Video interviews
Interviews by 3000acres
All the videos below were produced by 3000acres in 2019. Some are the result of a collaboration with Open Gardens Victoria and the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, whilst others are thanks to a grant from Moreland City Council.
- Alanjohn Jones, Coburg North: Alanjohn’s garden shows just how productive urban backyards can be! Through transforming his lawn to veggie patch, Alanjohn is demonstrating to others the value and reward of gardening in a rental property.
- Amne Merhi, Coburg: Amne has grown food for her kitchen all her life, with the skills given to her by her parents in Lebanon as a child. The garden provides herbs, vegetables and eggs for the family as well as being the green heart of the family home. Every morning begins with a cup of coffee surrounded by the sounds and smells of the garden.
- Greg Lorenzutti, Fawkner: Greg’s organic garden is a beautiful oasis full of natives, exotic and colourful plant varieties, as well as a thriving edible landscape. The garden is inspired by Greg’s Brazilian Mother and Grandmother and reflects his exuberance and generosity in it’s planting style.
- Guy Palmer, Eltham: Nestled amongst gumtrees, Guy’s edible garden has a no-kill policy, making for a very happy insect population! Guy leaves it up to nature, believing that he will get his fair share of food. His biophilic approach creates harmony in his garden, an experimental space where he grows a huge variety of fruits and vegetables.
- Jessamy Miller, Northcote: Chook expert Jessamy shows off her Northcote productive garden, complete with a mixed flock of chickens. Not only do Jessamy’s chooks provide her family with fresh eggs, they help process kitchen waste and fertilise the garden to grow more veggies. This garden is a perfect demonstration of how well chooks can fit into a relatively small urban backyard.
- Kat Lavers, Northcote: Kat’s garden is an excellent example of how productive a productive garden can be! In 2018, her inner-city permaculture garden produced around 428kg of fresh eggs, herbs, veggies and fruit. She shares how this space strengthens her connection with the environment and has allowed her to develop a deeper respect for the origins of food.
- Katrina Forstner, Preston: Bees! And more bees! Katrina’s garden is a pollinator-friendly paradise. She has five tips on how to turn your space into a native bee-friendly habitat, so take note as the bees could certainly use our help!
Interviews by others
By Bean There Dug That, Gardening Australia, Happen Films and others.
- Angelo Eliades, Preston: An interview and tour with Angelo to present his food forest garden.
- Chloe Thomson, Hurstbridge: Chloes’ garden as presented by Chloe herself.
- Emma, Josie and Margie, Preston: It’s amazing the abundance of food that can be produced when people work as a collective. The Yard Permaculture Sharehouse in Preston is the perfect example, yielding an amazing array of delicious fresh produce from 40+ fruit trees and an extensive market garden.
- Helen and Sam, Coburg: This film tells the story of one small family practicing urban sufficiency. They live on 1/10th of an acre in Coburg. By living more simply and utilizing alternative technologies this household draws 75-80% less electricity from the grid than the Australian average (per capita). At the same time they’re exporting five times that amount in solar energy back into the grid.
- Inge Kofoed Hansen, Diamond Creek: Inge’s garden has a glasshouse as the focal point and around it are multiple garden beds with vegetables, herbs, flowers, pollinator plants and fruit trees. She uses raised beds or planters to grow all of her crops – this helps to improve drainage and allows her to easily improve the overall health of the soil.
- Jian Liu, Camberwell: As discussed on Gardening Australia, Jian has transformed her suburban backyard into a highly productive garden with dozens of varieties of fruit, vegetables, and flowers, plus garden helpers such as chickens and farmed worms.
- Kat Lavers, Northcote: Kat describes her approach to gardening, including vertical and biointensive growing, and how important it is – and possible! – for city dwellers to be food resilient in the face of natural, financial and social crises.
- Natalie and Mark Buttenshaw, Montrose: As discussed on Gardening Australia, this ¾ acre block has 33 raised beds for growing veggies and fruit. There is a particular focus on nut trees, including pecans, walnuts, macadamias, almonds and chestnuts.
- Steve and Georgia, Reservoir: Their garden includes around 90 fruit trees pruned to a range of forms, including espaliers, to increase productivity and make the most of spaces. It also features a front yard food forest, berries, raised veggie beds, bees and chickens. The garden’s environmental footprint is reduced by using re-purposed materials as much as possible, and water efficiency measures, including grey water re-use.
- Ting and Hannes, Coburg North: Their garden includes raised veggie beds, a two-bed composting system, a chook run and various DIY tee-pees and upcycled structures. They allow plants from the homegrown compost to grow in the garden, turning footpaths into mazes of cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchinis during summer.