THE WRITER’S PLOT

Good Organic Gardening contributor Jana Holmer, husband Pieter and daughter Holly live on a 622m2 block in Newtown, an old suburb of Geelong on the outskirts of the CBD.

Formerly with international professional services firm Ernst & Young, Jana now describes herself as an author, builder, mother and carer. Her pastimes are writing children’s stories and making pasta and natural cures for ailments. She also recently invented an educational card game.

Then, of course, there’s gardening. She came to it early in life when, at the age of five, she and her family lived in a Californian bungalow on a cobblestone laneway in the Melbourne inner suburb of Fitzroy, which in the early 70s was “a mix of timberyards, an industrial estate and rough housing on narrow streets”, she recalls.