Marion, da flower lover

By Emma Sun
MARION Da Costa likes to travel to different places whenever she has the chance.
When she is not busy travelling, she likes being in her Pakenham Upper home and tening to her garden.
“I just enjoy being in the garden,” Marion said.
“I usually spend a few hours every fortnight tending to it.”
Home to over two dozen varieties of flora, Marion’s quarter hectare garden is a sight to see during spring.
The main feature, a beautiful Japanese wisteria, boasts beautiful white flowers during the flowering season, with flowers reaching about half a metre long.
“I like the Japanese wisteria more than the Chinese wisteria because the flowers tend to grow longer,” Marion said.
“It looks stunning when it flowers.”
Marion was first drawn to gardening because of her parents.
“My father was a keen gardener and my mother as well, so I’ve always had a vegetable garden,” Marion said.
“When I gave up work I decided there had to be more than just a vegetable garden.”
Despite tending to so many plants, Marion’s favourite things to grow remain the vegetables she had enjoyed growing in her younger years.
“I grow broccoli, aubergine, capsicum, tomatoes, potatoes, leeks, garlic, beans and peas, pretty much everything,” Marion said.
“It saves us a lot of money and the most important part of it is we’re using food that hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals. That’s why I do it.”
While most people fret over the fact weeds seem to multiply exponentially in their own garden, Marion said it isn’t much of a problem for her.
“We don’t have a lot of weeds,” she said.
“The garden is fairly well stacked with plants, so it keeps the light out and the weeds don’t grow as easily.”
Marion divides her time in the garden with a bunch of other hobbies, including playing golf, cooking and fishing.
“My biggest fish was a five pound salmon off the beach at Bournda, on the south-east coast of NSW,” Marion said.
“We ate it. It was beautiful, really delicious.”
Hobbies aside, Marion said her passion for gardening will always be with her.
“I think I will continue gardening, because it’s so relaxing and enjoyable,” she said.