens are opened up to the public, allowing them to walk through and see how they can replicate something similar at home.

This year was the 10th year Joe’s has taken part.

Workshops are also held at Andrew’s backyard farm, and school students also take part for practical experience.