Several Witchcliffe Ecovillage gardens featured in the 2023 Edible Gardens Festival, but this year's program ups the ante with an entire neighbourhood opening their garden gates for the festival.
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Visit Cluster 1B's communal gardens and orchard with 50-plus fruit and nut trees, and a whole range of individual vegetable gardens - making it a one-stop-shop to see a range of techniques to edible gardening at various stages of maturity.
Gardeners will be on hand to answer your questions, plus there will be tea, coffee, cake and plant stalls!
It's just one of eight stops as part of the region's annual not-for-profit Edible Gardens Festival on May 11&12, aimed at giving people the knowledge, confidence and inspiration to have a go at growing their own food.
I'm hoping to share and pass on my knowledge, skills and passion to others and also to find fun and reward in gardening together as a group.
- Britta Sorensen
Festival co-organiser Trev Paddenburg said the year's program boasts eight different locations across Cowaramup, Margaret River, Witchcliffe and Karridale.
At the Ecovillage, the cluster is a group of 21 individual houses - each with a productive garden - in a ring around a shared orchard, chicken run, stormwater swales, native plantings, habitat gardens and shared community connection space.
Festival-goers can learn how the residents are tackling challenges like the "Witchy wind", rabbits, clay soil, compaction and lack of organic matter.
"People have employed many different methods and techniques - all organic - and no two gardens are the same," says resident Britta Sorensen, who gardens for a "lighter footprint on the earth, sustainability, connection to nature and country, health and enjoyment of food".
"By moving to the Ecovillage I'm hoping to share and pass on my knowledge, skills and passion to others and also to find fun and reward in gardening together as a group, sharing the produce and building a resilient community," she said.
Saturday and Sunday day tickets to the festival are $15 each and early bird tickets are still available at www.ediblegardensfestival.au.
There are also workshops (ticketed separately) on a range of topics including garden tool maintenance, where participants can bring in their old tools and learn how to get them in shape, making gardening easier and saving money in the long run.
Workshops are all 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.
Festival co-organiser Val Vallee said Margaret River Mitre 10 is offering 20 per cent off all plants, fruit trees and seedlings for ticket-holders in the seven days following the festival.
And to cap the weekend off, there's a free community sundowner - which is now sold out - with an expert gardener Q A panel, live music by The Nomadics, and food and drinks.
Also on the Sunday program is:
Nutritionist-turned-food producer Amy Dyson and her partner Gareth Morgan's quarter-acre leased garden plot, tucked into a corner of a 75-acre former farm and vineyard being converted to regenerative agriculture.
On her plot, Amy indulges a passion for growing brassicas, bitter greens, heirloom vegetables and plants that are great for your gut.
Right on the edge of Boranup Forest, don't miss Gary and Lisa Browne's 40-bed veggie patch (including wicking beds), newly-planted espalier orchard which will boast 100 varieties of fruit trees, and market garden where they grow some of the best garlic in the South-West, sold at the Margaret River Farmers Market under their brand MillHaven Farm.
Make sure you listen in when Gary discusses his top tips for tasty, plump and abundant garlic.
Meet head gardener Martine Surprenant for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Glenarty Road farm market garden, which features oodles of vegetable beds as well as 250-plus fruit trees and animals that embody the paddock to plate ethos.
Martine grows enough food every week for more than 500 meals, thanks to meticulous succession planting and constantly building soil with manure, compost and mulch.
Festival organisers thanked supporters including the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, Margaret River Regional Environment Centre, Margaret River Mitre 10, Yates Australia's organic range, South West Tree Services, Shogun Tools, Shelter Brewing Co, Stella Bella Wines, Fair Harvest Permaculture, Gathered Organics and the Margaret River Community Pantry.
