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Natasha Morgan

  • About
  • Shop
  • Preserve
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • The Book
  • Cultivate
  • Forage

The Winter Table Returns

June 21, 2026

The Winter Table is back. And the entire extraordinary world of Oak Lane & Co is yours.

There is something that happens in a Central Highlands winter that doesn't happen in any other season. The garden strips back. The fog cloaks the landscape in a milky veil. And just when you think there is nothing out there — nothing to bring in, nothing to work with — you find a lichen-crusted branch, a fall of moss, a seedhead still clinging to its stem. You find that winter, more than any other season, is the one that asks you to really look — and in doing so, you are rewarded by its magic.

The Dutch Masters knew it. Those still-life painters who built whole worlds on a tabletop — bare branch and old silver and fruit laid against the dark — weren't really working in abundance. They were working in the joy I find coveted in winter. And what they made was extraordinary.

The Winter Table has always come from that instinct. From the belief that a cold morning and a table and a handful of foraged things can become something genuinely beautiful, transportative — if you know how to look, how to truly see, and how to compose.

The last time I offered this masterclass, I promised to myself that there would be more. Too good. Too inspiring. Too immersive not to. That was three years ago, right here at Oak Lane & Co in Kyneton. People still talk about it. People still ask if there will be another. Every time I say ‘yes, of course’. And on Monday 3 August, I'm bringing it back.

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Why Oak Lane & Co is like nowhere else

I want to tell you about Carla and Simon's shop, because it matters to understanding why this day is what it is. And I’ve popped shop that in italics because shop is too neatly and too restrictively and reductively capable of actually holding the essence of their world.

Oak Lane & Co is not a boutique in the conventional sense. It is two heritage buildings on Piper Street, Kyneton, filled with objects that have lived — antique furniture, French and English and Australian pieces, vintage linen, silver, ceramics, glass, things that carry the marks of time in every surface. Crafted objects painstakingly sourced from across the globe. The remote village in Japan that makes just one extraordinary thing. Carla and Simon source with the kind of discernment that comes from a genuine, lifelong love of architecture and interiors and travel. Every object in their rooms has been considered. Every piece holds a story. A provenance.

I became a friend before I became a collaborator, because I kept visiting. Over and over and over again. Not a shop to visit, but an experience to inhabit. I’m pretty sure that tells you something.

For this masterclass, Carla and Simon are opening up their world and inviting us to step inside: they are giving us the entire shop as our styling library, creative resource collection, cabinet of curiosities, and wonder room. Every room. Every object. Every length of old linen and every antique vessel and every piece of silver and every artisan object and ware on those shelves. You will handle and hold them, gather and arrange them, and alongside a collection of seasonal botanicals foraged from my most coveted haunts, you will build your winter table as though the shop and the season were your own home.

There is no styling workshop in Victoria that offers this. I have run many workshops over the last decade, and I can tell you without hesitation: this is the rare one.

Come in from the cold

I know what a Victorian winter morning asks of you. I know the pull of the fire and the warm bench and the cup of tea that doesn't need to go anywhere. Oak Lane & Co in winter is exactly what a beautiful old Kyneton building should feel like in July — the kind of warmth that comes from good objects and good company and a morning that has been thought about.

Piper Street Food Co will be there with morning tea. There'll be tea and coffee, and my own seasonal signature syrups from Preserve by Natasha Morgan.

Come in from the cold. Spend three hours doing something beautiful, visceral and transporatative.

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A note on what's changing

With The Productive Garden Companion arriving on 15 September, my teaching is taking a different shape. There will be fewer workshops at Little Cottage on a Hill, and more days held inside the worlds of the collaborators I most admire — people like Carla and Simon. What that means in practice is that days like this one will become rarer, and more particular, from here.

If you've been meaning to come to one of my workshops — this is the one.

The details

  • Date: Monday 3 August 2026

  • Time: 10.00am – 1.00pm

  • Location: Oak Lane & Co, 66 Piper Street, Kyneton, Macedon Ranges

  • Includes: morning tea by Piper Street Food Co with tea, coffee and Natasha's seasonal signature syrups; full access to the Oak Lane & Co collection as your styling library; foraged winter botanicals; printed take-home resource guide

Book the Masterclass here
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Pre-order The Productive Garden Companion today.

Continue your gardening journey with me

If you enjoy this kind of content, my workshops offer more detail and guidance on design, productivity and seasonal care.

If you are building your garden from home right now, my e-books on Wicking Bed Gardens,  Introduction to Backyard Chicken Keeping and Compost for Beautiful Productive Gardens offer practical step by step guidance that pairs well with the workshops.

I share seasonal tips, behind the scenes at Little Cottage on a Hill, and new resources through my newsletter. Subscribe to receive my entire plant list from the garden as a personal thank you.

You can also pre-order my book The Productive Garden Companion, the book I have wanted to find my entire life. A complete guide to growing for abundance and beauty in any space. The Productive Garden Companion is a practical, reassuring and visually rich modern gardening book that meets gardeners wherever they are, from windowsill pots to generous acreage.


You may want to check out my related content below:

Where Creativity Begins - Notes from a Morning at The Stones

The Power of Noticing - How a Garden Wander Led Me to Morels

Design Toolkit Series - Mowing as a Design Gesture

Stay connected for more seasonal inspiration:
Instagram | Facebook | Gardenstead | LinkedIn | Pinterest | YouTube | Website | Newsletter

Thanks so much for following along.
Natasha xx

Tags: productive gardens, the productive garden, Skill-Sharing, gardening, garden systems, fruit trees
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Authors pay for their own book tours. Most people don’t realise that. It comes out of our own bat. Every kilometre, every bed, every coffee on the road. So when Hannah of The Little Drift @thelittledrift offered me a place to stay as part of my Gippsland tour for The Productive Garden Companion, it meant more than you can possibly imagine. And then I arrived. The Little Drift is two architect-designed tiny homes on the edge of the coastal bush at Sailors Grave Brewing @sailorsgravebrewing in Marlo, East Gippsland. Each one sleeps two. Off-grid, solar powered, tucked into old banksia forest, a stone’s throw from the beach. As curated and considered as anywhere I have ever stayed, it really is your home away from home. You not only don’t want to leave, you want to share as much love as you possibly can. Not only was the location perfect, everything about it was perfect. And then there is Sailors Grave itself. Gab and Chris Moore started brewing in the old Orbost butter factory ten years ago, and in 2024 they came home to Gab’s family farm and built @sailors_grave_dunetown , their farmhouse brewery between Marlo and Cape Conran, near where the Snowy River meets the sea. Beer brewed of this place, with foraged and native ingredients, a seasonal menu built on local produce. The name comes from a small cove at Cape Conran where Gab spent her childhood summers. My dear friends, and the most extraordinary brewing company. It is so rare, so, so rare, that I, as a solo parent, ever get a night away. If you are looking for that getaway, if you’re looking for a place to visit, if you’re looking for the perfect place to be as the weather warms up, I really would like you to consider The Little Drift at Sailors Grave Brewing. There are very few places where you can disconnect, switch off and remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of the world. If you’re looking for it, this is that place. Tell Hannah I sent you. It would mean the world to me. Thank you, Hannah. Thank you, Gab and Chris xx The Little Drift at Sailors Grave Brewing, 85 Marlo Plains Road, Marlo VIC, East Gippsland
Four gardens. Four completely different events. And I cannot wait.

@thediggersclub have invited me into every one of their gardens to celebrate The Productive Garden Companion, and what we have crafted together is so much more than a book tour.

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Four gardens. Four completely different events. And I cannot wait. @thediggersclub have invited me into every one of their gardens to celebrate The Productive Garden Companion, and what we have crafted together is so much more than a book tour. Every event is different. A different garden, a different panel, a different theme, a different table. Diggers have teamed up with local winemakers, distillers (even a restaurant!), and the drinks are being mixed with my botanical syrups. Every ticket includes the garden. These are unlike events offered before. HERONSWOOD, Dromana. Sat 17 Oct, 4 to 6pm How Gardeners Grow, with Diggers CEO Fiona Forbes and Head of Gardens Julian Blackhirst. Drinks by @rhinotigerbear and @bassandflinders CLOUDEHILL, Olinda. Sat 24 Oct, 11.30am to 1.30pm Creating Gardens That Nourish Us, with Chloe Thomson @beantheredugthat Editor of @organicgardenermag and Fiona Forbes. A two-course lunch at @seasons.restaurant, then a walk through the garden with founder Jeremy Francis. @alkimiwines and @littlebear.sgn gin THE GARDEN OF ST ERTH, Blackwood. Sun 25 Oct, 4 to 6pm What Gardens Mean to Us, with Caroline Parker, @thecottageherbalist author of The Medicinal Garden, and Fiona Forbes. Food from the garden and @hepburndistillery. ADELAIDE BOTANIC GARDEN. Sat 14 Nov, 4 to 6pm Resilience and thriving in a challenging climate, with food writer and author Cherie Hausler @cherie_hausler and Sara Mitchell from the Diggers Adelaide team. We have been working on these for a long time, and I just can’t wait to be there. Diggers have been so generous in having me in their gardens and supporting me in the most warm, collaborative way. It is very rare to come across an organisation that so wholeheartedly champions authors and people in the gardening world. Please share some love with them. I want these rooms full, generous and bursting at the seams. If you know someone near one of these gardens, please reach out and let them know. Come to one. Come to all of them. You will get something different from each. Diggers members attend at the member rate. And I will be bringing along some very special things. Tickets via the link in my bio.
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.⁠
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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