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Natasha Morgan

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Syrup Gift Pack Winners Announced + A Workshop Update

May 09, 2025

Recently, I asked for your help: What kind of workshops would you love to learn from me this year?

Across Instagram, blog comments, emails and DMs, I was genuinely moved by the care, thought and creativity you shared in response.

Every message was heartfelt. I read every single one—and you’ve given me so much to dream into as I shape the next season of workshops.

It was impossible to choose just one standout, so…

I’ve decided to send out not one, but three of my Natasha Morgan Seasonal Syrup Gift Packs as a small thank you for the beautiful ideas and encouragement.

Drumroll….. The winners are @bek.bec @dameofdaylesford and Eve

All winners have been contacted personally—but whether you commented on my socials or blog, replied via email, or messaged me directly, please know:

You’ve helped shape what’s to come, and I’m so deeply grateful.

Your presence in this community means everything and more to me.

Workshop update

All of my autumn workshops are now sold out—except for four spots left this Saturday at the Wicking Bed Garden Workshop.

It’s the last chance to join before I pause workshops until spring, while I focus on finishing the book.

But this certainly isn’t goodbye… not even close⠀

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My seasonal newsletter will be blooming through winter, filled with practical tips, behind-the-scenes moments, planting guides, and early access to future workshops.

If you’re not already on the list, now’s the perfect time to subscribe.

http://eepurl.com/iTENo6

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You may want to check out my related content below:

If You Could Learn Anything From Me This Year, What Would It Be? – Discover what I’ve been reflecting on the workshops I’ve shared over the years—and dreaming into what might come next.

Enjoyed this blog?

→ Share this blog with your friends and gardening allies to spread the love and knowledge.

→ Sign up for the newsletter to stay up-to-date on upcoming workshops, garden tips, and exclusive updates from Little Cottage on a Hill.

Thank you again for being here—for your ideas, your encouragement, and the beautiful way you keep showing up.

With love, gratitude, and sticky syrup-stirring hands,

Natasha x

For glimpses into workshops, daily life, and my thoughts from Little Cottage on a Hill, you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’d like a more personal update, subscribe to my Newsletter for a monthly note on what’s growing, what’s inspiring me, and what’s next.

Click the links below to stay connected—I’d love to have you along for the journey.

Tags: gardening, the wicking bed garden, workshops, community, learning together, teaching & learning
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It’s hard to put into words what waking up here felt like so I think I’ll let it speak for itself. This was my morning lap today and it left me feeling at little like the rabbit at the end of this little moment in time. Watch to the end to see the moment of pure joy. Thank you so much @littlelusciousfarm for welcoming me into your slice of paradise so generously xxx
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.⁠ ⁠ 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.⁠ ⁠ 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.⁠ ⁠ 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 ⁠ 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