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Landscape Design, permaculture, workshops, free educational resources

Holistic Landscape Design
Deb is a consultant, professional Landscape Designer and horticulturalist with Permaculture Educator and Design Certificates.
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She listens to your needs and designs with creativity, passion, and integrity to produce professional, personalized landscape designs to scale, related plans, sketches, and documents.  In addition to garden designs, consultations, gardening workshops,  and environmental education are offered.

While considering environmentally ethical responsibilities, Deb works with nature to create outdoor spaces which are therapeutic, environmentally sustainable, functional and aesthetically beautiful to enhance lives.  Deb has 5-years Early Childhood experience where she conducted Environmental workshops and worked on a 2-year Sensory Garden Project. She understands the many facets required of a family backyard or Early Childhood center to produce the happiest and healthiest outcomes for children and the critical aspects of a design and nature/gardening experiences for the 0-5yr old optimal growth period.  Deb also conducts workshops, provides consultations/advice and garden assistance with a primary focus on edible and indigenous/native and permaculture gardens.

Debs garden designs focus on being sensory and therapeutic, sustainable, functional and aesthetically pleasing. 

Therapeutic

Horticulture Therapy and Thereauputic Horticulture have been documented to reduce stress, lower blood pressure and heart rates.   Subtle therapeutic sensory aspects are integrated into each design. Residential gardens can facilitate feelings of well-being as do medical facilities and school playgrounds.  Designs are intended to promote interaction between sensory responses, healing, restorative benefits, feelings of peace and tranquillity and an awe of nature.  We can all benefit from natures 'therapeutic gifts' by reconnecting with nature.  See more about Gardens for Wellbeing...

 

Sustainable

Creating environments generates an ecological awareness of the impact on our earth. Deb feels it is imperative to create a positive awareness of environmental and sustainable practices by her personal actions and by providing opportunities for a nurturing and respectful awareness through education, art and design.  Sound conservation principles are design considerations due to an intrinsic connection with the land, sense of cultural and ethical responsibility and her affiliation with nature. Design concepts include consideration of water management, plant choices, effect on wildlife, solar aspects and use of sustainable, recyclable and reused materials where possible.

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Functional

Listening and understanding identifies your wants and needs, Deb understands that a well designed garden can add 10%-15% to the value to your property; it should stand the test of time and provide many hours of happiness.  Areas are designed to provide practical, low maintenance, livable outdoor spaces that last many years. Horticultural knowledge ensures the plants within the design are suitable for the climate and location and provide the desired effects. Deb is an independent designer and consultant who works for individual clients, she will design specifically suit your needs and desires and her loyalties lie with you and her design philosophies.

 

Aesthetic

It is imperative that the garden is designed to be aesthetically pleasing.  A sense of aesthetics is not something gained through study, although there are many techniques used in designing such as balancing harmony, functionality, spatial dynamics and visual impact. Deb uses intuitive feelings to assist her to create a garden environment which is not only beautiful but noticeable as to how people feel being in it.  Human interaction with our natural environment manifests instinctive feelings, intentions and attitudes which foster an understanding that we are the environment, not a separate entity.

PERMACULTURE

Why a functional permaculture garden is recommended.  

Permaculture provides a practical systems-thinking framework mimicking natural systems.   It is underpinned by ethics and principles which assist us to implement techniques and strategies to care for and restore the health of living and non-living entities, and ecosystems. 

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The Permaculture values: 

  • Earth Care: Provision for all life systems to flourish. 

  • People Care: Provision for people to access all resources necessary to flourish. 

  • Fair Share: Taking what is needed, sharing and designing to mimic nature where surplus is returned to natural system cycles.

Greensong garden designs and consultations have a focus on edible plants. Growing edible plants is a sensory, tangible, and tasty way to connect with nature; gardens can be indigenous and also support wildlife.
 
Our food system offers practical insights into our innate connections with horticultural aspects of growing food, harvesting, transporting and understanding the fragility of systems.  Projections for feeding the growing population of Melbourne are concerning and we need to be transitioning to many local forms of food secruity as currently our systems are not sustainable. (Melbourne Food systems reports here)

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What this meaans:

-Healthier fresher food to prevent malnutrition, starvation, obesity and related diseases

-Increase quality of life with biopsychosocial needs being met

-Reduce food packaging, processing and distribution time

-Reduce food miles/transportation, refrigerated trucks/planes

-Reduce urban island heat effect by increasing tree and vegetation cover lowering surface and air temperatures by providing shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. Trees and vegetation can also reduce stormwater runoff and protect against erosion.  (The annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F (12°C). Heat islands can affect communities by increasing summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality.-www.epa.gov)

-Reduce energy use from storage/cool rooms

-Sequester carbon

​-Reduce food waste. Closed loop with onsite waste production management reducing methane and other greenhouse gases
-Reduce storm-water impacts, enhance filtration before water is moved off site. 
-Create ecological soil and plants resilient withstand adverse climatic conditions and repercussions of climate change. Increase tollerance and buidl resilience to droughts and heat and periosds of high rainfall.
-Biophilic and health benefits (research links) exercise, stress-relief, satisfaction, awe, purpose, connection to Country, home, cultural identity...
-Increase biodiversity and resilience Indigenous and Heirloom plants (self-pollinating, greater opportunity to continue species and provide food)
-Save money. Particularly beneficial to low socioeconomic percentage or residential care facilities
-No pesticides/know what chemicals are on and in your food
-Pass on knowledge, skills, wisdom
-Increase value of food (Labour, lifestyle that supports healthy food systems)
-Higher nutrient density and better tasting
-Incorperate design aspects which support habitats for wildlife. 
-Empowering action (Any empowering environmental action assists with Climate Change concerns)

Deb often collaborates with consultants, organisations and specialists when necessary to ensure the specifics of projects provide the intended values and results of programs and designs.  These may be labourers, artists, landscapers, nurseries, local councils, other professionals, or clients extended contacts.

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