The Edible Gardens Festival 2024 program has now been finalised, with eight new, diverse, practical and inspiring food-growing gardens to visit across the Margaret River region on May 11-12.
The community can visit four gardens on Saturday and a different four gardens on Sunday between Cowaramup, Margaret River, Witchcliffe and Karridale from 9am-1pm each day, learn from the gardeners and get inspired about food growing. Day tickets are on sale now for $15 at www.ediblegardensfestival.au, along with tickets to bespoke afternoon workshops and a free community sundowner to cap off the weekend.
Passionate local gardeners and festival organisers Trev Paddenburg and Valerie Vallee said the 2024 program features gardens spanning a wide range of shapes, sizes and styles. But all have a focus on growing fruit and vegetables, building soil health, composting, reducing waste, being waterwise in a drying climate, and living a more sustainable life.
“We’re so pumped with this year’s line-up! There’s something for everyone at this year’s festival,” says Val. “You’ll get to pick up knowledge, ideas and inspiration from the gardeners. And you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at their plots, which range from suburban blocks to acreage properties, some well-established and some that are a work in progress.”
Featuring on the program are:
- Scott and Mary Wood’s 7.5-acre Cowaramup property, where in just over a year they’ve built an amazingly productive garden using recycled materials and blue gum timber harvested from the block. That includes designing and building a chook house, fantastic DIY covered orchard, potting shed, 10 vegetable beds, plus fruit trees including limes, lemons, persimmons, plums, apples, apricots and figs.
- Ken and Traudel Rowe’s rural property that’s home to a working olive and avocado plantation, plus a range of vegetable beds to feed the extended family, supplemented with a huge array of interesting and exotic fruit trees.
- Tony and Sabine Lane’s Burnside property which is a great example of how two busy professionals working full time can still have a productive garden putting loads of fruit and vegetables on the kitchen table, with a low-maintenance, high-yield approach.
- Bill and Wendy Castleden’s lovely garden which is also very productive, with vegetable and herb beds and a huge, netted orchard with 40-plus well pruned and spaced fruit trees, producing enough food for the kids and grandkids as well as the soup kitchen and Margaret River Community Pantry.
- Nutritionist-turned-food producer Amy Dyson’s leased garden plot, where she grows brassicas, bitter greens and heirloom vegetables, and will be offering expert advice on improving sandy soil, battling weevils and using a polytunnel to boost productivity.
- The Witchcliffe Ecovillage featured in last year’s festival and a different collection of more than a dozen Ecovillage gardens will be on the 2024 program, making it a one-stop-shop to see a broad range of approaches and techniques to edible gardening.
- Karridale couple Gary and Lisa Browne’s pumping veggie patch, newly planted orchard and market garden where they grow some of the best garlic in the South-West (festivalgoers can hear their top garlic-growing tips and tricks).
- A behind-the-scenes tour of the Glenarty Road farm market garden, where head gardener Martine Surprenant grows enough food every week for more than 500 restaurant meals thanks to meticulous succession planting.
Margaret River Mitre 10 has also come on board, offering festival-goers 20 per cent off all plants in the week the event. And prizes donated by Shogun Tools and Soil Dynamics are on offer for early-bird ticket bookings via the Edible Gardens Festival social media accounts.
Meanwhile, limited tickets are available to the small-group, 90-minute workshops ticketed separately in the afternoons on topics including mastering composting, wicking beds and other waterwise tips, advanced soil management, and garden tool maintenance. They’re hosted by expert teachers at Fair Harvest Permaculture, which is also the official campground for the event and will be serving food and drinks at the café.
A free community sundowner with gardener Q&A panel, live music, door prizes, hot food and drinks will cap off the weekend. It’s all part of the Edible Gardens Festival’s aim to connect community and empower people with knowledge and inspiration to get their hands dirty, grow their own food and have fun in the process.
Trev says the event wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of local groups and businesses including the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, Margaret River Regional Environment Centre, Fair Harvest Permaculture, Margaret River Mitre 10, Yates organic range, South West Tree Services, Shogun Tools, Soil Dynamics, Gathered Organics, Shelter Brewing Co, Margaret River Community Pantry and Productive Ecology.