Inspiring Australian Woman Grows Food Year-Round in Her Suburban Permaculture Garden

Kat Lavers lives on the Plummery, a typical suburban block on Wurundjeri country, about six kilometers from the center of Melbourne.

She and her partner Danny have decided to turn the Plummery into an experiment in how people can regain the connection between the landscape they live in and the food they eat.

Her block is 280 square meters, but the food-producing area is just about 10x10 meters.

According to Happen Films, in 2018 they harvested 428 kilos of herbs, vegetables, fruits, and quail eggs from their garden. It was an amount enough to supply two adults and regular guests with fresh produce for the entire year.

In developing their garden, Kat and Danny used a process called permaculture design to get the most out of the space but still, keep the place elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

Permaculture proposes an optimum arrangement of vegetables to plant together in each bed so they all produce well without competing with each other.

Their quails live in an aviary with concrete paving and a layer of mulch that becomes compost over time. In the meantime, quails can spend their time scratching around in the mulch, looking for bugs.

Kat says that their permaculture suburban garden is far from being self-sufficient but it’s important for them that most of their food comes from their household or within their bio-region.

Watch the incredible video about this permaculture garden below.