Sophie Thomson

I am excited to be heading back to the 2026 Ballarat Begonia Festival and look forward to connecting with visitors and seeing the spectacular gardens and displays. 

Sophie Thomson is an Australian horticulturalist, author and media personality in South Australia. Sophie's passion for plants and gardening was passed on to her by her parents, and she cut her teeth working in the family plant nursery in the Adelaide Hills.

Sophie has written or contributed to several books and writes the weekly gardening column for the Sunday Mail and the Weekender Herald. She is also the garden writer for the quarterly Adelaide Hills Magazine - regularly voted the best regional publication in Australia.

In 2014, Sophie created the prize-winning 'A Backyard for Kids' at the Royal Adelaide Show - a purpose-built backyard designed for kids, complete with a rolling lawn, shade trees, vegies and herbs, green wall, hanging seat, sand pit, stepping stones, balancing logs, insect hotel, beehive, crawling tunnels, wooden armchairs and water feature. Her vision was to inspire others to create gardens where children can play freely, connect with nature and learn to grow some food, sowing the seed for their future health, wellbeing and happiness, as well as the future health of the planet.

A popular guest speaker, Sophie has spoken at hundreds of gardening and lifestyle events, garden clubs and plant societies. Sophie lives at Hamlyn Cottage, a 1.5-hectare property in South Australia's Adelaide Hills, with husband Richard, five children aged 14 and under and a menagerie of animals including a dog, cats, geese, chooks, ducks and stick insects. She has developed a sustainable organic garden with a large vegie patch, more than 100 fruit trees and what she hopes one day will be a breathtaking, climate-compatible, ornamental garden. Sophie opens the garden to thousands of visitors several times a year.

Catch Sophie on the Begonia Stage at 11:30am and 3:00pm on Saturday 7th March; and at 3:30pm on Sunday 8th March.

Topic 1: How to create a cooler, greener, more livable backyard
Topic 2: Gardens Connect Us
Topic 3: Sustainable Gardening, Plants surviving and thriving

Workshop: Compost - Garden Gold Workshop
Sunday 8th March at 1:30pm
Book your spot by visiting Workshops