FiMBY is sustainability and inspiration.

Supporting you to grow your own and helping create beautiful and productive vegetables and fruit gardens in your back yard is what it’s about.

FiMBY (Food in My Back Yard) is the brainchild of Christina and Juliet, two friends with a love of gardening and a fantasy of earning a living by pottering around in them.

One Girl sat down to chat about FiMBY with Christina over lemon verbena, mint and ginger tea; the lemon verbena and mint straight from Christina’s garden.

Like all work, there’s a division of labor at the core of FIMBY; Juliet the heart and soul and Christina the driver.  After running their idea past some friends who said ‘well what are you waiting for?’, FiMBY was born in August 2008. Using those same friends as guinea pigs, some of them grew their own veggies for the first time.

In January 2009, FiMBY featured in The Mercury newspaper. They planned a slow start but got 12 clients within the first few weeks and since then there’s been no turning back.  They’ve worked
with over 40 customers at one time, and within a year helped over 150 people start growing their own food.

Over time, their attention has turned to other loves: Juliet to her grandchildren, and Christina to a wind farm development in North East Tasmania. Now Christina, the sole owner after buying
out Juliet’s share, runs FiMBY part-time with with the help of some dedicated casual workers.

FiMBY has built up its own little community. They do garden tours and the odd market garden stalls where they sell their excess veggies. They’ve recently held a pickling day for excess zucchinis. Christina produces a regular newsletter with tips, hints, recipes, FiMBY customer garden features and articles on what to plant when.

What this One Girl noticed most about spending time with Christina is her love for Hobart and her love for self-sufficiency, she even rears her own rabbits for food, using every bit,
even making a beautiful hat out of the rabbit fur.

Christina’s front yard isn’t your normal suburban lawn; hers is full of edible goodies, making the most of every inch of soil.  Gardening in the front yard has given Christina the chance to engage with her local community, talking to people as they pass by, even giving away her home grown goodies to some passers by. This Girl was lucky enough to leave with a beautiful bunch of basil and
tarragon.

Christina says ‘Hobart is a city, but small enough to be human. For a lot of clients that work behind a desk, there is a satisfaction in picking their own snow peas or flowers.’

No sitting behind a desk for Christina, FiMBY’s office is someone’s garden somewhere.  A beautiful thing for anyone who once dreamed of making a business of pottering around in a garden!

Christina’s other love is her Garden Craft Program, for 10 months a year she will visit you each month bringing supplies with her.  There is a curriculum; a topic that relates to the season and topics like what is mulch and how to make compost.  She recommends you keep a diary garden and by the end of the year the aim is that you are confident in your own garden.

FIMBY offers a one off garden consultation for $70*, Garden Craft Program for $154* per month, Garden Fairies (2 FiMBY people for 1 hour doing your gardening work) for $110 plus they have
programs around establishment, design, building garden beds, even programs for your workplace; where they can help you and your team mates install a food garden at your work.

Check out their products page here.

*Prices current at March 2014