From worm farms to fruit trees and soil science to successful seedlings, there’s a big range of workshops on offer to the community as part of this year’s Edible Gardens Festival on May 24&25.
The annual not-for-profit food growing and sustainability festival features open gardens for locals to visit over two days. But the event also includes a series of in-depth afternoon workshops with expert teachers to take the learning to a deeper level. See www.ediblegardensfestival.au for tickets, info and the full program, which has now been locked in.
In-depth Edible Gardens Festival workshops for deeper learning
The workshops include Promoting Abundance in Fruit Trees with David Hatwell from Capes Horticulture, where particpants can join this hands-on masterclass to learn about fruit tree care and maintenance, mulching and fertilising. It also touches on organic practices, boosting soil health for fruit trees, planting, selecting varieties, pruning, pests and diseases, protecting the harvest and orchard design.
Mark Tupman is on the Edible Gardens Festival program
Soil guru Mark Tupman from Productive Ecology is back, this time to teach a Seriously Fascinating Soil Science workshop. It takes a deep dive into soil science and the soil food web, with top tips for turning your own soil into living, breathing garden gold for plants to thrive in.
Amy Dyson, a former nutritionist who now runs Plumo Market Garden, is running a Successful Seedlings for a Glowing Gut workshop. She’ll be showing participants how to successfully raise seedlings and grow interesting varieties of nutrient-dense, microbiome-friendly greens.
Also on offer is an Ultimate Worm Farming workshp with Jamie and Lara McCall from Burnside Organic Farm. They have one of the biggest and best worm farms in the region.
David Hatwell will be teaching a workshop series at the Edible Gardens Festival
And they’ve taken worm farming to an almost biblical scale. Find out everything you need to know about starting and maintaining a healthy worm farm and top tips to keep it thriving. Plus, learn how worms can help you turn kitchen and garden waste into worm wee and castings that is dynamite for your plants, soil, soil microbes and fungi.
The final workshop is a paddock-to-plate tour of the Margaret River Organic Farmer property. It’s a thriving regenerative farm run by Laura and Lawson Bailey. Lawson, a fourth generation primary producer, and Laura, an environmental educator. They’ll share their organic farming practices and principles – and explore a different perspective of protein farming. For anyone who wants to know more about regenerative farming and where our food comes from.
All-new workshops boost festival program
“We’re really excited to bring a whole new program of workshops to this year’s Edible Gardens Festival,” says event organiser Trevor Paddenburg. “Visiting the open gardens gives everyone the chance to pick up loads of ideas, knowledge and inspiration for your patch. And then the afternoon workshops build on that and dive deeper into a topic. It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn from one of the incredible local experts who are running each session.”
During the weekend festival, three different gardens are open to the community from 9am to 1pm each day. Locals can hear from the gardeners who created them, pick up tips and inspiration for growing your own food, catch a live demonstration on a different topic at each garden, and buy delicious local produce, food and drinks. Saturday and Sunday day tickets are $20 for adults and free for children 16 and under. Meanwhile, the afternoon workshops are ticketed separately at $25 each.
Other special offers for ticket holders
Margaret River Mitre 10 is again supporting the festival, with ticket-holders able to cash in on a 20 per cent discount on all fruit trees, potted plants and vegetable seedlings. Yates Australia is donating thank-you gifts for the gardeners and volunteers.
Plus, for the first time there is a different “garden demonstration” on a sustainability or food growing topic at each open garden. And to reduce traffic and go green, the event now includes a bus service to the open gardens.
Laura and Lawson from Margaret River Organic Farmer will run a regenerative farm tour
“It’s such a privilege to play a role in connecting community and empowering people with knowledge and inspiration to get their hands dirty, grow their own food, live lighter on the Earth and have fun in the process,” says Trev.
“Whether you’re already growing your own food or want to make a start, the festival is the perfect chance to get up close and personal with experienced green thumbs. And tap into an immense bank of local, place-based knowledge to help you on your food-growing journey,” he said.
He thanked community supporters, partners and sponsors including the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, Margaret River Regional Environment Centre, Margaret River Community Pantry, Margaret River Mitre 10, Yates Australia, Lazarus Horticulture, South West Tree Services and Fair Harvest Permaculture. “We couldn’t do this event without them, as well as the gardeners generously opening their properties and the dedicated team of event volunteers,” he said