Online course
Dreaming of stepping out the back door to pick tonight's dinner, from a veggie patch grown by YOU?
In this mentored online course, Hannah Moloney from ABC's Gardening Australia shows you how to design, plant and grow a veggie patch that feeds your household in all four seasons.
Bookings are open now!
Bookings close in 2 days 3 hours, and the class starts on Monday 7 December(Sydney time).
Good news - bookings are still open for you, for the class that starts on Monday 7 December(Sydney time).
You're in early! Bookings are open for you a whole day before everyone else
Bookings open once a season, and the next class opens on Monday 16 November(Sydney time).
Bookings open to everyone on Monday 16 November at 9 am(Sydney time).
Bookings for the October class have closed now, sorry! The next class opens on Monday 16 November(Sydney time), and if you join the waitlist below, we'll let you know the moment it does - and you'll get in early before everyone else.
Dates and times are in Sydney time.
And you'll start on Monday 7 December right alongside everyone else, with every weekly lesson arriving on the same schedule.
Become part of our community of 1350+ veggie gardeners enrolled in this course.
Dates and times are in Sydney time.
Become part of our community of 1350+ veggie gardeners enrolled in this course.
Keen to join the class that starts on Monday 5 October(Sydney time)? Get in touch.
Ask a question in any lesson and one of us will answer you personally, usually within a day or so. And there are live Q&A calls every two weeks, a private student community to swap tips in, and no end date on any of it.
We rotate the live call times to suit different time zones. And every call is recorded, so if you miss one, no worries... catch the replay.
We open bookings once a season, and the whole class starts together. So the gardeners you'll meet on the live calls and in the community are a small, friendly bunch starting out alongside you... asking the questions you were about to ask.
Hannah teaches your lessons, with all the infectious enthusiasm of a life-long gardener. And Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar, who founded Milkwood in 2007, mentor you all the way through.
Your Veggie Planting Guide reads thirty years of daily weather for the spot where your garden is. And it tells you what to sow, plant out or start in trays this month, either side of the equator. Yes, you CAN grow a garden where you live (at least some of the year!) - and if some tweaks are needed for your climate or country, we'll assist you personally.
A seed-tray window, as a northern guide prints it
The same window, read for a southern garden
“Starting a vegetable garden from scratch was totally overwhelming and now I have a structured path to follow - from planning to harvesting and all of the steps in between.”
Liza L. · Catalonia, Spain
“I was at first hesitant to enrol in an on-line course. I wanted to attend in-person, connect with others, and see for myself a permaculture garden. Now, I am Milkwood's biggest fan...”
Simona T. · lutruwita / Tasmania
“When the kids visit they love walking around the path, seeing what's happening in the garden and what they can pick to eat.”
Paula E. · Victoria, Australia
“I questioned whether an online course could truly provide the depth of knowledge and practical guidance I was seeking... I decided to give it a go, and I am so glad I did!”
Paul S. · Canberra, Australia
“I wanted to take my veggie gardening to a higher level after years of scratching around not really achieving the huge yields of veg and fruit that I had hoped for to support my family. This course was a dream!”
Catherine B. · Hobart, Tasmania
“We now have beds that are pumping and are certainly putting our newly gained knowledge to good use in learning how to grow, harvest, and preserve for the months ahead.”
Rani H. · Cygnet, Tasmania
Jennifer did this course from Benalla, in north-east Victoria, after renting for most of her life. This is her garden now... and here's what she told us about getting there.
“I have been a renter most of my life and for the first time in my life I have a garden! A neighbour visited me and looked at my garden and paid me the ultimate compliment by saying to me "you are a great gardener!"
What the organic veggie gardening course has done for me is give me the skills to plan and execute. Before this I was soaking up so much information and knowledge about gardening. But I was scattered and undisciplined in what I did. I was heading in the right direction, Now it is like I am taking the direct route instead of heading down dead end lanes.”
Jennifer J. · Benalla, Victoria
Inside your Organic Vegetable Gardening course, week by week, we'll help you get the hands-on skills to grow great veggies using organic principles and permaculture thinking, so you can:
The class starts on Monday 7 December 2026(Sydney time), and bookings close on Monday 30 November, 5 pm(Sydney time).
The class starts on Monday 7 December 2026(Sydney time), and your place is ready for you.
Bookings for the December class open on Monday 16 November, 9 am(Sydney time), and here's what it'll cost, so you can plan ahead.
Yay! You have a discount code. You'll see your savings at checkout.
Two ways to pay, the same course.
Most popular
30-day money-back guarantee. If the course isn't right for you, just let us know within 30 days of booking and we'll refund you, no questions asked.
We have Fair Share rates for folks who need them.
Step-by-step lessons, expert tips and bonus modules to grow an abundant veggie patch for life.
8 weeks, 47 lessons and about 7 hours of video.
Getting started
Meet your teachers, get your bearings, and say hello in the Veggie Gardening Community before we start designing.
Welcome & meet your teacher
Meet Nick and Kirsten from Milkwood and your course presenter, Hannah Moloney, and come and say hello in the Veggie Gardening Community.
About this course & permaculture
What 'organic' and 'permaculture' really mean for a veggie patch, the ethics and principles behind them, and what's coming up week by week.
Downloads: Introduction to permaculture - from Milkwood's Permaculture Living book
How this course works
A tour of the course platform, how the weeks unfold, how much time and money to set aside, and the Veggie Garden Planner you'll use all the way through.
Downloads: Veggie Garden Planner
Designing your garden
Every good veggie patch starts with design. So this week you'll get to know your people and your place, and sketch out where everything will go.
We start with design
The stages of garden design, the art of observation, and how to use permaculture zones to decide where your veggie patch belongs.
Downloads: Veggie Garden Planner
People - who is this garden for?
Who'll use this garden, now and in ten years? Answer the planning questions, weigh up your time, budget and mobility, and write your Goal Statement.
Place - what does the landscape tell you?
Make a Base Map of your place, map what you notice by theme - water, access, trees, microclimate and more - then pull it all together into a Summary Map.
Downloads: How to make a simple Base MapHow to make a Summary MapThe Permaculture Design Style Guide
Initial concept design - what will go where?
Turn your people and place notes into a Bubble Diagram, your first concept design, and work out where your veggie beds should sit (even on a tricky site).
Downloads: How to make a Bubble Diagram
Drawing a detailed garden design
For keen designers! Awesome skills, and totally fine to leave for later.
Drawing a detailed garden design
Choose a scale, make a To-Scale Base Map and turn your Bubble Diagram into a detailed design, so you know what fits and how much material you'll need.
Downloads: Choose a scale (metric)Choose a scale (US)How to make a To-Scale Base MapHow to turn your To-Scale Base Map into a Detailed Garden DesignTrilaterationThe Permaculture Design Style Guide
Knowing your soil & establishing your garden
Healthy soil is where every good harvest begins. Get to know yours, then choose and build the garden beds that suit your place.
What is soil?
Soil structure, biology and chemistry, the main soil types and horizons, and the pH most veggies like best.
Getting to know YOUR soil
Take a soil sample and run simple jar, ribbon and pH tests at home. And if your soil turns out to be a problem, there's a solution for that too.
Downloads: Soil sampling & testingSoil SolutionsSoil texture: the manipulation test
In-ground beds
In-ground or raised? How to decide, then three ways to make an in-ground bed: weed and plant, sheet mulch and double dig.
Downloads: 'Weed & Plant' garden beds'Sheet Mulch' garden beds'Double Dig' garden beds
Raised beds
The pros and cons of raised beds, which materials are safe to use (and which to avoid), what to fill them with, and keeping them productive.
Downloads: Raised garden beds
No-dig gardening
No-dig, or lasagne gardening - less work and more veggies, and it suits just about any site, from rocky ground to soil that won't grow a thing.
Downloads: No-dig garden beds
Plan your garden bed layout
Back to your Bubble Diagram to plan your beds - sizes, paths, tools and materials - so you're ready to start building.
Downloads: How to plan your Bed Layout
Pema on wicking beds
No topsoil, not much sun and seriously rocky ground... Pema shows how she built wicking beds that thrive anyway, and how they work.
Planning: what to grow when & where
Now for the fun bit - deciding what to grow, and when and where to plant it, so there's always something coming on.
Working with your seasons & climate zone
How your climate zone, microclimates and seasons shape what you plant and when, plus a few hacks to stretch your growing season.
Downloads: RHS hardiness ratings
Annuals vs perennials
Annual, biennial or perennial? How each plant's life cycle shapes where it goes, how long it stays in, and how much one patch can give you.
Crop planning
Start your Crop List, group crops by plant family, get to grips with crop rotation, and draw up a Crop Plan for your first two seasons.
Downloads: Crop rotationHow to plan your plantingVegetable Plant Families poster
Other planting considerations
Succession planting to stagger your harvests, and companion planting - what the science says, and which veggies do well together.
Gardening in transition with Farhat, SabarGul & Hajare
A visit to a community garden where new families from refugee backgrounds connect with their new home through food - what they grow, and how they cook it.
Planting your veggie garden
Seeds or seedlings? This week it's time to get planting, and to stay on top of the weeds as your garden grows.
Sourcing seeds vs seedlings
Which veggies to plant as seedlings and which to sow direct, where to source them, how to pick healthy ones, and F1 hybrid versus open-pollinated seed.
Planting seedlings
Harden off your seedlings, plant them at the right spacing, thin them out, decide whether to mulch, and protect them from pests.
Downloads: Planting your veggie garden
Planting direct-sow seeds
Sowing big seeds and small, overplanting as insurance, a nifty way to grow carrots, and planting potatoes, yams and garlic.
Weed management
Weeds are just plants out of place, and they can tell you a lot about your soil. Manage them organically before, during and after each crop.
Grant on caring for plants as they grow
Grant's hugely abundant garden is built to be accessible. He shares how he stretches his seasons, grows tomatoes and pumpkins, and interplants to make the most of his space.
Raising seedlings
Why buy seedlings when you can raise your own?
Raising seedlings
Make your own seed raising mix, sow at the right depth, give seedlings the light and water they need, pot them up, and fix the most common problems.
Downloads: How to raise your own seedlingsGrowing great tomato seedlings - from the Milkwood book
Infrastructure for growing veggies
With your veggies in the ground, it's time for a little infrastructure - water first, then supports, and ways to handle the heat and the cold.
Watering your veggies
How much water your veggies need, when to water, how to tell if they're thirsty, and options from hand watering and ollas to irrigation systems.
Downloads: Passive water management
Structures that support your plants
Supports for tomatoes, beans, peas and heavy climbers, growing up to double your space, and structures that shelter crops from heat, frost and pests.
Downloads: Support structures
Hot season solutions
A written guide to long, hot, dry spells - mulching, shading, and building beds and soils that hold on to water.
Cold climate solutions
A written guide to growing in the cold - starting early indoors and in cold frames, choosing plants that mature sooner, and cloches, greenhouses and hoop houses.
Tanya on infrastructure and planning for abundance
Tanya trades with other households and pays her rent with her labour. Her garden shows how sharing, scrounging and community add up to abundance.
Feeding your soil
Feed your soil and your veggies will thank you! Brews, compost, worms and green manures, to pick and choose from.
Soil fertility & liquid fertilisers
Why and how we feed soil, soil feeders versus soil builders, the nutrients plants need, and simple worm and seaweed teas to brew at home.
Downloads: Feeding your soil
Cold composting
A low-effort way to turn kitchen scraps into garden gold - where to put it, what goes in (and what doesn't), when it's ready, and keeping vermin out.
Downloads: Feeding your soil
Worm farms
Worm castings and 'veggie rocket fuel'! How worm farms work, a bucket worm tower, a bathtub worm farm, and harvesting your castings.
Green manures
Give tired soil a rest with a green manure - cool and warm season mixes, and how to plant them and finish them off before replanting.
Sulyn on building soil health and compost tea
Sulyn shows you her soil-building systems and her compost tea set-up, for a sweet-smelling brew that kick-starts the life in your soil.
Hot composting
Fast, weed-free compost that's buzzing with life, if you're up for a bit more work.
Hot composting
How hot compost works, building and aerating a pile, what's going on as it heats up, and using, storing and troubleshooting your compost.
Downloads: Hot composting
Common pests & diseases for veggie growers
Pests and diseases are feedback from your garden. Build a resilient patch first, then deal with any unwanted visitors organically, step by step.
Building a resilient veggie garden
Why pests and diseases become a problem, how diversity and prevention build a resilient patch, and the step-by-step Integrated Pest Management approach.
Downloads: Common Pollinator and Beneficial Insects of VictoriaBeneficial Insects: Predators, Parasitoids and Pollinators
Diseases, pests & wildlife
Spotting the conditions that let pests and diseases take hold, treating and protecting your crops, and keeping birds, rabbits, possums and deer out of your patch.
Downloads: Managing common pests, diseases & wildlifeBeneficial insects guide
Viv on small space growing and disease management
Viv and Des fit raised beds, a hothouse, berries, a small orchard and a native garden around their compact townhouse, and deal with pests and disease organically.
Chickens - your veggie garden's best friend
Chickens eat your pests, turn your compost and fertilise your garden. And there are eggs!
Chickens - your veggie garden's best friend
Set up a deep litter system with the chickens doing the hard work, build a chicken tractor to suit your space, and process chicken poo before it goes on the garden.
Downloads: The Milkwood Chicken eBook
Harvesting your veggies
Harvest time! Pick your veggies at their best, put your beds to rest at the end of the season, and plan where your growing goes next.
Harvesting your veggies
Harvesting tips for all sorts of veggies, what to do with your beds at the end of the season, and your certificate of completion.
Downloads: How to put your veggie beds 'to sleep'
Where to from here
Ways to keep growing - crop swaps, seed libraries, community gardens and permablitzes - and to keep sharing your garden in the community.
Preserving your harvest
Another zucchini lurking in the patch? Turn a bumper harvest into something to enjoy all year.
Preserving your harvest
Kirsten shows you her favourite ways to preserve a bumper harvest, and the different techniques you can try.
Downloads: Tomatoes in the kitchen - from the Milkwood book
Urban Nanna on growing in pots & preserving spring onions
Anna shows you around her rental veggie patch, grown in no-dig pots, and whips up a dried, fermented spring onion preserve.
Seed saving
Save seed from your favourite veggies for next season, and share the abundance around.
Seed saving
Kirsten shares how to save different kinds of seed, avoid cross-pollination, tell when seed is ready, and label and store it.
Downloads: Tomato seed saving - from Permaculture Living
Heather & Kate on seed saving & community
Heather and Kate from the Cygnet Seed Library show you how a seed library works, and how shared seed builds a more resilient community.
Take a peek inside Organic Vegetable Gardening... watch a lesson from Week 1Goal setting and designing for people, so your dream garden actually works for you in real life.
For as long as you like
Want the whole curriculum to read later, or to share? Download the course outline (opens in a new tab) (PDF, 4 MB)
Each with decades of food growing knowledge, and 80+ years of combined experience - here's the humans who will teach your course...
Teaches your lessons
Hannah will teach your lessons and show you how to get designing and growing, with her infectious enthusiasm and gardening know-how. With a background in cultivating community, Hannah is a life-long gardener, best selling author of The Good Life, educator, and presenter on ABC's Gardening Australia.
Mentors you through the course
Kirsten will mentor you through your course, helping you to succeed and grow. She founded Milkwood with Nick in 2007. She is an experienced farmer, grower, beekeeper, pickler, teacher, life-long learner - and the author of best-selling books Milkwood, Easy Peasy, and Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook.
Mentors you, design and irrigation
Nick will mentor you through your course, helping with your design and irrigation needs. He founded Milkwood with Kirsten in 2007. Since then, he has led over 2000 face-to-face students through their permaculture design journey - as well as farming, homesteading and parenting.
Got questions? Here's the answers you seek...
Yes - you will receive a new module of video lessons, design tools and resources each week for 8 weeks, but you can take as long as you like to do the learning. You'll have lifetime access to all your course materials, and lifetime access to your student community, expert mentorship, and the ongoing live class meetups. Sweet!
This course is designed for folks with access to at least 10 square meters (100 square feet) of space to grow a garden - either at your place, or somewhere else - OR be in the planning/dreaming stage for that kind of growing space.
We do also have students that take our growing courses while they're in an apartment... who plan to grow in a community garden or allotment, or are planning to have growing space soon.
Because you really can't have too many skills for household resilience, and there's always a way and a space to use those skills, once you know what to do.
This course is built for the temperate-ish parts of the world - cool temperate, temperate, warm temperate and sub-tropical. And for most arid regions too, as long as you can water your garden. If you're in Australia, that covers pretty much everywhere most of us live:
And if you garden in the true tropics, like Darwin or Colombo? Or somewhere very cold, like northern Finland or Alberta? Well, we have students doing this course in all of those places already. About 80% of the course still applies to you - the design, the soil, the fertility, raising your seedlings, the harvest, and saving your own seed. You'll just be growing some different varieties. And you'll need a few more tricks for when the weather goes extreme.
We'll help you work those out as part of your mentorship, and point you at good information for your specific climate.
This class of Organic Veggie Gardening course will begin onThe next class of our Organic Veggie Gardening course starts on Monday 7 December 2026(Sydney time).
You'll receive new lessons each week for 8 weeks, and ongoing access to your course materials & garden mentorship, so you can take as long as you like.
If you're a keen bean but now's not quite the right time (we get it), fear not - you can spread the cost over three payments, and we have Fair Share rates for folks who need them. And if this season just isn't yours, that's totally ok. We open this course once a season, and the next class opens for bookings on .
All students are able to ask questions inside each lesson, and get answered by our team within a day or so. Your student community is another place you can ask Qs, share pics of your garden, celebrate wins and brainstorm solutions.
The Live Class Meetups are a face-to-face video call, hosted within our course hub, which happen every two weeks. We'll notify you when each call is coming up - join if you can, but if you miss it, no worries - catch the replay!
The live class calls are at a mix of times, to suit more timezones - we rotate between 9am, 12pm and 6pm Sydney time.
All students get access to our archive of previous class call recordings as well, which are a treasure-trove of great answers (and questions) all about learning to grow.
Yes, it does! All videos are fully captioned and the captions are searchable.
We recommend you set aside 1-2 hours a week to do this course, to get the most out of your learning experience.
The amount of time you spend actually 'doing the things' and designing, planning, creating and growing your garden is in addition to this.
Lifetime access means you will be able to access this course, and all its resources, for as long as we have it available online.
Milkwood has been delivering stellar courses since 2007 - and we're not going anywhere, anytime soon.
This is a long-haul commitment for us, and for our family business. No tricks, no fine print. We want you to have access to this knowledge for as long as you need.
Quite possibly, yes! There are a few ways in:
We've made this course for anyone who wants to get started with growing veggies, regardless of how much or how little you might already know.
There are no prerequisites or required reading. No previous experience is necessary - we'll walk you through the whole process, and we can answer any questions that arise.
Just bring your enthusiasm.
Nope! If you can view this page and the video on it, you can access the entire course just fine.
The course is delivered via our special course portal, web pages and email.
You can access your course hub and private community (which is not on facebook!) via any web browser on any laptop, PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone that is connected to a reasonable internet connection.
You don't need any other special applications or memberships to other platforms. You are not required to have a Facebook or Google account.
It's simple and easy.
Yes, you will! We send you a Certificate of Completion once you finish the course.
We'll do our best to make your course the best experience we can. However, it just might not be for you. That's ok! If you decide that's the case, let us know.
Notify our team within 30 days of your purchase and we'll refund your payment. No questions asked.
Please note that the 30-day money-back guarantee applies for the online component of your purchase only. Books, postage or personal coaching calls that have already been supplied or attended as part of the Fast-Forward option are not refundable.
Bookings close on Monday 30 November, 5 pm(Sydney time), and the class starts on Monday 7 December(Sydney time), so there's still time to get your beds ready before your first lesson lands.
Your place is ready, and we can't wait to see you in the class on Monday 7 December(Sydney time).
BOOK YOUR PLACE30-day money-back guarantee. If the course isn't right for you, just let us know within 30 days of booking and we'll refund you, no questions asked.
We open this course once a season, and the next class opens for bookings on Monday 16 November(Sydney time). Join the waitlist and you'll get early access, to secure your spot before anyone else.Join the waitlist and we'll let you know the moment bookings open.
Any questions at all? Get in touch - we're here for you.
