by Bonnie Collings
Returning for the seventh consecutive year, Baw Baw Sustainability Network's Creative Harvest in on this weekend from 9am to 3pm each day.
Twelve private food-producing gardens across West Gippsland will host more that 20 artists and creatives, including mosaic makers, a blacksmith, printmakers,
sculptors, jam makers, jewellers, garden tool suppliers and more.

The gardens, ranging from small suburban backyards to lifestyle farms will also host Gippsland food and beverage providers at selected locations.
One of the open gardens this weekend belongs to passionate food grower Helen Genomi-Farnham.
Located on a small block in Witton St, Warragul, Helen's garden showcases what you can do with a passion for growing and a bit of creative thinking.
For Helen, gardening is something that runs in her blood.
"My mother was a gardener and so was my grandfather," Helen said. "I come from Italian peasant stock, right up in the northern hills in Italy. So, I guess (gardening) is in my genes."
Helen and her husband Michael spent 25 years travelling and working around Australia. At one point, the pair stayed in the same place for five months, giving Helen the opportunity to establish a veggie garden.
After watching her garden come together, Helen decided it was time to return to their home in Warragul and create a permanent vegetable garden of her own.
"When we came back, we'd only been here for a week when I turned over the first bit of soil," Helen said.
"I don't think I'd even finished unpacking. Within the first week I'd dug out an area of the lawn that was about the size of a single bed, so I planted some broccoli. Every day after I would go out and dig another row. Turning lawn into garden is pretty steady work, but doing a little bit each day you end up with a substantial amount."
Only having a small section of yard to work with, Helen had to get creative. Putting his skills as a builder to work, Helen's husband Michael created structures along the fence line to cater for climbing plants and fruit trees.
The newest addition to Helen's garden is an innovative and space saving pumpkin arbour. Though often forgotten about because they're typically grown in patches, pumpkins are a climbing plant which have taken well to growing on Helen's arbour.
Helen first became involved with the Baw Baw Sustainability Network and Creative Harvest when she moved back to Warragul. Searching for the comforting sense of community, Helen was introduced to BBSN by her friends.
"I grew up in Jindivick so I know what it's like to grow up in a small community, have people all around and be a part of the community," Helen said.
"After 25 years of travelling, I felt like I needed my community again. Joining BBSN was the best thing I could have done because there are people there who know so much."
After not having a long-term vegetable garden in 25 years, Helen found herself asking question after question and getting advice from other experienced gardeners.
"My strongest advice for anyone who wants to start a vegetable garden, is to join a garden group and ask lots of questions," Helen said. "I learnt so much and got good ideas by being involved."
When asked what inspired her to garden, Helen's answer was simple.
"I just like myself better when I've got a garden," she said.
"Something that is important to me is to just, earth out. Gardening just decompresses you. I can go out there a complete snit, and after a few minutes I'm fine. I enjoy it, I really enjoy it on a deep level."
Sustainability is important to Helen as a gardener. Holding up a very little bag of landfill waste, she explained that the only things in her bin are things that can't safely return to the soil.
"All my kitchen scraps and even an old bunch of flowers from my friend's garden, they go back into the garden."
Avoiding pesticides and using natural fertilizers created by her two worm farms, Helen's garden is completely natural.
"Without my worm farms I think I'd be sunk," she said.
Helen said the "black gooey" layer of the worm farm is her garden's secret to success.
Filling a bucket with the black watery mix and using a fish tank filter to aerate it, Helen can increase the presence of good bacteria in the mixture.
"I pour that mix onto my vegetable garden, and I'm pretty sure that is what's maintaining the good bacterial health of my soil," Helen said.
Another one of Helen's secrets for maintaining a healthy garden is spending time in it each day.
"It's not too hard to spend some time in there each day, even just 20 minutes," she said.
At the end of the day though, Helen's biggest piece of advice for new gardeners is to "just start".
With her garden open for visitors this weekend, Helen hopes people will see what can be done in a small space.
"I hope people see how it's possible to grow your own food on a postage stamp size of a garden," she said. "I want people to look and think 'well I could do that'."
On top of the open gardens and visiting creatives, the Creative Harvest weekend also has plenty of fun activities for kids and six workshops for interested gardeners.
Visitors can glean insights from garden owners at free in-garden talks on wicking beds, gardening by the moon, growing healthy seedlings, and more.
Creative Harvest is on this weekend between 9am and 3pm, Saturday and Sunday.
For more information about the Creative Harvest weekend, to purchase tickets and view a map of participating gardens, visit https://www.creativeharvest.org.au