Grow it Local

If you have a little garden patch that you’re proud of, this is your chance to be rewarded for it.

As part of the Sustainable Living Festival, Grow it Local is on the hunt for Melbourne’s 50 most creative, enthusiastic and genius small space gardeners and farmers to reward them with money-can’t-buy tickets to a very special feast.

Whether it’s your backyard, balcony or windowsill, you could score one of 50 exclusive doubles passes to the Melbourne Local Growers Feast by simply registering your patch.

At this feast Chef-extraordinaire Vanessa Mateus from Pope Joan will then turn the homegrown contributions into the Local Growers Feast within less than 24 hours.

“This is not for the faint-hearted. Crowd-farming makes Master Chef look like a Bunnings BBQ sausage sizzle. Vanessa’s mission is to put on a restaurant-quality dinner for 100 people without knowing the ingredients until the day before. But if anyone can do it she can!” says Grow it Local co-founder Jess Miller.

Amateur, as well as seasoned growers are encouraged to add or update their patch, share a picture and a tip to the existing 10,000 square metres of urban space already under cultivation in the Grow it Local community, including rooftops, nature strips, bathtubs, buckets and even the infamous Town Hall Veggie Patch right in the middle of Swanston Street.

Gardening Australia Host Costa Georgiadis has some encouraging words to pass on to gardeners shy of space, “If you think you have no space at home, think again! Connect with your neighbours, your local community garden. Consider your bathroom window, your door step… If there is a little ray of sunshine, you can grow!”