Bookworm: For Tai Snaith, inspiration often grows in her garden

In our new interview series Bookworm, we chat with authors and artists about books, gardening and food. This month, we meet Tai Snaith, an accomplished Melbourne artist, and author of seven picture books.

In her stunning new book Wonders Under the Moon, Tai Snaith explores the world of nocturnal animals from near and far. But finding inspiration in nature is nothing new for the artist and author, who was raised in country Victoria.  

“Growing up on a farm, you learn about seeds and the process of collecting them, and the seasons and things like that,” she says. “I also used to collect things like lizards and crickets. I had these big fish tanks full of different creatures that I would collect from the farm and keep them alive and build little habitats for them.” 

Both her grandmothers were experienced gardeners who passed down knowledge and skills that Tai still puts into practice in her urban garden along Melbourne’s Merri Creek.  

“If I go for too long without being out or getting my hands dirty, I’m not happy, not mentally stable,” she says, smiling. 

Tai Snaith’s urban garden 

So what does her garden look like today? In her front yard, she has repurposed two concrete water tanks as planters. Depending on the season, you might find broad beans, tomatoes, radishes, or horseradish. Right now, it’s snow peas and celery.  

“I grow things I like to eat. No one else in my family loves celery, so I get all the celery. And it’s the same with broad beans. So, I guess I'm a selfish gardener,” she says, laughing. 

Elsewhere in the garden, she grows native plants, flowers, and strawberries. The backyard offers summer shade thanks to two huge avocado trees she grew from pips, a trick taught to her by her grandmothers. 

“There's this balance between pragmatism and wild imagination in my work and in my garden,” she says. 

Gardening with her kids 

Tai spent a lot of time in the garden with her two children when they were little. “They were always watering or digging stuff or collecting worms It was important for me to get outside for my mental health too,” she explains. 

When choosing a primary school, a kitchen garden was high on her list of priorities.  

“Even now that they're older, we try to point out animals in the garden and birds that are pollinating things. And they're both really aware of bees. We always put water out for bees,” she says. 

The family also keeps a beautiful tradition alive: every year, they join local friends and families to bottle passata, just like Tai did growing up.

This is the kind of seasonal tradition we love in the Kitchen Garden Program too, with kids around the country making and bottling their own passata at school. 

Wonders Under the Moon (and the Sun) 

Tai’s garden is also rich in creatures like blue-tongued lizards and glossy black cockatoos. Even slugs have crept into her clay sculptures for an upcoming exhibition. 

Some of these creatures, like bats and moths, make an appearance in Wonders Under the Moon, which also features over 200 fascinating animals from around the globe, like the fennec fox, Namib sand gecko, and Eastern firefly. The book groups these animals into imaginative categories such as “sonic superheroes” and “party animals.” 

Its companion book, Wonders Under the Sun, celebrates diurnal animals, with pages dedicated to precious pollinators.

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Tai draws each animal part by part, starting maybe with a leg, then an arm, and so on. She paints the parts with watercolours and assembles them, “like a puppet”. They are then photographed and placed on a painted background, which gives the impression they could jump or fly out of the page. 

“The feedback I get, particularly from neurodivergent kids, is that they’re really engaged with the pictures. So that's a great win,” she says. 

Her tips for budding artists and authors 

Tai created her first book in Grade 4, a story about how Rudolph the reindeer got his red nose by eating hundreds of tomatoes. She simply reused an old book and glued her own pages in it.  

She encourages parents and educators to offer children easy access to art materials and space to create. Introducing them to artists and authors can help spark their imaginations too.  

“Gardening is like a creative practice. It's like planting something, watching it grow, nurturing it. There's trial and error along the way, there's knowledge along the way, there's skills along the way. But essentially, it's just having the impetus to grow something or to make something and then following it through and tending to it,” she says. 

More resources:

• Seed savings for beginners
• Celebrating hard-working pollinators
• And for members of the Shared Table, our online resource library and community hub: art in the kitchen garden resource, seed resource collection and bee-related activities.