Home Harvest
Connect, Grow, Eat, Enjoy
Home Harvest events have always been about community and the celebration and sharing of home grown produce and local food and aim to focus on helping you to start or expand a vegetable patch.
Home Harvest sets out to celebrate the local food community in Nillumbik year round with seed libraries, community gardening workshops, food swaps and much more.
Do you have a sustainable food event or group you'd like to tell us about? Email environment@nillumbik.vic.gov.au
Click on the image of the map to view a larger version, or download a PDF copy of our Community Gardens Map(PDF, 331KB)
Food swaps
| What |
Where |
When |
Diamond Valley Library
Garden of Plenty |
Diamond Valley Library,
Civic Drive,
Greensborough. |
3rd Saturday of the month, 10am-11am |
| Edible Hub |
50 Graysharps Rd,
Hurstbridge |
2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, 10-11am |
| Thrive Community Garden |
31 Watkins Street,
Diamond Creek |
3rd Saturday of the month, 2pm-3pm |
| Eltham Farmers Market |
10-18 Arthur St,
Eltham |
4th Sunday of the month, 9.30am-10.30am |
| St Andrews Primary School |
25 Caledonia St,
St Andrews |
3rd Sunday of the month |
Seed libraries
The Home Harvest Seed Libraries are located at:
Nillumbik
- Eltham Library
- Diamond Valley Library
- Edendale Community Farm
- Hurstbridge Hub
Banyule
- Rosanna Library
- Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub
- Watsonia Library
- Shop48, Heidelberg West
How the Seed Libraries work
Using the seed libraries is easy and follows the simple philosophy of:
- Take – Visit any of the libraries and take the seeds you would like to grow
- Grow – Grow the seeds at home and hopefully enjoy a bountiful harvest
- Save – Save some seeds for next year from the healthiest plants and fruits
- Share – Return some of the saved seeds to a Home Harvest Seed Library for the next person to grow
The seed libraries form a network. You can get seeds from any seed library and, when you have some to share, you can give back to any of the locations.
Community gardens in Nillumbik
How to make your own seed envelopes
We encourage the use of recycled materials for envelopes. For example you can use repurposed books to make origami envelopes for seed storage.
Please write the following information on your envelopes/packets
- Plant name
- Suburb grown
- Date harvested
- Any growing notes/tips you have
Here is a simple template to make your own seed envelopes using an A4 piece of paper:
Source: https://gardensnorth.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/folding-seed-packets/
If it helps, check with your Home Harvest Seed Library location as some might be happy to take bulk seeds and to package them up for the seed library – but all will prefer it if you can do this yourself.
Donate your extra produce
Local food sharing organisations that accept fresh food donations include (subject to change):
- Greenhills Neighbourhood House, Community Drive Greensborough - Open for donations Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 9am - 1pm
- Secondbite, Diamond Creek Uniting Church, Cnr Wensley St and Main Hurstbridge Road - Open for donations Friday 11am - 12pm and Saturday 8.30am - 9am
- BANSIC @ the Hub, 153 Oriel Road, Heidelberg West - Open for donations Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 12pm - 3pm
Eltham Farmers Market
Eltham Farmers’ Market is held every Sunday, from 8.00am to 12.30pm.
On the 4th Sunday of each month, there is a Food Swap from 9.30am to 10.30am. On selected Sundays, there is also a Community Market Stall.
The market is located on the car park at Eltham Town Mall, which is in the centre of Eltham at 10-18 Arthur Street. Entry is free.
The market offers a large range of stalls, from veggies and fruit to condiments and sweet treats. All the stallholders are from within Victoria, with around half from within North East Melbourne (around 15 from Nillumbik and a further 30 from the surrounding municipalities). This is a much higher number of truly local stallholders than at any other farmers’ market in Melbourne. All are selling their own produce. For more information visit Local Food Connect - Eltham Farmers Market