Have a peek over the fence at some inspirational vegetable gardens from around Australia
BEN SHAW’S PERMACULTURE PARADISE, VICTORIA
Passionate about permaculture and promoting the benefits of sustainable food production, Ben Shaw tends a garden plucked from our foodie fantasies. The community-minded gardening guru began planting his north-facing backyard garden in Victoria more than a decade ago. From slow and steady beginnings not without a few hiccups, to a backyard bounty capable of feeding family and friends, this garden is a testament to perseverance that is equal parts nutritious and beautiful. Producing healthy and diverse food, vegetable gardens proves that locally grown food is better for everyone — the grower, the community and the environment. Ben runs edible gardening workshops, so get in touch if you fancy some inspiration from an expert who walks the walk and talks the talk.
NATASHA MORGAN’S KITCHEN GARDEN, VICTORIA
Natasha Morgan fell in love with gardening when she was just a tiny human. With green thumbs and big dreams, not much has changed. Happiest when digging and pottering in her garden, Natasha is now a trained landscape architect who tends to her own vegetable garden in the central Victorian highlands with care and patience. She transformed the old, once derelict and barren grazing grounds into a productive kitchen garden. “Here I grow as much as I can to feed our family, taking great delight in growing the varieties that can’t be found in grocers,” shares Natasha. “There’s a deliberate over-abundance, so tomatoes can be bottled, workshop guests fed and the fruits of our labour can be shared.” When it came to designing the layout of the garden, Natasha left no stone unturned, literally. “I considered how I could reach to the middle of beds from both sides or be immersed in their profusion, and mapped the canvas of gravel paths that would let me barrow in mulch and barrow out, nourishing abundance.” The resulting garden is one with optimal flow and easy access to every nook and cranny. Crops are positioned to maximise sunlight and enhance their structures and dimensions.
BACKYARD BLISS, SYDNEY NSW
Step inside this warm and welcoming garden space, close to the hustle and bustle of the city, where stress and worry seem to melt away. Elements of the veggie patch are spread along the left-hand side of the garden, while the native plantings lie to the right. To create privacy and soften the boundary fences, lilly pillies and grevilleas were planted, in addition to passionfruit (Hibbertia scandens). Curved Corten steel planters rise up from the ground and help to structure the flow through the garden. This eco-friendly, biodiverse garden invites in pollinators and local wildlife, and there’s an integrated subsurface drip irrigation system connected to a rainwater tank for watering.
Photography by Nicholas Watt. svalbe.co
GIRRAGIRRA GREEN LIVING ACCOMMODATION, FORBES NSW
Girragirra sits on the Lachlan River floodplain, with every inch of it going under water during a flood. The front of the house was designed to cope with floodwater and the garden is protected by a broad-based flood bank that has been turned into a flourishing “food forest”. Shaped like a boat and offering minimal resistance to the flow of floodwater, the bank is full of fruit trees and productive plants. The veggies are planted down on the flat, where beds of produce frolic with espaliered fruit trees to turn the landscape into a foodie’s fairy tale. A wide variety of annual and perennial plants support the vegetable patches by attracting beneficial insects or by acting as dynamic accumulators.
