What is The Aussie Seed Shed and why does it matter?
Thanks for visiting The Aussie Seed Shed — we're excited you're here! No, really, we are excited. The Aussie Seed Shed is a small, Queensland, family-owned business. We see every order, page view, product review, notification and like. We still get excited about every single one.
There was never a long-term plan to launch The Aussie Seed Shed. In fact, when we started (or sometimes still) The Aussie Seed Shed seemed so farfetched. Developing The Aussie Seed Shed was a whole lot of hard work but we are so glad that we're here (and like I said, we're glad you're here too!).
We wanted to reach out to our community and give you all a little bit of background to The Aussie Seed Shed. There are so many businesses out there on the web today, so what sets us apart? Why should you be here, instead of a supermassive chain store or another small online business? To explain why let us first tell you the story of The Aussie Seed Shed.
Our (continuously) work in progress backyard garden. This photo was taken just after we had set up the garden beds, as you can see we were using mostly old pots and grow bags! We tried to use as many recycled materials as possible while building our garden.
Way before The Aussie Seed Shed was even an idea Zac and I were building our first backyard garden.
I had lived on acres of land for years. Not only did I have plenty of space to build a garden, but the garden beds and other structures were already in place before I got there. The soil in the garden was lush and fertile, without having to add amendments or even compost. The garden ecosystem was so well developed that I never had any issues growing vegetables or flowers (besides a few pesky caterpillars).
Then I moved in with my partner, Zac, to a small suburban block. I moved from a house where I was surrounded by a variety of plants (even the inside was stacked with houseplants) to a suburban house with a tiny, manicured backyard. My heart broke when I left my garden behind. Seeing my heartache, Zac stepped up the challenge and we turned a 3x5m section of our lawn into a productive garden in the heart of suburbia.
During our garden build, we did a lot of research. I had been gardening for years, but I had never started from scratch. We were also working with very limited space, time, and budget — which only made everything more difficult. I have a background in scientific research, so I was digging around trying to find the "best" or the "right" way to tackle what seemed like a massive job. There is unlimited information about gardening on the internet. I spent every spare minute of my day looking into how to do the next step of the garden build. Anytime we did something in the garden and it failed, we both fell so far down the rabbit hole trying to fix the problem that it drove us both insane. We did find ways to fix our garden problems, and we did find useful and relevant information. However, it seemed to be extremely random. We struggled to find a place that provided us with everything we needed from A to B.
Fast-forward in time and I was talking to someone about our gardening woes. We were exchanging problems, searching for solutions. He said to me something along the lines of, "I think soil health is more important than anything else in the garden. I have been looking into soil health but I don't understand have of the terminology. Like what is a protozoa?". I had studied soil science, so I knew exactly what a protozoa was. Perfect! We sat down and together exchanged information about soil health: I helped him understand the science and he taught me about the important of the soil food web. But how many other backyard gardeners are out there that don't have a science or environmental background that are in the same boat?
Protozoa under a microscope. Protozoa are single-celled organisms that are a key player in soil microbiology and the soil food web.
Then it happened again. I was visiting my mother and we were trawling through her garden. Her tomatoes had blossom end rot. She didn't understand what was happening to them, just that they were rotting while they were still on the vine. She also had a zucchini plant that was producing crop but they were a whacky shape. Perfect again! Zac and I had already experienced blossom end rot with our (very large collection of) chilli plants and we had already worked out the best way for us to hand-pollinate our cucurbit family plants. I helped her find a solution to her problems. Her tomatoes returned to normal, she started hand pollinating her zucchinis (and planting bee-friendly flowers) and she ended up with enough crop that Zac and I ate tomatoes for every meal. She told me to "write all of this down" because someday someone else will need help too.
Zucchini that has not been pollinated perfectly. One end of the zucchini is plump and firm and the other end is skinny and soft.
Word started to spread and Zac and I were being asked gardening questions constantly. We would get stopped by our friends or receive messages like, "would you know why my corn is missing some kernels?", "why aren't my seeds germinating?, or "do you know why the leaves of my plants are curled over?". Some questions were easy, we had been there and done that. And honestly, sometimes we didn't know the answer to the question. But you best believe we would find out! With my background in professional research and Zac's drive to help others, we wouldn't stop searching till we found a solution.
What we found was there are plenty of websites about gardening in Australia, but there didn't seem to be a place for the average joe. The websites and stores we found were either for commercial or more advanced gardeners. The blogs we were reading were from people who had big beautiful productive gardens, with ample land, plenty of time to spend in the garden, or seemingly unlimited funds to spend along the way. We didn't have that, and it seemed those around us there in a similar boat.
A very small portion of the Rouge de Marmande tomatoes we harvested after the blossom end rot was addressed.
What we needed was a source of information and products that were dedicated to the average backyard gardener. We needed relevant information for the Australian climate. We needed resources that were tailored to gardening in suburban areas. We needed a one-stop shop for the information we needed to know and the resources we needed to buy.
Filling this gap in the field is how The Aussie Seed Shed was born. We started The Aussie Seed Shed to help the Australian community build productive and sustainable gardens in their urban backyards. We wanted to help others, just like us, who have limited time, space, and budgets, to create a productive garden. We want The Aussie Seed Shed to be the one-stop shop that the average backyard gardener needs — somewhere you can get relevant gardening information, good quality seeds, and the extra bibs-and-bobs that you maybe don't think about when you start your gardening journey.
What sets us apart from others in the field is that we are here to support you. We want to break down the science behind gardening and make this knowledge more accessible to the general public. We want to build a community that is supportive of each other in our backyard gardening adventures (through the good, the bad, and the ugly!). We believe that increasing self-sufficiency has become a high priority after the rough few years we have experienced here in Australia (and all around the world), and we truly believe becoming more self-sufficient is achievable even while you are living in suburbia. To many people, this may seem difficult to believe, but if we can do it in a 15m2 patch of lawn, we know you can do it too.
I wish when we started our gardening journey, there was a place where I could learn about how to do something, get inspired, buy the products I needed to do the project, and have the support of the business' customer service team if I needed it. I wished there was a place dedicated to the average backyard gardener, including those starting from scratch. I wished there was a place that catered to people with limited time, space, or budgets. We found a place like this didn't exist.
So, this is it. This is us. This is The Aussie Seed Shed.
Welcome to The Aussie Seed Shed community
A place dedicated to supporting backyard gardeners in suburban Australia.
We are glad you're here.
