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Natasha Morgan

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Rooted in Reflection, Growing with Intention

December 31, 2024

As the calendar turns to a new year, I always find myself reflecting on this shared moment of pause and possibility. For me, the year feels like it truly begins in spring, as the world awakens and the garden offers its first green shoots of promise. However, this time of year—when the days are long and the air is warm—offers an opportunity to reflect on the months that have passed and to consider the path ahead.

This past spring, I made a commitment to share more of myself—my tips, tricks, expertise, and knowledge gained from years of gardening, design, and living closely with the land. It was a promise rooted in the values that have shaped my work: generosity, community, collaboration, and creativity. What I didn’t anticipate was how deeply this act of sharing would give back to me. The connections we’ve built, the stories you’ve shared, and the inspiration we’ve exchanged have filled my year with a richness I couldn’t have envisaged.

Over the past twelve months, there have been countless moments to cherish. From the small victories in the garden to the conversations, workshops, and collaborations that have inspired me, this year has been about growth—not only in the soil but in the connections we’ve cultivated together.

Rather than setting resolutions or chasing rigid goals, I believe in beginning with intention. It’s about aligning our actions with what truly matters, grounding ourselves in purpose, and allowing the unfolding seasons to guide us. Intention gives us space to grow naturally, just as a garden does, adapting to what each day brings.

As we step into 2025, I am staying rooted in these values. I’m excited to continue sharing my journey with you—offering practical knowledge, insights, and inspiration for creating spaces that are both beautiful and productive. Together, we’ll explore what it means to live well, to design with care, and to build connections with nature, the land, and each other.

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As you join me in a collection of snapshots from the past year, I hope you’ll see the stories of shared learning, community, and creativity that have defined this chapter. Whether it’s been through workshops, your visits to Little Cottage on a Hill, or simply a kind word online, I am so grateful for the role you’ve played in this journey.

In the year ahead, I invite you to join me in starting with intention. Let’s nurture what sustains us, embrace the beauty in the unexpected, and continue to create spaces where life flourishes.

Here’s to the seasons yet to come and the small but meaningful steps we take together.

With love,

Natasha xx

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Tags: community, workshops, Skill-Sharing, learning together, creative workshops, vegetable growing, homegrown food
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This morning’s lap was a bit of dash, split in half by a meeting, in fact. Phone in one hand, tea in the other, working out what’s in the wicking beds for the kids request of fried rice tonight.

The full garden lap is up on Substack now.
This morning’s lap was a bit of dash, split in half by a meeting, in fact. Phone in one hand, tea in the other, working out what’s in the wicking beds for the kids request of fried rice tonight. The full garden lap is up on Substack now. Eight minutes, unedited, yes cars going past, me getting sidetracked by the first Lily of the Valley. It’s real, but hopefully equally generous. That’s the plan from here. Little snippets of my garden lap in stories here most mornings, and the full lap over on Substack, because Substack lets me share longer videos and share more of my world with you. I’d like to think it becomes the space where you can gather with me as your garden friend. It has become a wonderful place for me to share more of myself and more of what I do, and I’d love you to join me there. The lap is the thing I do every single day before anything else gets a look in. It’s how I’ve learnt this garden. And I’ve realised it’s one of the rare things most gardeners do, whether you’ve got two pots on a balcony or an acre. There is something so immeasurably powerful, yet simple, about a garden lap. So come and wander with me. And if you do your own lap, I’d truly love to know what you found this morning. Link to Substack in bio. Happy Thursday xx #MorningGardenLap #TheProductiveGardenCompanion #NatashaMorgan #ProductiveGarden #GardenersOfInstagram
Bleary-eyed this morning, cup of tea in one hand, phone in the other, and a few things on my mind. The first is the book. The messages landing in my DMs, the emails from people partway through the pages of The Productive Garden Companion. I don’t quite have the words for what they are doing to me. I got a bit teary filming this, which I did not expect at seven in the morning. If you have read even a few pages, you will know this was never just about writing a book. The second is the garden lap. I do it every day, first thing, tea in hand, before anything else. It is probably the thing that has grounded me most. Every single day something has shifted in this glorious Daylesford garden, and that lap is how I have learnt what the seasons actually mean here, on this hill, in this soil. So much of gardening and design is just observation. Being in it. So I’m starting a small ritual. You will be seeing a lot more of this face first thing in the morning (not sure how I feel about that yet) because I’m taking you on my garden lap with me. A little snippet in my stories each morning. The longer version, where I have the room to talk with you properly, lives on Substack. Maybe it gets you wondering whether you have one minute, two minutes, three, on the way to the letterbox or between the front door and the car, to go and see what’s happening in your own patch. I promise you will learn more about your garden, and possibly even more about yourself, than you had imagined. And lastly, workshops. There are a few spots left in this round before Christmas: the Wicking Bed Garden, the Productive Garden and Garden Design. I keep the numbers tiny on purpose, so you can truly get a sense of how I work and glean everything you possibly can from me. I’m an open book in a workshop. Always have been. Join me on Substack for the full garden lap. All the links are in my bio. And if you’re in Australia and would like a signed copy of the book, head to my website. I would happily sign one and personalise it just for you, or for that special person in your life. Much love xx #TheProductiveGardenCompanion #MorningGardenLap #DaylesfordGarden #ProductiveGarden #GardenWorksh
Zucchini will take over a bed if you let them. I grow mine up a stake. This is how, and why your fruit keeps shrivelling.⁠
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This week I planted out some of my frost-tender plants early, on the strength of watching this unusually warm spring closely.
Zucchini will take over a bed if you let them. I grow mine up a stake. This is how, and why your fruit keeps shrivelling.⁠ ⁠ This week I planted out some of my frost-tender plants early, on the strength of watching this unusually warm spring closely. My usual cutoff is Melbourne Cup weekend. Your date will be different. Observe your own garden before you follow mine.⁠ ⁠ Zucchini are heavy feeders. Sunny spot, rich free-draining soil, plenty of compost and aged manure before planting, and the soil has to be warm.⁠ ⁠ Grown flat, one plant wants a metre of space. I grow them as a single stem up a sturdy bamboo or hardwood stake, put in at planting and tied in loosely with soft elastic ties as it climbs. The ribbed Italian types like 'Costata Romanesco' suit this best. The footprint drops, the airflow improves (most of the fight against powdery mildew), and the fruit stops hiding under the leaves.⁠ ⁠ Pick small, fifteen to twenty centimetres, every second day in peak season. Two days is the difference between dinner and a doorstop.⁠ ⁠ Water deeply and less often, at the base, early in the morning, leaves dry. In a wicking bed the reservoir does this for you.⁠ ⁠ The one everyone asks me about. If small fruit are yellowing and shrivelling from the tip, that is an unpollinated fruit, not disease and not your soil. Male flowers sit on a thin straight stem. Females have a tiny zucchini at the base. Early in the season there are often only males for a week or two, and on cold mornings the bees are slow. So hand pollinate. Early morning, pick a male, peel back the petals, brush the pollen onto the centre of a female. One male does two or three females. A minute's work.⁠ ⁠ These are my wicking beds. I'm building one with a small group at Little Cottage on a Hill on Sunday 1 November. Can't make Daylesford? The Wicking Bed Garden e-book is in the shop too. Both at natashamorgan.com.au/shop⁠ ⁠ The full piece, with the story behind why I grow them this way and how to save seed that comes true, is on Substack: natashamorgangardens.substack.com⁠ ⁠ Natasha xx 🌿⁠ ⁠ #TheProductiveGardenCompanion #NatashaMorgan #WickingBeds #GrowingZucchini #ProductiveGarden⁠ ⁠
My wicking beds exist because of a $900 water bill. The first one I'd had to pay in over 10 years.⁠
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Ten years at Oak & Monkey Puzzle on tank and bore water, and I'd never once seen one. Then we moved into town, to Little Cottage on a Hill, and
My wicking beds exist because of a $900 water bill. The first one I'd had to pay in over 10 years.⁠ ⁠ Ten years at Oak & Monkey Puzzle on tank and bore water, and I'd never once seen one. Then we moved into town, to Little Cottage on a Hill, and suddenly I was paying for every drop. I had to ask myself whether what I was doing out there was sustainable at all.⁠ ⁠ So I cut the tops off IBCs (those big 1,000 litre containers you see on farms), clad them in timber, painted them black for winter warmth and lined them up along the house side of the northern fence at hip height. Each one holds around 300 litres in a reservoir at the base, and the soil above drinks it up from below. At the height of summer I can go a week between waterings. And gardening standing up is a true gift, my back will tell you.⁠ ⁠ Then the harvest. From 6 of those 1x1m beds I picked over 160 kg of produce in just 8 weeks (yes I measured and weighed it all for my book ‘The Productive Garden Companion’). I've gardened my whole life, and still I was utterly blown away. Every crop you can imagine has thrived in my wicking beds and still does. Right now there’s cabbage, celery, purple sprouting broccoli, sugar snap peas, salad greens, cauliflowers, onions, carrots, edible flowers and so much more, all from a tiny space. (I don’t even have my summer crops in!) Coming from a property of 5 acres, that's the part that still astonishes me. Wicking beds are one of my greatest life hacks for creating water-wise beauty and abundance, for a truly productive garden. ⁠ ⁠ I'm opening the garden for a hands-on morning sharing everything you need to know. We'll walk through my garden, the wicking beds, talk soil, water, worm tunnels, what to plant and how to make it work in any garden, from a courtyard to acreage. Of course there will also be cake just out of the oven and a pot of tea.⁠ ⁠ 📅 Date: Sunday 1 November 2026⁠ 🕙️ Time: 10am to 12.30pm⁠ 📍 Location: Little Cottage on a Hill, Daylesford⁠ ⁠ Workshops are kept small, so tickets are strictly limited to 8. Book your place via the link in my bio 🌿⁠ ⁠ #NatashaMorgan #LittleCottageOnAHill #WickingBeds #WaterwiseGarden #TheProductiveGardenCompanion⁠
A perfect day for ducks, gumboots and gardeners! 🦆🥾🌱 Show us your love and join us at @bolobekgardenfair this weekend at The Garden Plot Bolobek is full to the brim with garden goodness, deliciousness and some mighty fine folk. What a happy team we make @thecottageherbalist @billypress_ @natasha_morgan_ 💛💛💛 #natashamorgan #Thecottageherbalist #billy #gardenfair #gardenevent
October is the month I stop being in charge of the garden. My job now is keeping up with it rather than starting it.⁠
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The asparagus popped up overnight. The crab apple is in blossom and the last of the tulips are blooming underneath while the alliu
October is the month I stop being in charge of the garden. My job now is keeping up with it rather than starting it.⁠ ⁠ The asparagus popped up overnight. The crab apple is in blossom and the last of the tulips are blooming underneath while the alliums come up to meet them. The peas I sowed in September are climbing without being asked. The grass has gone from something I cut once in August to something that needs doing every ten days, if not more.⁠ ⁠ And the tomatoes are not going in. They are potted on, hardened off, sitting in the sun on the north side of the potting shed, and they will stay there until after Cup weekend. Every year someone asks me why mine are not in yet. Every year in the third week of October the frost reminds me why I wait until after the first week of November.⁠ ⁠ My October Garden Tasks blog is now up on the website, and on Substack. Tasks for all climates, what to sow and plant for each climate, both southern and northern hemisphere.⁠ ⁠ Thank you to everyone who has sent me a photo of The Productive Garden Companion turning up at your place. I look at every single one, and each one makes me smile, makes my day. ⁠ ⁠ If you are near the Macedon Ranges, I am hosting a stall at the @bolobekgardenfair this Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, with Phoebe Hartley from @billypress_ and Caroline, @thecottageherbalist. Bolobek opens their garden once a year and it’s spectacular. Come and find us there, please say hi!⁠ ⁠ Link in bio for the blog.⁠ ⁠ #productivegarden #GrowOneThing #TheProductiveGardenCompanion #NatashaMorgan #SpringGarden⁠
I had absolutely no intention of putting my face on video today. In fact, I was out on the verge picking rhubarb to make rhubarb, rose and vanilla bean syrup when the postie arrived. But when the postie brings you a book like this from @mydarlinglemonthyme , well… you sort of have to share it! And the timing couldn’t be more perfect, because this beautiful book is going straight into my bag and coming with me to @booksforcooksau tonight, where I’m heading along to one of Emma’s book launch events. What you might not know is that Emma is also one of the contributors to my book, The Productive Garden Companion. She is one of those truly lovely, down-to-earth, authentic, generous people who moves so naturally between cooking, growing and gardening. I’ve known Emma’s work through her cookbooks and her beautiful blog for years, but this book feels like an invitation to step right into her world — into her garden, her growing and her cooking — and it is extraordinarily beautiful and generous. It also feels like such a lovely synergy with where I am right now with The Productive Garden Companion. Congratulations, Emma. This really is something special. And I’m a pretty tough critic when it comes to books. This one is one of the good ones. xx #cookbooks #growyourown #EmmaGalloway #livingwell
Well. This just arrived in the mail, and to say I’m excited is putting it very, very lightly. Ten pages. I literally counted them like a kid. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 pages in the November issue of @bhgaus Better Homes and Gardens, and I am so incredibly chuffed. I had the most beautiful chat with Jenny Dillon. She asked whether I think of myself as a landscape architect or a gardener first, and I still don’t have a tidy answer for any of it. She asked whether I control my garden or my garden controls me. I told her about my sometimes unforgiving relationship with the garden (yes I pulled out the magnificent plume poppies when they got too unruly and that’s kind of how I roll!). There’s a suit of incredible photography of my ‘natural habitat’ at Little Cottage on a Hill and Oak & Monkey Puzzle (thank you @weaving and @caitlinmillsphotography ), and an extract from my just released and already best seller book, The Productive Garden Companion, on trace-layer mapping and planning by noticing rather than by calendar. If you’ve been to a workshop with me you’ll recognise all of it. I’m in some pretty fine company in this issue too, alongside @rewildingsuburbia @gardening.with.ingrid which is the icing on the cake, so get your copy, have a read, and I would love to know what you think. It’s a jam packed issue. Oh, and one last thing. My book has gone a little bit nuts over the last week and a half, and that is because of ALL of YOU. Last week in its very first week it hit No. 41 across all book sales in Australia. Every category, every price point. I might have had a little cry over the weekend. And that’s because none of that happens without you. So thank you, literally from the bottom of my heart. xx @murdochbooks #TheProductiveGardenCompanion #BetterHomesAndGardens #MurdochBooks #NatashaMorgan #GardenDesign
Transform Your Garden This Spring: 3 Simple Jobs to Kickstart the Season⁠
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As spring announces its arrival, I’ve been busy back in the garden. Now is the perfect time to refresh your garden and prepare it for the vibrant season ahead. Here&rsq
Transform Your Garden This Spring: 3 Simple Jobs to Kickstart the Season⁠ ⁠ As spring announces its arrival, I’ve been busy back in the garden. Now is the perfect time to refresh your garden and prepare it for the vibrant season ahead. Here’s three essential tasks I’m doing to ensure I’m nurturing a garden that thrives:⁠ ⁠ Winter Garden Cutback: I’ve recently cleared away the old spent winter seedheads, dried umber grasses and any foliage that has died back to welcome the new, allowing my spring plants to flourish. If you haven’t started there is still time!⁠ ⁠ Fertilise: Enriching and nurturing the soil with organic, certified fertilisers or the best locally available manures and composts provides the nutrients your garden needs to thrive. Healthy, vibrant soils mean healthy, vibrant plants. Soil is the foundation of any good garden.⁠ ⁠ Check Irrigation: Take a moment to ensure your irrigation system is ready to support your garden’s growth as the days grow warmer. I’m flushing out drip irrigation from the end caps to remove any debris.⁠ ⁠ By tending to these tasks now, you’ll set the stage for a season filled with growth, beauty, and abundance. New growth is already starting to push through the ground, so it’s definitely time.⁠ ⁠ Join my workshops: If you feel inspired to learn more about how you can set your garden up for success, why not join me at an upcoming workshop where I’ll share the joy of a garden that thrives? ⁠ ⁠ With the onset of spring, I’m shaking things up a bit around here, and I look forward to sharing more tips, tricks, and things happening in my garden at Little Cottage On A Hill. Here’s to a flourishing spring!⁠ ⁠ #TheProductiveGardenCompanion #NatashaMorgan #springgardentasks #springgarden #growonething⁠
The Productive Garden Companion is out in the USA. So I thought I’d celebrate by introducing you to one of the book’s North American contributors @christian_douglas_design. Christian Douglas is a British-born Californian landscape architect and garden designer. His practice, Christian Douglas Design, creates ecologically informed, food-productive landscapes. He has spent more than 30 years making gardens across England, Jordan and the United States. His projects have been covered by Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and many many more. And his design philosophy lives in his own beautiful book, The Food Forward Garden (definitely worth a read!) Christian, his studio and his backyard-farming crew at @thebackyardfarmco spent twelve years designing and farming side by side, and what they learned is simple: “When you grow food close to the house, people garden more, they learn quicker, they eat healthier.” Follow that idea through our conversation and you arrive here, at his hope for where garden design goes next: “My hope and dreams is that we actually remove the term edible, and they’re just called landscapes.” This clip is just a tiny snippet of the generous conversation Christian shared with me. The full conversation is available via the book’s QR-linked pages, along with conversations with 24 contributors from all over the world. The Productive Garden Companion is out now in Australia, the UK and the USA. Order wherever you are in the world via the link in my bio. If Christian’s words resonate, please share them with a gardening friend on your side of the world. Check out his work and book and let’s keep these conversations and important work going. Thanks so much Christian! It’s such a privilege to have your thoughts and words so generously shared find a way into my book. #Gardening #GardenDesign #KitchenGarden #GrowYourOwn #TheProductiveGardenCompanion @murdochbooks @murdochbooks_uk