Armidale Home Grown Garden Tour

Interested in growing food at home? Join us for a weekend of garden tours, talks, documentary screenings and how-to demonstrations.

Join us for the Armidale Home Grown Garden Tour!

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Friday night launch event - Jade Miles talk and documentary screening

The weekend kicks off with a Friday night launch event. Join us for a screening of three short documentaries on domestic food growing followed by an inspirational talk from food advocate, co-op founder and author of Huddle, Jade Miles. Jade will share insights on building a tomorrow of togetherness through local food. See below for more details.

Saturday and Sunday - Garden tours

On Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th February you are invited into the backyards and community gardens of Armidale's local food growers.

Come and share stories and ideas for growing food in our unique region. We have 8 unique gardens across the weekend, from large holdings 15 minutes outside town to small cottage gardens in the process of converting lawn to food.

Across the weekend you’ll have the chance to visit gardens at your own pace with all 8 gardens open both Saturday and Sunday in either the morning (10-12.30pm) or afternoon (1.30-4pm) session.

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This event is proudly brought to you by Sustainable Living Armidale.

Documentary blurbs

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The Plummery - 8 min

The Plummery is a suburban home where a backyard permaculture garden measuring only 100sq/m (1076 sq feet) produces over 400kg/900 pounds of food year-round!Permaculture designer and gardener Kat Lavers describes her approach to gardening, including vertical and biointensive growing, and how important it is – and possible! – for city dwellers to be food resilient in the face of natural, financial and social crises. Be inspired by how little day-to-day effort needs to go into creating an abundance of food for a family and a community.

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The Plummery 5 year revisit - 12 min

Happily Kat was equally excited to share an update and even expand on her insights into inner-city gardening and living. We shot a revisit film with her in December 2024, just at the start of Melbourne’s summer, and this time Kat spoke about creating resilience both in our gardens and in our homes. We also get to see some of the very cool critters that maintain her garden’s thriving ecosystem.

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About Being the Change at 85 - 13 min

A lifelong gardener and an innately frugal child of the Great Depression, the concept of living simply is second nature to Helen. But as the world around her has become less and less ‘simple’ her passion has grown ever greater to educate her community about why we benefit from growing our own food, saving our own seeds, taking care of our water and other resources – and how all of these things are linked to the money system that dominates and impacts our lives.For Helen, a key element in building personal and community resilience is in building quality soil. From making biochar for her compost to petitioning the local council to create a natural burial park, she has worked tirelessly in so many ways to contribute to her community and to the planet. She is truly Something Beautiful for the World!

Jade Miles- Author of Futuresteading and Huddle

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Jade Miles is a local food advocate and educator, business builder, food co-op founder, author, podcaster and regenerative heritage fruit farmer.

Together with her husband and three kids, Jade runs Black Barn Farm, a biodiverse orchard, nursery and workshop space in Northeast Victoria. She’s an active presence in the regenerative space, hosting school programs, permaculture and homesteading workshops while sitting on multiple boards – all in the name of reconnecting people to nature, food and a simpler existence.

Encouraging us all to step outside our comfortable place, be still, be curious, be observant and be united in our celebration of food and those who grow it is Jade’s super power. Jade joins the dots through the power of storytelling, calling a spade a spade and encouraging all of us to redefine success, celebrate simple and build ritual for community now and for the next seven generations.