Living sustainably may sometimes seem unattainable, impractical,
maybe even expensive,
but it doesn't have to be.
Today, I'm visiting a productive home garden
on the northern outskirts of Sydney,
where a family have reduced their impact on the environment
through thoughtful planning and eating what they grow.
10 years ago, Mike Hughes and his partner Lou
bought an unrenovated house on a large suburban block.
Since then, Mike's transformed the site with extensive upcycling
and sustainable design practices.
What was the garden like here when you first arrived?
Um, a lot of grass and the photinias you see in the background,
a may bush and a magnolia.
And it was basically blank.
Anything that I tried to plant,
and I bought a few, like, grevilleas and natives,
wallabies would just chew them and eat them until they died.
So I had to do something a bit more creative.
What inspired you to create this garden?
Halfway through the house renovation,
I was having a chat with a mate over a beer around the camp fire
and he mentioned permaculture.
So I got back home and researched that
and it was all the pieces of the puzzle fit together
of my life, like permaculture was it?
And that really got me kick-started in how to grow vegies, grow food,
where to put the fruit trees, how to manage the water
and really get involved in making it a whole system
rather than just growing vegies in one spot and eating the food.
You've done a little bit of recycling here.
Just a bit, yeah.
We've renovated the whole house
and there's been lots of windows, bricks,
the carport, wood,
and I've tried to use all that in my creations around the garden
instead of throwing in the bin
or passing it on to someone else to deal with.
I've tried to deal with it all on site.
The garden starts on the verge with edibles
and the front yard is a thriving no-dig food forest.
Why did you use the no-dig method out here?
Well, it was all grass.
And so I wanted a way of killing the grass having to dig it up,
and disturb all the sort of microbiomes,
all the fungi and worms and life that is in the soil.
And so, yeah, just cardboarded the whole area
and built on top of that and built soil up instead of digging it over.
I determined where the contours are on this part of land
and made the beds on contour,
so they catch the water and slow it down,
but one overflows into the other.
So the water has to zigzag down the hill
and I'm making the water work for me by soaking in.
What have you got growing here?
Well, the two acacia trees I put in ages ago,
their roots fix nitrogen in the soil.
And so all I'm trying to do is build soil,
and these beds are about that.
So I've got things like thyme, pineapple sage and silverbeet.
And so hopefully eventually this will be full of fruit and vegies
that the community can have a look at and pick.
Mike's mantra is to make good use of all resources,
and this extends to water.
He's capturing rainwater across the site,
storing it and distributing it cleverly.
What exactly have you created here?
Well, it's trying to redirect the water.
It used to fall on the driveway, which is quite large,
all collect in the path, flow down the ramp behind me
and off the property.
Classic stormwater solution - get rid of it.
Correct.
And it would be a waterfall off the end of the cliff.
So I'm just trying to redirect it to make use of it, slow it down.
So I've put this pipe on a dead level, horizontal,
and put holes in it horizontally all the way along.
And so the water just drips nicely onto these rocks,
which then distributes it.
It doesn't erode the earth below it
and it's allowed to soak in.
And make its way... It goes into the whole backyard.
Yeah, through the whole garden. Yeah.
Genius. I love it.
Wicking beds are a great solution for growing heaps of vegies
and using water sustainably.
Wow! This is a nice self-contained, growing space.
What was your plan here?
Well, we got hold of some intermediate bulk containers
to make some wicking beds out of,
so we're on a concrete slab,
so I had to grow off the concrete,
and wicking beds are a great way of doing that.
So, yeah, got the bulk container, cut them in half,
two wicking beds
and I've covered them in the old carport zincalume roof
to keep the sun off and stop them deteriorating so quickly.
That's a nice repurposing of the roof.
Exactly. Serendipity again.
So why did you choose wicking beds for this space?
Well, I was looking for a low-maintenance option
on a concrete slab,
so wicking beds are perfect for that.
Basically, it's a water reservoir in the bottom and soil at the top.
I don't have the water as often because there's no evaporation.
All the water's underneath.
And the plants can suck what they like
out of the reservoir at the bottom.
So they're getting exactly what they need, not what I'm putting on.
The entire back lawn was dug up to create swales,
a series of contoured ditches and mounds
designed to slow down water flow
so that it's held in the soil.
What's the plan behind this terrace here?
I love the concept of a food forest,
so you've got food growing on every layer.
So you've got trees, shrubs, ground covers,
herbs and vines all growing together to create food.
There's other stuff in there as well
that benefit the other... the food plants.
So we've got flowers to bring in pollinators.
You've got smelly herbs that attract different kinds of insects
that eat the parasites and the bad insects.
So what's here at the moment from a tree point of view?
Well, we've got peaches, quince,
we've got other plants on the bottom layer,
which is the basil, fennel and some salvias.
And, yeah, I'm just trying to, at the moment,
waiting for the trees to mature,
but trying to grow these other plants to obtain a yield
while I'm waiting for that to happen.
Has the gardening bug latched onto you?
Absolutely. It's changed my life completely.
This is my passion and what I want to do with my future.
What a place!
It's really amazing to see what Mike has achieved with this garden
in such a short period of time,
and I'm really looking forward
to watching this sustainable journey continue to grow.