Chloe Thomson at Ballarat Begonia Festival

Talking plants and gardening makes Chloe Thomson happy. Her backyard is her sanctuary – a place to grow food, watch flowers bloom and enjoy getting her hands dirty. Chloe is horticulturist who’s passionate about getting more people gardening!

Chloe’s roles in the gardening and horticulture industry have been wide and varied – fresh out of uni she worked for the strawberry industry and part of her job included tasting mountains of strawberries for the breeding program! She’s worked in sales and communications roles for several popular gardening brands and given talks and presentations to a huge range of audiences.

These days, Chloe works freelance for several horticultural businesses doing copywriting, video production/presenting and digital content creation. She’s also a regular writer for the Gardening Australia magazine and Good Organic Gardening Magazine.

Her own backyard is a sloping, quarter acre block in the outer north-eastern Melbourne suburbs. When she moved in with her husband and 2 young boys 10 years ago – there wasn’t a single plant in the garden – not one! But now it’s a developing and changing oasis of edible plants, natives, flowers and smaller green spaces. Like all good gardens it will probably never be finished – but it’s just the way she likes it.

Catch Chloe on the Main Stage throughout the Begonia Festival.