About

Hi, I’m Jian and I’m the gardener and designer behind Melbourne Foodforest.

We have a standard backyard in suburbia, but have made the marvellous (or crazy?!) decision to convert every inch of our land into a productive working garden. Now this doesn’t mean rows of boring veggies or ugly polypipe.

Melbourne Foodforest was born from a philosophy of ‘edible beauty‘ – that you can have both a beautiful garden and a productive one. We intermingle fruit trees, veggies, and companion flowers in many layers to create a space that nourishes our belly and our soul.

Our mission has always been to tread lightly on the earth, and it is our goal to share all our accumulated wisdom to fast-track your own food forest — whether you are growing in a backyard, a few pots on a balcony or you have the luxury of a few acres — we will help you create the edible jungle of your dreams.

• We love teaching, which means you won’t find any jargon here, just practical, detailed guides with step-by-step instructions to demystify every garden process — complete with glorious photos and videos.
• We are passionate about gardening sustainably. You will not need to spend copious amounts of money, or buy mountains of plastic-packaged products in order to have your own foodforest. Our solution is often recycled, free and local.
• We are experts at growing in shade and poor soil — our garden is in deep shade for most of the year and our soils are poor and lifeless grey sand. We’ll share our secrets on how you can grow abundant fruit & veg even in the most challenging conditions. 
• We love the weird and wonderful — you’ll learn about our favourite unique edibles from different cultures, that often out-perform the standard varieties!
• We will hold your hand across the whole seed to plate journey — including delicious recipes and creative ways to use and preserve your harvest.
• We will share our favourite heirloom seeds and nifty products to make your gardening easier and more fruitful.

Here you’ll find our favourite hacks, tips and time-shaving cheats that really work.