The Digger's Club is Australia's largest garden club. We are passionate about preserving the best traditions. We nurture two historic gardens so you can visit and learn about gardening. Heronswood has two buildings listed on the Register of National Estate. We teach gardening at horticultural colleges, run workshops, and publish books.
Plants direct to your doorOur one drip plants survive the hottest summers, so you can plant your Digger's plants and bulbs with confidence that they will succeed. At our two gardens, Heronswood and St Erth, we trial all our plants for garden worthiness, discarding those that flower too briefly or don't suit our hot, dry summers. We list over 400 hardy perennials, each described by cold hardiness and heat tolerance, rarely offered in nurseries. Please visit our gardens or read our catalogues to choose the ideal plants for your own garden.
Digger's standards
The Digger’s Club nursery is accredited to ensure that your plants have been produced to the highest standard demanded by the NIASA. 
We guarantee all plants to be successful within climate zones stated, or we will replace them, or credit your account.
We send plants by Australia Post from April to October 15 when growth has slowed and weather is cooler. This ensures they arrive in the best possible condition. We send our plants anywhere from Hobart to Darwin. Order now and receive them in winter and spring, which is the best time to plant.
The Club for What's in a name? Digger's was born on July 1978 in an old tin shed! Our purpose was to rescue the wonderful old varieties of vegetables, such as Scarlet Runner Beans, that mainstream companies were dropping from their lists.
Due to the buying power of Coles and Woolworths, the only way to reach the keenest gardeners was to set up mail order distribution, bypassing retail shops. Over the past 30 years, a hardware collossus, such as Bunnings, have gained dominance and now control the garden market, just as Coles and Woolworths control the fruit and vegetable market. Buying food, rather than growing it at home, is a greater contributor to climate change than all the CO2 from coal fired power stations.Multinational chemical companies, like Monsanto, can now introduce chemicals into our food supply (ie: G.M. seeds), which threatens our health and the existence of our best plant varieties.
So to preserve our best plants and garden traditions, and to help solve climate change, Digger's has to become a club for subversive gardeners. We are anti-G.M. and anti-industrial agriculture and pro-organic, as we campaign to increase the growing of food in our backyards.
What's in a name?
When The Digger's Club commenced, one of our first club members was a 92-year-old “RSL Digger”, more attached to a rifle than a shovel.
Growing our own uncontaminated food is not a new concern, but one that goes back to the 17th century Diggers in England. The original Diggers inspired by their founder Gerrard Winstanley, seized public land with the aim of growing food to give away to the poor. Their crime was simply planting vegetables on common land but it was met with a force of troops at the request of land owners.
The first Australian reference to Diggers came in 1853 during the goldrush. United in rebellion the Diggers rose up when forced to pay unfair taxes. This sparked the Eureka Stockade, so to be called a Digger was to describe a subversive mate who shared the common cause.
Most Diggers at the mines wore blue shirts; creating the origin of the words 'blue collar worker', but it was the word Digger, with its powerful connection to resistance and loyalty, that carried through to our World War One soldiers.
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FSC certified paperThe Forest Stewardship Council is an international, non-profit organisation which was set up to ensure sustainable forest management. It prevents clear felling of old growth forests, protects watersheds and ensures replanting of harvested trees. Its guarantee is its chain of custody to ensure all wood products are harvested sustainably. Ask for FSC products.
Many members call us to ask why we continue mailing our catalogues to you wrapped in plastic. Don’t worry! after years of searching, we have found Biowrap, a totally degradable plastic that gradually disintegrates. There is no known eco-toxicity to the soil, or to ultra-sensitive organisms as it breaks down.
Clive Blazey
CEO & founder of the Digger's Club
Bachelor of Commerce, author of 5 books
Simon Rickard
Manager & Head Gardener of St Erth
Bachelor of Music.
Post Grad. Certificate
Andrew
Head Gardener of Heronswood
Cert. in Occupational Studies (Horticulture), Dip. in Industrial Design
Julie Willis
Gardener
U.K. City and Guilds 1,2,3
Lou Larrieu
Trials & Production Manager
Bach. of Arts (Hons.) Environmental Science
Keith Edwards
Retail Manager
Bach. of Applied Science (Landscape Architecture)
Prue Jecklin
Retail Advisor
Keen gardener who provides advice on plants and garden design.
Jayne Anderson
Retail Advisor
Bachelor of Science (Environmental Horticulture), Associate Diploma in Amenity Horticulture
Jamie Alcock
Nursery Manager
Trade certificate. Burnley Degree (deferred). Qualified Nurseryman with 25 years experience.
Tim Sansom
Product Manager (Plants)
Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Management, Graduate Dip. in Horticulture. Permaculture Design Cert.
Anita Fabos
Retail Advisor
(St Erth)
Certificate IV in
Retail Operations
Heirloom tomatoesWe have Australia's tastiest and most delicious tomatoes. You will never find these heirloom varieties in a supermarket. They come in a range of nine colours other than red!
Seeds available all year
Precious melons The Moon and Stars watermelon is the poster child of the heirloom seed movement. Its buttery moons and constellations of stars are awe-inspiring. Unique among watermelons, both foliage and fruit are decorated with heavenly bodies.
Seeds available all year
StrawberriesTired of tough, tasteless supermarket strawberries? We have rescued 10 absolutely delicious, aromatic strains, that had been discarded because they are too soft to travel.
Plants available Jun-Aug
Potatoes and garlic Our gourmet, cream-fleshed potatoes and garlic are sought after by chefs. Easy to grow and highly productive.
Corns and tubers available Jun-Sep
Dwarf mini-plot fruitFull sized fruit on dwarf trees are much easier to prune, net and pick. They grow at two metre spacings, allowing you to become self-sufficient in 12 square metres.
Avocadoes for every backyard Thriving wherever camellias and lemons grow, which includes Melbourne, as well as Sydney and Brisbane. Up to 200 fruit per tree.
Self-pollinating fruitYou only need one tree - for 'Stella' cherry, almond, peaches, nectarines and apricots.
Dwarf citrus Half sized trees with full sized fruit. Ideal for pots and patios. Limes, lemons, grapefruits, Blood oranges, new 'Oroblanco' pommelo, and 'Buddha's Hand'.
Garden worthy flowers 70% of our flowers are drought tolerant. Romneya coulteri is the toughest and most beautiful of all poppies. A classic Digger's plant.
Madonna Lily Has inspired poets since the Middle Ages. A fragrant, pristine and drought tolerant bulb.
Heirloom sweet peasThe best sweet peas haven't changed for hundreds of years. Fragrant, beautiful and easy to grow.
Safe seed pledgeSeeds are the basis on which our lives depend. We will promote their diversity and free availability, and fight all attempts to own or destroy our garden inheritance of open pollinated heirloom seeds.
We oppose genetically engineered seeds that promote the use of chemicals. We support sustainable slow food agriculture.
Digger's timeline
AwardsHeritage award for preserving heirloom vegetable seeds.
Seed Saver's Exchange for the preservation of genetic diversity.
The roof is thatched with water reed grown nearby. Rammed earth walls were constructed on site from local gravel, with uprights from recycled telegraph poles. Benefit - minimal cement, no construction miles - maximum embodied energy from timber, reeds and earth.