Retired pharmacist Patrick Mahony plants community vegetable patch, locals take home free vegetables

The unexpected community vegetable patch has emerged as an early retirement project of East Tamworth resident, Patrick Mahony, who said he's getting quite a few people knocking on his door.

"This was a vacant bit of land here. Not making so much, underutilised," he said.

"And so we decided we'd do something about it."

"People will always come in and talk to me ... one lady from a gardening club said 'oh it works'," he said.

Mr Mahony has taken full advantage of the La Nina climate cycles to grow an eclectic range of vegetables, which he says have been a bit of a hit with some passersby.

"Obviously the rain has been a great advantage," he said.

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"There's spinach, sliverbeet, lettuce four times, obviously some parsley, coriander, and there's some rhubarb coming."

And there's even some leek, leaking over the edge.

"And hopefully in a few weeks you'll be able to see the sunflowers coming up," he said.

Despite the fact his garden has spilled out onto the verge, Mr Mahony said he doesn't really anticipate any problems.

For him, it's something of a quid pro quo, whereby he maintains the corner of the street and he gets to plant his patch.

"I don't believe there's anything wrong with it," he said.

However, while he's "happy with where it's at," for the time being, Mr Mahony said he needs people to take what they need.

"You can't leave it to go wild," he said.

"You just have to make certain that it all comes out."

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