It’s great to see you are looking for ideas for growing some of your own herbs and vegetables at home. The good news is, it’s easy to do! Basically I started this business about 4 years ago to help you find a way of growing some fresh herbs and vegetables at your home no matter how small your garden may be or how high the balcony.

I’ll work with you to create an edible garden that is suited to your space, time available and the variety of harvest you are wanting to provide your family with. All grown as naturally as possible. You can’t beat the taste and freshness of home grown.

Anyway, my name is David Borthwick and live at Manly in Brisbane. Here I am out doing what I love, meeting and talking to people about growing food, at one of the many events and expos that we attend around South East Queensland.
I’m on hand to answer any of your queries… right through to the harvest. In fact, that’s our motto—“Guiding you through to the harvest”.

Productive Australian Households Making a Difference

Productive Gardens Pty Ltd was formed in 2004 with a vision to enhance the lives of urban dwellers, by helping them grow fresh fruit, herbs and vegetables at their home. Using purpose-designed systems that have been developed to suit any level of gardening expertise, the gardens are easy to maintain and water efficient. The stackable garden systems are suitable for any home, no matter how small a garden may be or how high a balcony is.
This vision addresses the deficiencies in the process of ‘fresh food’ that is transported thousands of kilometres to reach the supermarket – and then the family home – and the time that lapses through the stages of this food production cycle. The conclusion made is that the consumption of natural resources to make this produce available is excessive. Productive Gardens stands in the belief that many of these negatives can be easily overcome by encouraging families to grow even a small supplementation of their weekly fresh produce and would:
1) Substantially decrease the impact on the environment by lessening the demand for the transportation of ‘fresh produce’. For example, how many people growing their own lettuce would it take to be able to remove one truck from our roads?
2) Support the family household budget by minimising the amount of money spent on produce, and removing the pain of waste and throwing perished food in the bin at the end of the week.
3) Increase family health, by making fresh, natural, delicious food available for cooking and general consumption, whilst eliminating the amount of unknown consumption of toxins consumed by each family.
4) Decreasing the amount of waste produced by the family home including the plastic packaging of foodstuffs.
5) Increase family well being by providing an experience that allows each member to share in the rewards of gardening.
The benefits of fresh, home grown produce to us and to the environment are well documented with more and more mainstream educational institutions offering courses in this area. It is being realised that permaculture is something we can all practise in our very own backyards.
Productive Gardens actively choose to work with, and support schools, to teach children about healthy eating. Children need to know that vegetables aren’t made in a factory. This hands-on approach, where they get to prepare the soil, plant the seeds and pick their own produce, is very rewarding. These opportunities are powerful tools to fight against early childhood obesity and diabetes.
Productive Gardens have developed into a one-stop shop for everything required to create an edible garden at home. A collection of products, chosen for quality and suitability to an urban environment, is even available online. Stacking vertical towers, which are available empty or can be delivered fully planted with personal choice of already established herbs and vegetables are Productive Garden’s specialty. Each garden comes with expert instruction and guidance to help the owner/s become confident and able to have their garden produce maximum results.
All pest and disease control and fertilisers that are selected for use by Productive Gardens and made available for clients are either organic or rated by Sustainable Gardening Australia as being of low impact to the environment. This reduces chemicals and toxins released into the atmosphere, and helps to increase populations of beneficial insects that help to maintain natural ecological cycles.
Water, the precious resource that it is, also needs to be managed to ensure supply through the dry times. Productive Gardens are working on this at a suburban level and advising people how to use the water in their newly acquired tanks effectively. We promote the WetPot watering system, recently awarded Water Smart status due to its highly efficient method of delivering water right into the plants root zone where it is needed, without the use of pumps or electricity.
Another household element utilised in making gardens Productive involves minimising the amount of waste being collected from homes. This process is addressed through various waste management systems, compromising of compost bins, fermentation buckets and worm farms. Much of the organic matter can easily be processed in situ and turned into rich plant nutrient to add back into the food producing cycle.
Achievements to date:
• Participated in many organic grower and sustainability expos around South East Qld, eg. Brisbane Organic Growers Fairs, Caboolture Environmental Centre Expo, Beaudesert Eco Expo. Also lifestyle events such as Gluten Free Food & Allergy and Living with Diabetes Expos.
• Working with Green Roofs for Healthy City’s organisation with particular interest in their off shoot, Food from the Roof.
• Working with the Brisbane and Gold Coast City Councils in their Food in the City and composting education events.
• An article was published about us in the Sunday Mail 8/7/07 “Pot Gardening Extraordinaire”.
• Developing edible gardens in collaboration with the teachers at schools. Part of the Nursery Industries “Kids Grow” program.
Productive Gardens is readily being embraced by Australian households, with sales of planter systems increasing three fold since 2006, illustrating that this vision is supported by Australian families and communities. To get your family onboard, call David now on 07 33936396.