Bruno, Danielle and their little baby Ezequiel live in a beautiful garden in a beachside suburb of Sydney Australia. Almost 40 years ago this green space was being used as a sunburnt carpark with weedy brittle grass spreading from fence to fence, a typical look of the time. Danielle’s mother, a Queenslander used to the lush tropical abundance of the North, rehabilitated the garden, and planted some tiny Australian saplings. Today they tower above the house as mighty trees with silvery green skin, home to spectacular seasonal birds and nightly nocturnal native mammals.
Over time, the garden has become an unusual microclimate. Somewhat sheltered from the harsh southerly winds, it has some characteristics of the severity of a beachside ecosystem, and some characteristics of a rainforest. Huge epiphytes, the size of small cars, radiate their branches at the foot of the trees. Dappled sun erratically hits the floor, and a variety of shade plants dominate the main garden. Food plants, fruit trees, ‘cottage flowers’, natives, grasses and ferns testify to the years of experimentation and encouragement that that has resulted in the garden as it is today. Like any project, it’s a work in progress, never finished, always something to do and open to development.
At the back of the garden we have set up a new project; an Aquaponics system. This is a prototype project. Just as the concept of what a garden is and what it means to have a garden has evolved over the last decades, new concepts in gardening have also emerged. Aquaponics is one of those concepts. What we like about it goes beyond the physical connection with green living things that we get everyday by tending to the system, (yeah we like getting our hands dirty!). We also like how Aquaponics conceptually interconnects with vital ideas such as sustainability and the essential permaculture principles. We like growing our own organic food, and sharing it with friends and family. And we like the process of learning how to make this small system, and the larger system beyond it, fruitful and green.
This website is the ongoing story of a family spanning three generations living in a beautiful garden in Sydney Australia. We learn as we go, and we write about aquaponics, sustainability, permaculture, growing our own food and cherishing our green backyard.