Our Stories
How to Build Biodiversity in Your Backyard with Milkwood
This article is written by guest contributor Leeyong Soo, freelance writer, sustainable fashion advocate and contributor to Peppermint magazine. Leeyong’s fashion creations can be seen at @stylewilderness.
When we think of biodiversity, we tend to picture bushland far from our cities. But biodiversity doesn’t have to be a remote concept.
In fact, National Biodiversity Month highlights the importance of maintaining a rich variety of native flora and fauna wherever we can, whether in distant forests, around playgrounds and urban parklands or in our very own backyards.
Permaculture advocate and director of Milkwood, Kirsten Bradley, speaks to guest contributor Leeyong Soo about how we can bring biodiversity closer to home.
Back in the mid-2000s, Kirsten Bradley and her husband Nick Ritar were living in a rental property in Naarm/Melbourne, working as video artists for theatre companies, festivals and other similar events. As various projects started taking them further from the city, it made little sense to pay rent for a house in which they were spending little time and they decided to move to a tiny house at Nick’s family farm on Wiradjuri Country near Mudgee, New South Wales. Eager to begin their new life, they both did short courses in permaculture, which started them on the path to finding out as much as they could about responsible land stewardship, including biodiversity.
“We got super excited about the holistic design and the biomimicry aspects of permaculture, and how we could apply those to building a tiny house and starting a garden,” Kirsten recalls. “A bit too excited, sort of, because we quickly stopped making art and focused on permaculture design full-time, once we moved to the farm.”
This focus was assisted by the knowledge they gained from Nick’s family, who were experts in cultivating olives and farming sheep. The couple also began inviting regenerative farming experts to teach short courses in the family woolshed so that they and other local farmers could learn the techniques. As their movement gained momentum, with “knowledge keepers” and students visiting the property, they put a name to their venture, and so began Milkwood Farm.
15 years after starting the farm and after various farming and permaculture experiences, the family were keen to strike out on their own and are now living on a half-acre block just outside of Cygnet in Tasmania.
“After years of stewarding much larger parcels of land, we're so excited about focusing on a backyard-scale permaculture system!” says Kirsten. “We've been designing things, madly making garden beds and berry arbours, and getting fruit trees in the ground. Hopefully this garden will hold us for 40 years of growing and learning – we're really looking forward to seeing how much we can fit into a half-acre permaculture system that's aiming to work with the land that we find ourselves on.”
Connect to Country
That land happens to be Melukerdee Country. Kirsten says the first thing the family has done when moving to a new place is to learn about whose Indigenous Country they are on and how to contribute to a local Indigenous organisation “in a meaningful and ongoing way” – not only out of respect for the First Nations people but to learn more about how to care for the land.
“Connecting with your local Indigenous land council is a doorway to learning about the biodiversity of your area,” she explains. “When I think of biodiversity, I'm reminded firstly of what many Indigenous cultures have needed to remind many of us in these modern times – that we are all a part of biodiversity, as much as the bees and the flowers. And of course, if you're part of the biodiversity around you, and part of nature, then we each have a responsibility to do our part to nurture and support this greater ecological family that we're lucky enough to live within.”
Be Part Of Your Community – And Ecosystem
Kirsten says that there are countless approaches to supporting biodiversity, which she describes as “participating in your ecosystem in helpful ways” – and it doesn’t have to necessarily mean working in the garden. “Maybe it’s planting more flowers for bees and pollinators, maybe it's volunteering to support your local food bank, maybe it's lobbying for de-carbonisation of our economy, maybe it's simply rehabilitating a patch of soil at your back step, maybe it's picking up plastic out of the gutter to ensure it doesn't end up in your local waterway.”
Make The Most Of Your Space
Having moved from farmland to a smaller suburban property, Kirsten speaks firsthand when she says living circumstances are no barrier to gardening and creating a biodiverse environment.
“I love getting as much biodiversity into any growing space as I can, no matter what the size. If it's a one-metre-square balcony garden, then you can definitely fit in some flowering plants for pollinators around the edges of your veggies or pot plants. If it's a larger garden, you can thread that planting for biodiversity throughout the whole design.
“If your space is super limited, planting a pot with a few herbs that you love to eat is a great place to start – this can be on your balcony, or just on an indoor windowsill, if it gets a good amount of light... things like oregano, thyme and parsley are simple to grow, delicious and super hardy. If you have less light, try something more broad-leaved that loves shade, like mint. One of my favourite beginner tips for apartments is the humble sweet potato, with its bottom in a glass of water. If the top is out of the water, and there's some light, you'll soon get a sweet potato vine sprouting and curling its way across your windowsill... it's simple magic, but so good to have in your home.” [Plus, sweet potato leaves are edible!]
Flowers Are Your Friends
Growing flowers wherever possible is another of her tips. “They are food for so many species in our ecosystem, plus they make you happy!” says Kirsten, adding that flowering plants attract pollinators such as birds and insects which can keep pest problems in check. “And, as part of biodiversity ourselves, it's good for us to be around more different types of plants, too – the more plant species you're stewarding, the more opportunity there is for learning more about your ecosystem, and your place within that.”
Kirsten likens growing a plant to entering a relationship with it. “You learn, and observe, and next time you grow something, you have more knowledge to help keep that next plant happy. And the next, and the next... it all matters, and it all reminds us that we are all in this biodiverse ecosystem together – you, the parsley, and the sweet potato, too!”
