Thank you, in advance, for considering opening your edible garden for the Central Coast Edible Garden Trail!
As a garden host you can share your passion for growing food naturally and inspire and encourage others. It’s a pretty cool way to build community and inspire a whole lot of new edible gardens in your neighbourhood!
“I had many lovely conversations with newbies and experienced gardeners alike. Thank you so much for letting us share our love of growing food. May the ripples continue to radiate outwards.”
Donna (garden host 2022)
Benefits of being a garden host
Although you won’t be paid to open your garden for the trail weekend, there are some other benefits of being a garden host:
- You might have Costa or Cheralyn visit your garden! We are so lucky to have the support of both Costa and Cheralyn, their wealth of knowledge and infectious enthusiasm.
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- Costa Georgiadis is the well-loved host of Gardening Australia, author of Costa’s World and Australia’s favourite garden gnome!
- Cheralyn Darcey is the Central Coast’s own garden expert with her weekly Gardening Show on Coast FM, author of 18 internationally published botanical and gardening titles and a dedicated gardening column in Coast Community News.
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- You’ll get 12 months free membership to Permaculture Central Coast. We do this so that you are covered for public liability insurance during the trail, but your membership gives you:
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- access to lots of fun events and gatherings
- a free seed bank of locally grown seeds
- a monthly produce swap and lots more.
- Join the Permaculture Central Coast Facebook group – a private group with over 2000 members, for heaps of valuable information and a community of fabulous people.
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- As a garden host, you can sell your harvested produce, seeds and seedlings but we ask that you do not push a commercial business that doesn’t align with permaculture. For insurance purposes, you cannot sell prepared food.
- You will have access to the private CCEGT Garden Hosts Facebook page where we will keep you updated with the latest trail news, and you will get to meet and chat with the other fabulous garden hosts.
- The Central Coast Edible Garden Trail is a not-for-profit event and all profits raised will be redirected back into our local community. The monies raised in past years have provided a series of workshops for disadvantaged youth and donations to each of the Central Coast’s Community Gardens.
- A few weeks after the Trail, we get together with all of the Garden Hosts to celebrate, share food and just hang out. It’s a great chance to get to know each other and share your experiences of the Trail.
Garden Host Expectations
In 2023 we found that coordinating over 50 gardens was too much of a juggle, and feedback told us that some gardens received many visitors while others received only a few. With this in mind our 2025 Trail will be limited to 30 gardens and selection will be based around being able to showcase permaculture systems in practice. What better way to celebrate World Permaculture Day on May 4.
We have a couple of expectations to help you decide whether you will be a good fit.
- You can confidently showcase one or more permaculture systems that are operating successfully in your garden. Examples might include:
- Utilising livestock as part of an integrated system – e.g. chickens, goats
- Systems like compost, worm farms, bokashi etc. that showcase produce no waste and demonstrate a circular system utilitising minimal inputs
- Established food forest showcasing all seven layers
- Composting toilet / humanure
- Water retention, recycling and storage, demonstrating how you slow down, spread, sink and store water in your landscape
- Successful integration of perennial edibles and demonstration of their uses
- You use organic practices to grow food in your front or backyard or verge gardens.
- You do not use chemicals or pesticides in your garden.
- You are keen to share your passion with others. This is so important. Visitors will want to talk to you and will ask questions about how you started your garden, and what you are growing.
- You live within the Central Coast local government area.
- You can open your garden on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th May 2025 from 9:30am to 4:00pm. You will be able to nominate the hours to suit your availability as long as they fall within the time range and on this weekend. (NB In case of an extreme weather event, we have nominated contingency back-up dates, being 17th and 18th May, so it would be handy if you were available on those dates too).
- As a garden host, you can sell your harvested produce, seeds and seedlings but we ask that you do not push a commercial business that doesn’t align with permaculture. For insurance purposes, you cannot sell prepared food.