What nine months of interviews told researchers about life in Australia after the pandemic

For 10 years, Tatiana Tarasova has tended a plot at the Veg Out community garden built on a former lawn bowling green in the Melbourne beachside suburb of St Kilda.

She has always loved gardening, but she said the patch brought her extra comfort and a sense of community during the city’s coronavirus lockdowns.

“You don’t just look after your own garden. If people are away, if people are sick, you water their flowers and their seedlings,” Ms Tarasova said.

That sense of community grew as nearby residents started leaving food scraps outside the locked gates for the gardeners to add to their compost.

“More people started to bring leftovers and people became interested in growing more things and they knew where to come to get some seedlings,”…