Avant Gardeners19 Aug 2025

Katie Finlay // Grow Great Fruit, Pruning, Grafting, Pest Control, Chamomile & Gin

Katie Finlay is a third-generation orchardist who grew up on the family farm she now calls home. She received a Bachelor of Science from Monash Uni majoring in botany and genetics - which came in very handy when she returned to the farm 15 years later

Katie and her partner Hugh are on a mission to help backyard growers and orchardists alike to create the abundant fruit trees of your dreams.

Katie and Hugh run Grow Great Fruit, an education hub that combines their decades of fruit growing experience into practical lessons through webinars, online courses, annual subscriptions and in-person sessions. They also have a nursery with more than 200 varietes of fruit including apples, stone fruit, heritage varieties and multi-grafted trees.

Katie lives and farms on Djaara country at the foot of Mount Alexander in central Victoria

To kick the episode off we're drinking a cup of chamomile tea and honey, with a dash of Poor Tom's Gin. Maddie's tree dahlia didn't quite go off like she'd have hoped, but her ranunculus from seed are going great.
She's still planting things too close together.
Emily is in her espalier era, with 7 trees about to go into the ground. We ask - What can't you espalier?
We acknowledge we've been pronouncing bougainvillea like Aussie bogans - boganvillia. Whoops.
Emily has secured herself a Charles Jolly Lilac.

Maddie is recommending The Plant Hunter's Atlas

In our chat with the amazing Katie, we cover all this and more:

bud swell
pruning
pests and pest control
grafting
storing fruit
preserving fruit
cooperative farming models
succession planning
Grow Great Fruit

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