People living in the northern suburbs of Sydney are very lucky to have ample stands of different native forest types and large Eucalypts in and around the streetscapes. However this does pose a challenge for those who are keen to grow their own food as possums and rats come for midnight snacks and brush turkeys come to dig through neatly laid out mulch.
This project was thoughtfully designed by Steven Batley from Sydney Organic Gardens to meet the clients brief of a productive vegetable garden and food forest space that excludes the aforementioned critters. This garden boasts 22 square meters of raised garden beds and 27 square meters of food forest with a chook house and run to be added in the near future.
The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone.
“An introduction to permaculture”. Book by Bill Mollison, 1991.
permaculture patch Back in the winter of 2022 we were asked to come and have a look at this project in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney. This property was a standard Australian suburban block with some established gardens, lawns, and a swimming pool on a quarter acre or 1000 square meters. While this had served the family well in the past the pool was now rarely used, and the owners were keen to be growing more food in their backyard.
“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.” – Bill Mollison
“An introduction to permaculture”. Book by Bill Mollison, 1991.
Animals play a crucial role in sustainable and permaculture systems and are a great thing to add to a suburban permaculture backyard. They help to create closed loops by converting Kitchen scraps, weeds, bugs and insects and garden bed trimmings into eggs, meat, and manure.
Building a greener future, one project at a time.
Tierra Projects acknowledges the traditional owners of Gai-Mariagal country on whose unceded lands we live and work. We acknowledge their frontier wars, their fallen warriors and their elders past present and emerging.
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