Interview: Joanne Diver, of Global Sisters’ Festive Feat 2019
Joanne Diver of The Backyard Garden Enthusiast speaks to me between a morning and afternoon of collecting soil to create new garden beds in her backyard garden. She’s calling from regional Victoria, when we sit down to have a chat about her products in this year’s Festive Feat gift hampers by Global Sisters.
Joanne’s hand-grown and hand-collected Earthwalker Sunflower seeds feature in the hamper. Joanne says she chose the Earthwalker Sunflower because they are easy for anyone to grow, plus the name was wonderful —
“We’re all part of the earth and all walking our journey and finding our way”
She felt Earthwalkers also represented the diversity of the Sisters, the women entrepreneurs Global Sisters works with — there’s a huge diversity of women who are part of their own journeys to financial independence and creative expression, and the Earthwalker Sunflowers are known for flowering in a range of colours at once.
“And you can plant them at Christmas too! For most people the thing they love about receiving seeds as gifts is to be able to plant them when you get them.”
Joanne’s other product in this year’s Festive Feat are handmade pottery stars, impressed with Australian foliage. They are stamped with ‘joy’ — which is relevant to Christmas, but also embodies “the joy of gardening which is something we should all remember!” Joanne says.
The stars “will all be different and individual. I don’t have a kiln but a friend has one — almost like a cooperative, we get together and operate the kiln. There’s no firing the kiln in bushfire season so we have to get it done well before Summer starts.” This is an important practical reason to get your Christmas orders in early! (Orders close October 1st, 2019.)
When I ask about the origin of The Backyard Garden Enthusiast, Joanne says she started her business because of the encouragement of Global Sisters — “that reassurance [that you can take this idea and make something of it] isn’t available in your normal circles,” and this is where the support and belief of Global Sisters came in to help her make her business a reality.
The Backyard Garden Enthusiast was named because Joanne says she feels she’s an enthusiast, not an expert. She sells her seeds with a level of integrity, saying this is how it worked for me, growing and harvesting her own seeds to test growing conditions for success.
“The business allows me to work with seeds — something I love — and provides me with a sense of purpose.”
As for where Joanne feels she is in her business journey, “I would still say I’m an emerging business, it’s something that’s certainly keeping me busy, I sell at markets and I’m always thinking — taking on and doing more things.”
Part of her business expansion is into ceramics, particularly practical, garden-based creations: “pots, little totems, sculptures of birds, bee sippers and pottery with a functional purpose in the garden.”
I asked what bee sippers are — they’re “a plate with an indentation, which holds water so bees and insects can safely drink,” unlike larger water sources like bird baths where they can slip in or have difficulty accessing the water.
I ask what it means to Joanne, to be part of the Festive Feat gift hampers. She replied she was invited to have her seeds and stars in the hampers and that it was an honour to be invited, and great to be part of the whole program. She is hoping that some money will go back to support Global Sisters, particularly in regional areas where this kind of program isn’t widely available.
For growers of her seeds she says,
“I want everybody to have a go and grow something; you don’t have to be an expert. You don’t need a green thumb — just basics — we’re always learning just like our gardens are always evolving — it’s never finished.”
This is the ultimate in win-win conscious gifting where your considered purchase of the Global Sisters’ unique and stunning offerings create a ripple effect of positive change for our planet. And of course it will bring joy to those who receive them.
To find out more about the full Festive Feat Campaign, check out https://globalsisters.org/ourfestivefeat2019/ but please be quick as the pre-orders close 1 October!
Joanne Diver runs her business ‘The Backyard Garden Enthusiast’ from Albury Wodonga. She is actively interested in and advocating for environmental biodiversity and conservation. She is innovative and inventive by nature — always looking to engage the community with nature through her business. From making stunning wreaths to harvesting seeds as gifts from her micro seed farm, Joanne lives and breathes her passion.
The author, Lara Stephenson, worked with Joanne and her business during the Global Sisters x Social Good Outpost Design Accelerator Program in 2018–19, the pilot of which was funded by Victorian Women’s Trust.
