Welcome!
Thanks for visiting Grow Great Fruit – we’re here to help you grow fruit that tastes as amazing as you remember from your childhood and create the abundant fruit trees you dream of.
Imagine … delicious, organic, tree-ripened fruit outside your back door that’s yours for the picking, and a pantry full of preserved fruit to last all year long.
Gardening is easy, but growing fruit needs a bit of specialist knowledge – so let’s get you started.
Growing your own food is becoming incredibly popular, and no wonder – it saves you money, is great for the earth, and it’s fun. Tuning in to your primal urge to grow food nourishes your soul, and does wonders for your mental and physical health.
But so many gardeners are struggling with a lack of skills and confidence. Our grandparents knew how to grow their own fruit, but in just a couple of generations the knowledge has been all but lost…
… and so, most people rely on bought fruit. Quality, nutritional content and flavour have gone down, health problems and obesity have gone up, and industrial agriculture (“big ag”) is one of the world’s biggest climate-change polluters.
You’re probably here because you want to fix that … but you’re not sure how. Even experienced vegetable gardeners struggle to get good results from their fruit growing. Well, we’re here to help you change all that.
We’ve got you covered…
Get started by browsing the topics in our blog.
From designing your home orchard, to knowing what normal fruit trees should look like, to identifying bugs on your trees – our hundreds of posts will answer most of your questions and we’re adding more all the time.
Learn the basics…
The best place to start (for beginners and experienced gardeners alike) is with our free online 5 Key Steps to Quick Success with Fruit Trees workshop. It goes for about 1.5 hours, and covers the basics of soil health, irrigation, pruning, organic pest and disease control and garden planning. Oh, and it’s also a great place to get personal answers to your fruit tree questions.
Next steps…
Need more detailed information? Visit our Online Course Library and browse more than 50 short courses on topics as diverse as building healthy soil through to pruning ‘monster’ fruit trees.
Or, if you’re ready for some next-level commitment (and want unlimited hands-on, personalised help from us along the way), join our Grow Great Fruit program. In this 12-month program you’ll learn the principles of fruit growing and the full range of skills you need for a lifetime of fruit growing (and yes, you’ll learn how to prune!). During the course you’ll also be applying those skills to your individual situation so you’ll finish up with a personalised fruit growing manual.
Stay up to date…
Sign up for our Weekly Fruit Tips newsletter – that way you’ll be getting regular, seasonal tips to keep you on track with your fruit trees straight into your inbox. Next, join our Instagram and Facebook communities for a real-time snapshot into life here on the farm.
Stay in touch…
Drop us a line here if you have any questions or would like some more information.
Grow Great Fruit Organic Short Course
12 Week "Start Anytime" Course
AU$30/week (for 12 weeks)
- This course will suit you if:
- You want high-quality, reliable info about how to grow fruit from professional growers, with no frills
- You want all the information now (without waiting for the right season)
- You don’t need a lot of hand-holding You’re budget conscious
- You don’t have fruit trees yet, but are preparing for your future orchard
- You’re a garden professional who wants to brush up on your organic fruit growing skills
- You’ve done a permaculture course but want more detail about fruit trees
- You’re already a keen gardener (or orchardist) and want to switch to organic growing
Grow Great Fruit Organic Home Study Program
52 Week Seasonal Course
AU$79/month
- This course will suit you if
- You want “experts on tap”, whenever you need them
- You want weekly support, with information appropriate to the time of year
- Your time is valuable, and want information in bite-size chunks
- You want a simple list of “Jobs This Week”
- You prefer learning in a variety of styles including audio and video
- You want to learn the whole “tree to plate” system, including storing, preserving and cooking fruit (as well as growing)
- You want a Management Plan that’s tailored to your exact situation
- You want access to a full suite of reliable fruit-growing resources
- You’re a garden professional or horticulture/permaculture educator who wants to offer fruit-tree expertise to your clients
- You want to establish a productive orchard as quickly as possible
Do you have fruit trees? Are you sick of getting no fruit? Or worse, growing fruit that’s diseased or eaten by pests? Are your trees sick, or don’t grow properly? Are you confused about pruning? Are you worried that you’re not doing it right, or just don’t know what to do? We’re Hugh and Katie Finlay, and we can help. We grow organic fruit for a living, so we’ve had to get good at it! We’ve developed a system to make sure we harvest a crop every single year no matter what conditions Mother Nature throws at us. It’s called the Grow Great Fruit system. It includes all the skills you need to grow fruit, like pruning, preventing pests and diseases, and making sure your trees get the right amount of food and water. But our system also has something else – something very special. It’s got the keys to growing as much fruit as you want (whether you just have three trees or you’re setting up a whole organic farm), as quickly as possible. Our system will show you how to genuinely build food security, get results as quickly as possible, and build a permanent system that is designed for success, not just for now, but for many years to come. We have two courses available – our short 12 week organic course that is the “no frills” version, but it still contains all the information you need to become an expert fruit grower. The Grow Great Fruit home study program is the deluxe version, and will suit you better if want extra support to put the whole ‘orchard to plate’ system into place. We provide support every week over a full growing season (or longer if you prefer) so you get the right information at the right time to put into action on the spot. There’s a ‘jobs this week’ section, and best of all, you get “experts on tap”—that’s us! You can call us once a month for a personal chat and problem-solving session—it’s almost as good as having us there in your garden with you! Have a look at both the programs, and if you need some help to decide which one is going to suit you better, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Happy harvests! Hugh and Katie
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Members report improved fruit growing skills
Grow Great Fruit graduates
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Positive feedback on our programs
Testimonials
Thank you so much for your patience in getting us to this point. Our success is due to the two of you patiently reiterating “There are no wrong pruning cuts, but there are consequences” and “You need to have a protective cover on your trees if any rain is forecast” over and over! I LOVE having an overall program of information and answers to questions and explanations, and all I have to do is work and learn! Thank you again for so generously sharing your knowledge.
I enjoy reading these emails and adding to my knowledge each week. One of the things you’ve taught me about thinning is that it helps to ensure you get fruit every year—we’ve got apricots, peaches, nectarines and almonds all fruiting. It’s so exciting. My next job is to net them so we can enjoy the harvest rather than the birds. Thanks, Matt.
Joining the Grow Great Fruit Program has meant that I have had the advice I needed as an inexperienced grower to get our home orchard planted and productive at last. Plus the phone consults kept me on track with the jobs I need to do to keep the trees healthy. I would like to congratulate you Hugh and Katie on the fantastic way you present so much information and inspiration!