Fawkner Farm School - Autumn 2025

🌱Fawkner Farm School - Autumn 2025 🌾

Growing Farmers is excited to present our latest 6-week Farm School for adults at Fawkner Food Bowls on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country!  Join us for an immersive and hands-on experience designed to build community and climate resilience and elevate your skills in growing cool-season produce. This program aims to empower the Fawkner and wider Merri-bek community to grow lots of food using ecological and biointensive growing methods. These skills will come in handy when growing within our communities or building and maintaining your own edible backyards.

• No-prior experience is necessary!
• Spaces are limited to 20 adults per workshop
• Participants can book individual sessions or all six
• Cost is sliding scale. Consider paying-it-forward with a donation, if you’re financially secure. We recognise that access to food is a human right and we want to make sure our programs reflect this by reducing financial barriers - for this reason there are a few places each workshop for those who may be in this position. Please email us at info@growingfarmers.com.au with any questions about these options :) 
• Each session includes morning tea, coffee and fruit catered by locals from the Merri Food Hub
• Final session will have a cooked lunch by the Merri Food Hub using Farm School produce!
• Fawkner Farm School will be facilitated by people from within and connected to our communities

🌿 Fawkner Farm School 6 week workshop program - each workshop is 3 hours (9am-12pm). Standard prices are $40 per workshop or $200 for full course (plus booking fee). Sliding scale options available - see ticketing for more info. 

Saturday 1 March: Welcome to the garden!
A tour of Fawkner Food Bowls, designing growing spaces, building perennial garden rows for beneficial insect habitats, sheet mulching and hori hori weeding (essential session for those who are new to the community).

Saturday 8 March: BREAK WEEK - public holiday weekend

Saturday 15 March: Bed preparation
Building a new garden bed - building soil, preparing land for planting and seeding, preparing pathways, cover cropping, sheet mulching and reducing weeds.

Saturday 22 March: Propagation, sowing & planting
Sowing seeds in the polytunnel and directly in the ground for early autumn and transplanting seedlings for late autumn. Learn to use precision seeders, gridders, and learn about crop spacing and interplanting.

Saturday 29 March: Irrigation basics
Installing and maintaining irrigation systems (very practical session, prepare to get wet).

Saturday 5 April: Soil & plant health

Maintaining soil and plant health - Building hot composting bays and worm farming, crop protection and habitat planting.

Saturday 12 April: Harvesting & feasting

Community harvesting, washing and storage techniques and processes for Merri Food Hub followed by shared community meal to celebrate the end of our Autumn Fawkner Farm School.

Any questions?  

We'd love to hear from you! Email us at info@growingfarmers.org.au