Tucker for Travellers

by Gordon Williams

The Arts Factory backpackers resort in Byron Bay, New South Wales, has just been blitzed by an efficient team of Permaculturalists taking part in a five day course focusing on bringing permaculture designs from the page into the landscape.

The Arts Factory backpackers resort sees travellers from all over the globe come to relax and soak up the sun and surf. During their stays they chomp their way through countless meals consisting of food that might have travelled just as far as they did. In an initiative to reduce the impact of these food-consuming hordes of travellers the Permaculture Research Institute has provided a helping hand to set up a kitchen garden.

Previously an empty lawn, the new garden consists mainly of raised beds constructed from hardwood sleepers to keep the vegies from getting wet feet — as the site is adjacent to a melaleuca swamp where the ground easily becomes waterlogged. A food forest consisting of a variety of sub tropical fruits, legume trees, herbaceous and ground cover species was also planted.

What Permaculture design would be complete without a herb spiral. How could you resist if you had a stack of recycled pavers, some herbs and a big pile of sandy loam soil?

And of course no garden should be without somewhere to sit and rest a while in the shade.

All students taking part in the course put in a sterling effort to install such a large garden in two and a half days. Nice work guys.