THE Brogo garden created by Bega’s permaculture guru John Champagne is open to the public on Saturday with the support of SCPA-South East Producers.
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John and Sharon Champagne left Melbourne 20 years ago and resettled their young family onto 4 hectares of damaged land in Brogo. The achievements in this time have made Brogo Permaculture Gardens one of the best examples of utilising permaculture principles in a temperate climate.
“It was always our intention to showcase the property to the public as a demonstration of sustainable land use and living,” SCPA President John Champagne said.
“There’s a lot of interest in growing healthy food and raising animals. It’s important that the process is planned to conserve energy during and post development.
“The design of the house and gardens need to reflect proven understandings of how elements relate to each other to reach any level of sustainability.
“Ideally planning occurs at the start but you can easily retrofit properties or urban backyards using the same principals.”
Features on display at the open day include a passive solar mudbrick home with a standalone solar system; kitchen gardens with fruit orchards of stone, pome, berry, citrus, nuts, semitropical and native foods; serious shelterbelts; earthwork water harvesting techniques; grey-water reuse and composting toilet; poultry integration into the orchard systems; extensive variety of resilient understory support species as well as plants which can be converted into mulch.
The property is located at 397 Hawkshead Road, Brogo and directions can be found at – www.permaculturedesign.com.au
There will be guided tours starting from the top of the property along Hawkshead Road at 9.30am, 12noon and 2.30pm. Entry is by donation with all proceeds going to Permafund, a registered charity able to assist permaculture projects here and overseas.
