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Diggers Garden Magazines Editor: Clive Blazey Publishing Manager: Caroline Trevorrow Art Director: Gordon Clarke Designer: Panage Kontos Circulation: 78,600

Orders and enquiries Phone: Fax: Web: E-mail: Mail: ABN:

03 5984 7900 03 5987 2398

www.diggers.com.au info@diggers.com.au PO Box 300 Dromana 3936 VIC

95 112 026 383

Gardens, shops and cafés Heronswood 1864 105 Latrobe Parade Dromana 3936 VIC Garden Shop: 03 5984 7321 Heronswood Restaurant: 03 5984 7318 St Erth circa 1860 189 Simmons Reef Road Blackwood 3458 VIC Garden Shop: 03 5368 6514 Fork to Fork Café: 03 5368 6520 (Thu-Mon) Cloudehill 89 Olinda-Monbulk Road Olinda VIC 3788 Garden Shop: 03 9751 0584 Adelaide Botanic Garden Schomburgk Pavilion, North Terrace Adelaide 5000 SA Garden Shop: 08 8232 8671

Diggers started as a mail order seed supplier in 1978 specifically to by-pass the major supermarket chains who prevented small operators like us from offering (what was then out of fashion) heirloom seeds. By selling via a mail order catalogue rather than through supermarkets and nurseries we never needed to contact the dominant chain store buyers and we could make a living with just 4-5 staff. About 5 years ago a cooperative of family seedling growers in all states asked if they could become distributors of our heirloom vegetable varieties such as Tommy Toe, Green Zebra etc. through nurseries and Bunnings. Some of our club members felt that because of our anti-GM stand that offering our products through the dominant corporate player (now Bunnings) was a sort of betrayal of our ethics.

Now this is a controversial subject which will concern some of our members. Is Diggers task to ensure we preserve our heirlooms and garden inheritance or to fight the powerful corporations?

2 • Diggers Seed Annual 2015/16

Wow! Did you get to see Digger's show-stopping pumpkin mountain at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show? Now you can create your own pumpkin stack with this mix of Turk's Turban, Potimarron, World's Largest, Futsu, Blue Ballet, Australian Butter, Buttercup, Dutch Crookneck, Wrinkled Butternut, Lakota and Autumn Wings gourd.

Should Diggers sell heirlooms into Bunnings?

However this year during the highly publicised Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, Bunnings contacted us directly for the first time so we asked them to participate in our heirloom tomato taste and they expressed a wish to list Diggers heirloom vegetables nationally.

TO HERONSWOOD

Pumpkin Mountain Mix

New and exclusive to Diggers!

Can a garden minnow like Diggers really take on big corporates? For example, if the preservation of our heirlooms is our highest priority then distribution of these precious heirlooms through Bunnings will be vastly enhanced by supplying these seeds via United Seedling growers.

If our task is to fight all large corporations who threaten ownership of our food supply like Monsanto, isn't the supply of our heirlooms to Bunnings actually a victory in the sense that every sale of our publicly owned heirloom seed replaces the corporate ownership of hybrid or potential GM seed? Does this also preserve our gardening inheritance? You may not be aware that The Diggers Club, which pioneered the preservation of heirloom seeds in Australia, is owned by the Diggers Garden and Environment Trust. Our profits go towards preserving our best vegetables and plants from the past; and if Bunnings asks us to be their preferred supplier of heirlooms this furthers our mission. It also helps us preserve the historic houses and gardens of Heronswood and St Erth. Is Diggers in conflict with our values? Please let us know your views so we can share them with our members in our Dear Diggers column.

RETAIL

$6.95

25 seeds

Tomato Artisan Mix

25 seeds

$5.95 S1792

COLLECTION Edible flowers bring colour, flavour and vitality to the garden and to your plate. The selection we offer here are all fun and easy to grow too! The collection includes Borage for sensational ice cubes for summer Pimms, Calendula for the soft orange petals to spark up salads, Nasturtium for its warm spicy leaves, Marigold for bite-size anise flowers, Cornflower to sprinkle on top and Violas for the sweetest flavour of any flower.

$3.95 CODE

CODE

Edible Flower

Taste sensation Pink Bumble Bee now has more “bumbles” with Sunrise Bumble Bee and Blush providing the best mix of colour and flavour, a musthave addition to your summer salads. Grow these heirlooms of the future today and help us get the best tasting, open pollinated varieties into more Australian gardens. CLUB ONLY

CLUB

S2375

RETAIL

$22.50

CLUB

$14.95

CODE

S916

Clive Blazey is the founder of The Diggers Club

Footnote. 1. This of course means our Diggers Heirlooms are available to a far greater number of gardeners not just members: but it also furthers our membership. 2. In our latest book, There is no excuse for ugliness, we have criticised the big box warehouses for the lack of greenery and their high carbon footprints; being constructed of steel, bitumen and concrete. This greenery was an endearing feature of the traditional nurseries but which is almost nonexistent now that box warehouses have replaced these nurseries. We of course have our Diggers Garden Shops on sites where 95% of the site is in a garden setting and only 5% of the site is for commerce. This is a feature for which we don't apologise.

COOL climate CODE SBEGC

Chilli Maui Purple

A stand out in our latest trials, impressing with its beauty and extraordinary yields. Vibrant green, purple-tinged foliage forms a neat compact bush, making it perfect for growing in a pot. Midnight black chillies turn red when they are ripe, and hot enough to turn into mouth tingling salsas. Produces fruit right through to winter. 40 seeds

RETAIL

$4.95

CLUB

$3.95

CODE

S0702

Wildflowers for Bees

Vital in food production, bees pollinate about two thirds of our food crops in Australia. Their populations are under threat due to loss of habitat but we can help by planting more flowers! This mix of annual ‘bee magnets’ includes Cornflowers, Dill, Poppies, Flax, Salvia, Pincushion and Coriander. Help save the bees! Covers 2.5m2. 2000 seeds

RETAIL

$5.95

CLUB

$4.95

CODE

SWBEE

WARM climate CODE SBEGW

HOT climate SBEGH

CODE

Garden Starter Pack

New to gardening or struggling with seeds? Here are the basics for success! Includes a Soil Thermometer so you know you are sowing seeds at the correct time, a Seed Sowing Guide poster (choose the code above for your climate zone), a Bottle Top Waterer, and 4 packs of Easy-to-Sow Seeds, of Beans, Peas, Zucchinis and Nasturtiums. find your ZONE on page 10 RETAIL $49.90 CLUB $24.95

Diggers Seed Annual 2015/16 • 3