Edible Backyard is Kath Irvine’s permaculture home garden. Created to support you on your journey to becoming a food gardener, Kath teaches you how to design and run your own low work + low input yet highly productive Edible Backyard. The kind of garden I wish for you is productive, beautiful and most of all easy. Sounds dreamy aye, but its totally doable. With a little forethought and patience in the beginning, and a few helpful nudges from me, you'll create garden nirvana - less pests, less disease, more joy and a bounty of kai. Teaming up with the web of life is the way. The more life your garden supports, the stronger it is and the less you need do. Its such a thrilling ride, my friends and I'm stoked to journey alongside you. As you let go and learn to trust natural processes you'll see that life has you and your garden in its hands. Put your trust in it, and it will steer you to Eden.

Very Edible Gardens (VEG) is a Melbourne (of the Australian persuasion) based permaculture design consultancy, directed by Dan Palmer and Adam Grubb. We were co-founders of the permablitz network, which is a volunteer backyard makeover network, and that’s mostly where we earned our stripes in garden design. As Very Edible Gardens, besides designing, we run workshops, build gardens, and write related books and blogs, do some radio. In 2006 Dan was a successful academic in philosophy with two book deals and a teaching job in New York. Adam was running the most popular website on the net about global energy depletion. We’d each been raised in families that practised a lot of self-reliance, but in our own ways we’d each lost site of it. Heck, Adam was pretty much half-computer. And we each had a desire to be doing something more tangible. Independently we enrolled at a two week Permaculture Design Course with the late permaculture godfather Bill Mollison in 2005. For Adam, permaculture was the perfect antidote to his concerns about a future of less resources. For Dan, it was enough of a kick in the behind to give up his university philosophy job and book deals! After practising in our own gardens, on an April Sunday in 2006, we got together with a few friends from a South American community group and helped transform our friend Vilma’s backyard into a tasty edible oasis. And we danced the salsa. That was the very first permablitz; a day on which volunteers come together to install edible gardens, share knowledge, build community networks and have fun. We had such a good time and achieved so much that we did it again at another friend’s house two weeks later. And then again… And again… Others began picking up the concept and there have now been 200 blitzes in Melbourne and the process has gone global.

Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener. Anne wants you to feel the satisfaction and enjoy the rewards of growing, cooking and eating life-giving, healing foods. Why learn with Anne? You’ll discover: Quick, easy solutions for growing your own nutrient-dense food garden. How to save time, money and energy. How to work with nature to maximise your harvest and minimise work. Simple steps you can take to improve the health of your soil, plants and body. Sustainable, low-cost solutions to tread lighter on the planet and your wallet. Anne's passion is to help YOU live a healthier life. She join-the-dots between healthy soil, nutrient-dense food and healthy people. Her goal is to make a small difference in the world. To help people grow good health – one garden and kitchen at a time.” Learn how to grow good health with an abundant organic edible garden in small spaces. Dig into educational resources online for easy DIY tutorials and consulting services to grow your healing, nutrient-dense Kitchen Garden.

Our palm collecting began some thirty years ago, when we became members of the Palm & Cycad Society of QLD. In 1987, we decided to create a nursery and called it Coast Road Palms, at the time our address was Coast Road, so we went with this. A few years ago, the street name was changed to Bennett Springs Drive. We were proud of how we began, many of our old customers would remember the dusty gravel road before we had development around us. We decided to keep our business name and not change with the new street name. Planting began in 1987, even before we built our home. A cyclone fence went up, a bore was sunk, reticulation put down and the planting started. We had a lot of help from friends who volunteered (they probably thought we were crazy at the time), but they never doubted because anyone who knew my husband, Lou, knew that he was a determined person who once he set his mind to things, there was no going back. I suppose it was his courage and determination that pulled us through. In 1988/89, we were hit by a severe frost that at the time almost wiped out all our stock. Many nurseries were in the same boat. We kept going, not looking back. At the time, Lou was also working full time at another work place, so he had two full time jobs going. One nightshift and one dayshift. Finally, in 1995 he made a break and decided to work full time in our nursery, by then we had developed a good clientele. Some of our original customers have remained friends and often visit and have a chat about old times and how it all began. Over the following years, we have continued planting and collecting and are still collecting today. We are always interested in something new and rare and know that although it may not grow here in Perth we are always willing to give it a go, after all it is a challenge.

Wattleup Nursery has over 20 years of extensive knowledge and experience in the nursery business. We have a rare and beautiful Palms, Cycads and plants from around the world. Wattleup believes in personal service. We love sharing our knowledge and will happily provide you with advice and answer your queries. The stock we carry, is all tried and tested, healthy and water wise. Every garden that is designed is unique to you. Just building your new house or moved into an existing home and don’t know where to start with your garden? Your garden is a reflection of who you are, but it is sometimes overwhelming when there are so many things to consider. At Wattleup we can help you get the look you want, the mood you want. We also help you create the style you want and also creating the atmosphere for a great garden.