Demonstration Urban Food Forest

Melbourne's first demonstration urban Permculture food forest, a working proof-of-concept, pesticide and herbicide free. A highly productive living ecosystem in a small urban backyard in the inner suburbs of Melbourne! This garden was rebuilt as a demonstration project of what an urban Permaculture garden in an average sized block in an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia could produce sustainably and organically. The intention was to not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, to rebuild the soil (which was leached and lifeless) and construct a self-supporting ecosystem.The garden employs a range of organic and sustainable gardening techniques, such as no-dig, plant stacking, succession planting, composting, mulching, vertical gardening, companion planting as well as some modern design principles such as square foot gardening and backyard orchard design. From the time the garden was first built, it has been meticulously documented – for everything that has been built, instructional articles have been written on how this was done. All produce coming out of the garden has been weighed, and all of this has been published on the website, Deep Green Permaculture (http://deepgreenpermaculture.com). One of the biggest commitments to this research project is the detailed recording of yields for two and a half years so far (and still going) — concrete, solid facts and figures showing what a backyard Permaculture food forest can produce. The garden is very water efficient. In Melbourne, Australia, residents had been forced to restrict water usage due to drought conditions. The harshest restriction level reached was designated Stage 3a – with watering only allowed twice a week in the late evening, and for one hour only. Watering with full compliance to these restrictions, plus with the rainwater harvested from a 30 square metre garage roof and stored in a homemade water tank system (1500L capacity at the time), the garden thrives splendidly. The whole food forest employs