We believe that everyone can have a garden that is not only productive, but beautiful as well. For 40 years we have worked to find the best plants for Australian gardens. As a Diggers Club member, you'll be given all the help you need to succeed in the garden.
Join The Diggers Club today for two years and you'll receive 4 free packets of some of our best heirloom vegetable seeds to get your garden growing; Spring Onion Red, Carrot ‘St Valery’, Broccoli ‘Romanesco’ and Silverbeet ‘Fordhook’. You'll also receive our 'Welcome to the Club' gift pack of 2 free packets of seeds, the current Diggers magazine as well as a copy of the Seed Annual; a complete list of our heirloom vegetable seeds and cottage flowers.
Plan and plant your cool season vegie patch
Autumn is the best time of year for sowing and growing brassicas such as cabbage and cauliflower, because Cabbage White Butterfly is not as active in cooler months. Find out what to sow and what to grow in your garden this month: Cool Zone, Warm Zone, Hot Zone, Subtropical Zone or Tropical Zone.
Grow a green manure crop
Improve your soil by growing your own green manures, they are easy to grow and create a healthy soil capable of producing abundant crops. Free Download 'How to grow green manure'.
Caring for perennials
Cut back summer flowering perennials in autumn after flowering and plant new perennials ready for your summer garden. Our ‘This plant goes with that’ advice will help you to choose the best combination for your garden. Read about how to create art by planting summer perennial combinations. or download a free summer flowering perennial garden design!
In this issue:
♦ We bring you 40 years of Diggers best garden ideas, revisiting stories about the carbon cycle, slow food, climate change and dwarf fruit trees.
♦ Marcelle Swanson interviews Louis Glowinski about growing fruit trees in the backyard.
♦ Kevin Redd talks about vegie gardening from Alaska to the Sunshine Coast.
Plus Dear Diggers, our members-only free seed offer, Diggers Speedings, berries, avocados, stone fruit, dwarf apples and pears, herbs, perennial vegies and eight pages of heirloom seeds.
Garlic is best planted before Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, on June 21st .
Garlic can take up to 8 months for a crop to be ready, so a dedicated, long-term growing bed is recommended. Garlic grows best in climates with a clear distinction in day length, from autumn to winter and into spring. The transition into longer days in spring is essential for the formation of good, plump bulbs.
We recommend growing garlic in Heat Zone 1 - 6 and Cold Zone 9b - 11. You can view your climate zone here.
The best garlic for you to grow at home – shipped Australia-wide
Heads of garlic are available from The Diggers Club until late April/May. We grow-out various garlic varieties and rate them for strength and richness of flavour, length of storage and size. Only the best are chosen and made available to our customers. We also source a selection of organic garlic from certified growers.
Selected varieties can be shipped Australia-wide including Melbourne Market and Garlic Dynamite. Browse our full range of garlic.
Get the facts on garlic - Members only!
Our fact sheets are a great resource for garlic lovers.
♦ Download our garlic planting, harvest and storage chart
♦ Get hints and tips on how to grow garlic
♦ Learn how to make black garlic
Clive and Penny Blazey, founders of the Diggers Club, gifted ownership of their highly successful garden company along with family-owned properties Heronswood and St Erth to the Diggers Garden and Environment Trust in 2011.
“We established the Diggers Garden and Environment Trust to ensure that the work we’ve done over more than 30 years in preserving historic gardens and houses as well as the best garden traditions through education will continue forever,” said Clive.
The Trust strives to conserve historic gardens, buildings and cultural heritage and to protect heirloom seeds.
We invite all Diggers members to choose four packets of free seed from our special selection. A great opportunity to try some varieties that you wouldn't normally grow or can't get anywhere else. SELECT SEEDS HERE
Take a quick look at Diggers Heirloom Seed Trials video for 2018 and see how some of our favourite vegies performed! While you are there check out our other gardening clips.
“We are extremely anxious about the implications of the Federal Government’s review which suggests that compulsory fungicide spraying of a range of vegetable seeds may be imposed to protect against the spread of disease,” Clive Blazey,Founder of the Diggers Club said.
Please sign this petition HERE before19th April.
Learn more and read our Media Release HERE
Did you know that The Diggers Club is owned by a not-for-profit charitable Trust? Its mission is 'To support and promote the preservation of traditional garden seeds and plants as well as significant gardens and their historic buildings'. The profits from the Diggers Club are contributed to the Trust for this purpose. When you join The Diggers Club, you are helping protect our gardening inheritance!
Take your gardening skills to the next level with a Workshop or Masterclass. Learn tried and true gardening techniques from masters in the field. Browse workshops and masterclasses.
Coming up:
Soil and Green Manures: Heronswood 21st April
Olives - Grow and harvest: Heronswood 21st April
Blooming Great Berries: St Erth 22nd April
Intro to Permaculture: St Erth 22nd April
Art of Flower Arranging: St Erth 29th April
Intro to Permaculture: Cloudehill 5th May
Simple Cidermaking: Cloudehill 5th May
Heronswod Restaurant is looking for a part time (Friday, Sunday, Monday 10am to 3pm) experienced cook to lead the kitchen to create our special garden fork to table fork menu. Using the best fresh produce from our gardens to create tasty seasonal and vegetable focussed dishes is our mission. family friendly hours, no nights. Please email michelleg@diggers.com.au or call 03 59847318.
