At the end of 2011 Michelle Teear and her partner, Cameron Young, bought their first home together in Lake Macquarie.
Within months, they established Bellbird Urban Permaculture. Their third of an acre of long, flat land in Blackalls Park now feeds their three-generational family of five.
They've put in a lot of work and now reap the rewards.
It wasn't a huge plot of land, but Teear had lived on much less while renting in Sydney, where they're originally from.
"I taught myself to garden there, started small. I was about 20 then, so this was 15 years ago," she says.
"We moved up here and we rented some houses. One had a vegie patch we took away with us when we moved, three trailers' worth of pots.
"We grew everything (including asparagus) in pots."
She's passionate about permaculture, the philosophy of growing food in sustainable and efficient ways that work with nature.
But she emphasises that it doesn't have to take up a huge amount of time or work.
She spends about a day and a half a week working on it. But some areas, such as those planted with perennials, can go up to a year with little maintenance.
They live at the bottom of a hill on good flat land with a high water table and clay loam.
It's swampy land with paperbarks, spongy peat moss on the ground and a creek nearby. They find it's the perfect spot for growing food.
In the 1950s, two return servicemen (brothers) lived on this land and another block with their separate families. They helped each other build their houses on the two blocks of bushland.
One brother farmed the narrow block now occupied by Teear and her family. The land has since been extended.
He grew tomatoes on both blocks and sold them at markets.
"When he got too elderly to look after it, he just turned the back of our garden into a native garden, so the remnants are still there. We've kept that and added to it," Teear says.
Along with farming, Teear has been reading books on permaculture and has joined groups such as Permaculture Hunter. Early last year she did her Certificate IV in Permaculture at TAFE. Now she's heavily involved with the Hunter Organic Growers Society.
Her family members play different roles in managing the garden. Young and Michelle's father, Michael Teear, built all the structures, beds, fences, sheds and the chook house. Her mum, Judy, helps with the weeding and pokes in surprise flowering plants everywhere. Her young daughter, Maeve, loves learning about gardening, and she feeds the poultry every day.
Teear explains that permaculture is all about zones.
Zone one is the most frequented, nearest the house. It's a cottage garden with herbs and fruit trees. There's a verge garden of vegies and fruit and nut trees. Zone two is the orchard and duck pond with poultry running underneath. Zone three is a food forest with subtropical perennials and Teear's art studios. Zone four is a forest of native and indigenous plants, many producing edible fruit. It's the wildlife haven. Zone five is the least frequented. Beyond their property is the borrowed landscape of the paperbark forest, a source of a basketry supply of weedy vines and a wildlife habitat.
"Our initial aim was to provide for ourselves. The main vegetable garden is 100 square metres; I designed it to feed four people," she says. "We always aim to grow extra, so you'll have at least enough to feed the family."
Their vegetable garden is built like a mandala, with eight pie-shaped beds. In the centre of each is a path that maximises growing space and minimises walking space while still providing access.
In the centre of the vegetable garden is a chookhouse built on an old Hills Hoist. It's stable and rotates. Their chooks eat the weeds and also fertilise the garden beds. In exchange, they produce eggs. Every two to four weeks Teear rotates the chookhouse so the hens visit new beds.
A sugarcane jungle grows around the edges. They use the cane to make juice, and they hack up the rest for garden mulch. These are just a few of many clever ways the family use permaculture principles to make their life easier and more enjoyable.
Teear could talk to you all day about the details of her farm. Since she started, she's shown her land to several community groups. After COVID-19 passes, she has a vision to open it to the public for tours. You can keep up with her journey by following Bellbird Urban Permaculture Farm on social media.
