Bookworm: A kitchen garden at the heart of a story

In our interview series Bookworm, we chat with authors and artists about books, gardening and food. This month, we meet Trace Balla.    

In the middle of Trace Balla’s new graphic novel, Treeshape, you’ll find a drawing of  children tending to a garden. They’re measuring broad beans, laying down newspaper for garden beds, harvesting river mint, delivering food scraps to their worm cafe, and a lot more!  

For Trace, this scene reflects the real experiences she and her son shared through the Kitchen Garden Program. As both a parent and a volunteer, the program left such a lasting mark that she wove it into her hopeful, deeply personal book. 

"There's a lot of broken things in our culture and our world, but there’s also this incredibly positive thing happening that I wanted to celebrate,” she says of the Kitchen Garden Program.  

Scenes from a Kitchen Garden Program school in Treeshape

Trace’s son attended a Kitchen Garden Program school in Melbourne, on Boon Wurrung Country. Living in a nearby flat, the school garden quickly became a green space they could share with the community. Together, they helped establish the first garden beds, took part in working bees, and watered the plants during long summer holidays (picking sweet, sun‑warmed mulberries along the way).  

“It gave us a real sense of connection to the place, and belonging to the landscape,” she remembers. 

As a volunteer, Trace guided students in sketching the garden and creating nature journals. Through drawing, they learned to observe each transformation in a plant’s life. 

“It was so lovely seeing the whole cycle; the growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing,” she says. She especially cherished the communal meals: “I was a single parent, so to have my son sit around a big table with a lot of people, it was so valuable." 

Treeshape reveals Trace's life-changing experiences of place, and her relationship to Country.

Although the pages of Treeshape dedicated to the Kitchen Garden Program are rich in details, Trace insists she could have included even more. “I can only fit that much in one drawing. I just had to pluck little bits of gold from the garden!” she laughs.  

Now living on Djaara Country, Trace returned to her son’s old school many years after he graduated to create the illustration, and was delighted to see the program had expanded: "It was so exciting to see what sort of things they were doing. Like the chop and chat, and the wheelbarrow licence and things like that.” Her drawing invites readers to wander through the page much like they would stroll through a real garden. 

Trace has generously gifted printable posters of her artwork to Kitchen Garden Program members. Get yours here! 

And while she’d love to see her book and posters in schools across the country, what excites her most is the idea of inspiring children to map, sketch, and celebrate their own kitchen gardens. 

Trace has written and illustrated several books, including the award-winning Rivertime and Rockhopping

Treeshape also spotlights many other meaningful moments from Trace’s life: participating in the Jabiluka uranium mining protests, meeting environmentalist John Seed, and forging connections with First Nations communities. 

Ultimately, Treeshape is a book that leaves readers hopeful; empowered to care for the places they love, and to stand up for what matters. 

• You can purchase Treeshape here, and look at Trace Balla’s other books here. 
   
• Kitchen Garden Program members can get their free poster, generously gifted by Trace Balla, here.
   
• Curious about the Kitchen Garden Program? Join a free info session.
   
• Read our previous Bookworm interviews with Julia Busuttil Nishimura, Bruce Pascoe, Jaclyn Crupi and more, here.