Diggers Garden and Environment Trust

Clive and Penny Blazey, founders and owners of the Diggers Club have gifted ownership of their highly successful garden company along with family-owned properties Heronswood and St Erth to the garden and environment Trust that they established late in 2011.

“We established the Diggers Garden and Environment Trust to ensure that the work we’ve done over the past 34 years in preserving historic gardens and houses as well as the best garden traditions through education will continue forever,” Clive Blazey said.

The Trust strives for:

• The conservation, protection or enhancement of botanical and ecological habitats
• The conservation, protection and enhancement of gardens both historical, botanical and exhibition, and historical buildings and artifacts and natural, historic and cultural heritage
• The protection and enhancement of the natural and horticultural environment including heirloom seeds and other flora and fauna
• The use of horticulture for dietry and health wellbeing
• Research and education to meet the goals above
  
  

It all begins in the garden

"The public support has ensured that Diggers has succeeded and grown into Australia's largest gardening club. It is now time to make the transformation from a private, family owned business into a not-for-profit charitable trust, somewhat like the National Trust but firmly anchored in gardening, education and heritage buildings, " says Clive.

"We wanted to ensure that the things we have championed such as supporting heirloom seeds, sustainable gardening methods and a strong stance against GM and hybridised plants and seeds would continue," Clive reflects. "We also wanted to make certain that our two Certified Organic gardens of approximately 2 hectares each would remain intact and always be open to the public. The only way to achieve this was to bequeath the properties and garden business to the Trust to be owned by a not-for-profit charitable trust."

For more information on the Diggers Garden and Environment Trust please email Talei Kenyon. The Diggers Club is currently looking for volunteers to assist with Trust activities at Heronswood and St Erth. Find out more here...