More people are growing food at home as a result of the Central Coast Edible Garden Trail
Key points:
● The Central Coast Edible Garden Trail returns for a second year featuring around 50 gardens all over the Coast on 21 + 22 October 2023
● Evidence is in that visitors to last years Trail are now growing food at home
● Sourcing your food locally just got easier with the Local Food Guide 2023 Edible Garden Trail
The Central Coast Edible Garden Trail is coming up on 21 + 22 October 2023. Featuring around 50 gardens right across the Central Coast, the Trail is an opportunity for all Coasties to:
● see what foods grow well here in our climate,
● learn from experienced gardeners who have been successfully growing food without harmful chemicals and producing healthy and safe food for their families, some for almost three decades
● feel inspired to head home and take action, knowing there is a supportive community they can reach out to to ask questions and get advice when they need it
Ticket holders can spend a weekend visiting gardens, chatting to the gardeners who created them and get stacks of ideas to take home and apply to their own gardens.
Feedback from last year’s Trail
Organisers noted that feedback from visitors to last year’s Trail was hugely motivating. Knowing that people found inspiration and the confidence to take action and start gardening has been really heartwarming.
“The EGT marked the starting point of my journey into the world of Permaculture and growing food.
After visiting a number of gardens on the trail, I got so inspired I manifested my personal acreage to start my hands-on journey. That led me to join Permaculture Central Coast, participate in several permablitz, and discover that we have some astounding teachers right here on the coast. I’ve delved deep into learning about bush regeneration and soil health, dedicating a lot of time and effort. I have started volunteering my time to elderly neighbours around me, sharing a surplus of produce and resources. Looking back, I realize that without the Edible Garden Trail, I wouldn’t have joined Permacoach’s Permaculture Design Course. Over the past 12 weeks, I’ve dedicated myself to crafting a space with the ultimate goal of making it onto the Edible Garden Trail next year!”
Eva Schaller, Central Coast resident
Encourage and support beginner gardeners
Our focus has therefore been to encourage beginners to have a go at growing food at home. The Trail itself is a fantastic way to see an enormous variety of gardens, strategies and approaches. Visitors can discuss directly with the creators of those gardens the ins and outs of why they chose to do what they did. And to share not just their successes but also their failures, giving beginners a head start to avoid some of the pitfalls new gardeners might come across.
Along with the Trail, our website and social media has been focussing on not only promoting the Trail but teaching skills and imparting knowledge that will give new gardeners a headstart on their way to success.
All of the garden hosts who are volunteering their time and gardens for the Central Coast Edible Garden Trail were beginners too! Some many years ago, and some much more recently. By sharing their stories, and discussing their strategies and designs with visitors, our garden hosts feel they are giving back to the community, sharing this precious and valuable knowledge to new generations of gardeners.
Local Food Guide
Here at the Edible Garden Trail, we love growing food! But don’t be mistaken, we are not trying to be self-sufficient. In fact, once you start growing, you quickly learn that trying to provide for all of your needs is near impossible and with the demands of modern life, we are looking for balance and joy not toil and turmoil! That’s why we like to think we are aiming not for ‘self-sufficiency’ but for ‘community sufficiency’. What does this mean? Well we are trying to meet our food needs from a combination of growing our own, and looking to our local community to meet the rest of
our needs. To that end, we have produced a Local Food Guide as a companion to the Central Coast Edible Garden Trail.
The Local Food Guide features a comprehensive list of our local growers who are using organic practices and regenerative farming techniques, when and where you can buy their produce including farmers markets, cooperatives, and we’ve even thrown in produce swaps which happen regularly across the coast!
The Local Food Guide has been voluntarily produced, has no affiliations – just good people producing food that is good for the planet, and good for you! The Local Food Guide is attached – it is our gift to the Central Coast community!
About the Central Coast Edible Garden Trail
The Central Coast Edible Garden Trail is a project of Permaculture Central Coast and is a ticketed, self-guided weekend event in home and community gardens on the NSW Central Coast. It celebrates the many ways food growers on the Central Coast are creating food security, building personal and community resilience, regenerating soils and converting waste into precious resources – all while enjoying the health benefits of home grown produce and taking meaningful action towards reducing food miles and plastics use.
The Trail is a not for profit event. Our garden hosts and organisers are volunteers, giving their time and wisdom freely. The funds raised through ticket sales are redistributed to our local community.
Ticket holders will have access to a list of gardeners who are generously opening their properties to visitors who can view a range of permaculture systems and practices including:
➢ Food forests
➢ Small animal systems including deep litter, chook tractors and integrated food forests
➢ Water management including swales, rain gardens and ponds
➢ No dig raised beds and sheet mulching
➢ Keeping bees – Native and European
➢ Habitats for wildlife
➢ Building healthy soil through compost, worm farms, deep litter, chop and drop and green manure crops
➢ Mandala gardens
➢ Gardens for biodiversity
Tickets are available here and are selling fast and more information can be found at ccegt.au
About Permaculture Central Coast
Permaculture Central Coast are an enthusiastic group of volunteers that work together to encourage more people on the NSW Central Coast to learn, practice and teach permaculture.
We want to inspire people everywhere to get more permaculture happening on the ground.
https://permaculturecc.org.au/
For more information and interviews:
info@centralcoastediblegardentrail.org.au
Anna Trigg 0407 591 278
Sandi Eyles 0411 297 756
