Be inspired by Karen’s years of experience
Karen is an experienced speaker, teacher and garden tour leader. A lifetime of growing her own food informs her teaching and she has inspired many others to experience the joy of home food growing. Karen is available to speak at events, forums and gardens clubs, as well as teaching classes and running hands-on workshops.
She teaches and runs workshops for councils, community groups, workplaces, offices and in private gardens for groups of friends, as well as in her own home garden Gunyah at times. Interstate, Karen is available for teaching in capital cities by arrangement.
Book Karen to speak, teach or run a workshop
Speaking
Karen speaks on a variety of sustainable gardening topics, from native food plants in suburban gardens and kitchens, to growing better tomatoes.
Teaching classes
Karen teaches on a range of topics relating to growing and using vegetables, herbs and native food plants, as well how to grow really amazing tomatoes! If you don’t find a class in the list below that suits you, Karen can tailor one.
Virtual Classes
Karen also teaches virtually, view previous classes on YouTube
Karen Sutherland, tomato growing workshop
Topics for classes :
- Tomato growing masterclass
- Small space big harvest
- Attracting bees and beneficial insects into the garden
- Vegetable growing for beginners
- Gardening by the seasons
- Native food plants for garden and kitchen
- Edible native plants for companion planting
- Growing from seed or cuttings
- Sensory garden plants
- Using edible weeds
- Grow your own herbal tea
- Permaculture primer
Practical workshops
Karen also runs practical workshops on various subjects including seed saving, raingarden building, wicking bed building, building your own wall garden and fruit tree pruning.
“Both workshops were great, and so lovely of you to share the collective gardening wisdom, and to uphold the value of being a keen observer in the garden.” Susan, class participant
“Karen is so natural in sharing her big expanse of knowledge so generously and warmly. I loved her talk about tomato growing.” Nerida, class participant
Classes & workshops at Gunyah Garden
Classes and workshops at Karen’s garden in the northern suburbs of Melbourne are usually held on Saturdays and Sundays, running for 2-3 hours and often including refreshments made from the garden. Attendees receive course notes, and a packet of seeds saved from Karen’s garden. Gunyah garden has over 200 edible and useful plants in an ornamental setting. Classes are held in a room overlooking the garden. To understand various plants we simply wander outside and see, smell and taste them.
Please Note: Classes at Gunyah Garden are advertised on our website and our Facebook page as events. If you’d like to know of any upcoming classes as well as other events we may be holding, please sign up for our email newsletter list.
We are no longer holding large Open Gardens so these small events and private garden tours are the only way to visit the garden.