Margaret Simons Margaret Simons' journalistic and writing career has always existed side by side with her gardening life. For years she lived in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, where she kept chooks, had multiple compost heaps and was sef sufficient in vegetables for much of the year. She shared this experience through the 'Mother Earth' gardening column which was published for many years in the Weekend Australian, before moving to the Age 'Sunday Life' magazine. She has written two novels, an insider's view of the Canberra press gallery (Fit to Print, 1999), a gardening memoir (Wheelbarrows Chooks and Children, 2000) and The Meeting of the Waters, about the Hindmarsh Island affair, which won the 2003 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Non-Fiction. She lives in Melbourne with her partner and two children. Read More Read Less