Case study · Lockyer Valley

Jake, Kensington Grove

Designed & delivered

Jake's place in the Lockyer Valley was already doing a lot right: a working kitchen garden, established fruit trees, and a fire pit he had no intention of losing. The job here was never to clear and start over. It was to read what was already working and build the rest around it.

The catch was underfoot. Three separate soil tests across the property came back almost pure sand, with no earthworms found anywhere. That one finding set the order of everything that followed.

What the site was telling us

Soil came first, everywhere, not just in the worst corner. A property-wide soil-building program was designed in from day one rather than bolted on later.
The existing kitchen garden and fire pit stayed. The design extended what Jake already used daily instead of replacing it.
Frost turned out to be real here, which decided where fruit trees could and couldn't go.

A productive green wall and four fruit-tree guilds turn the daily walk into a harvest, fed by chickens and compost working as one system. Along the boundary, one band of planting does four jobs at once: slowing wind, breaking fire, sheltering a wildlife refuge, and holding the property's structure for decades.

What we did

A property-wide soil-building program addressing the sand and lack of soil life found in every test.
A chicken and compost system running as one loop, feeding four fruit-tree guilds along the daily path from the house.
Paired bottle trees planted as long-term structural anchors, one in the working garden and one at the forest edge.
One boundary planting doing four jobs at once: slowing wind, breaking fire, sheltering a wildlife refuge, and framing a walking track through to a gathering space.
Swales dug along the contour under the new track, catching water instead of losing it downslope.
A staged implementation plan so the property builds out over years, not all at once.

Finished whole-of-site permaculture design showing food forest guilds, boundary planting, and pathways — The finished design: every element placed by what the site reading turned up.

Base map of the property showing existing structures, driveways, and boundaries — Base map: what was already there before anything got drawn.

Sector analysis showing sun path, prevailing wind, fire risk, wildlife corridors, and views — Sector analysis: sun, wind, fire, wildlife, and noise mapped onto the site.

Zone map showing intensity of use from Zone 0 at the house through to Zone 4 at the boundary — Zone map: how often each part of the property actually needs attention.

Water flow, contour lines, and access routes mapped across the property — Water and access: where water wants to go, and how people and vehicles move through.

Soil test results showing near-pure sand across the property

The boundary planting doing wind, fire, and wildlife duty at the forest edge

The retained fire pit worked into the design as a gathering space

The outcome

An existing garden extended rather than replaced, soil-building built into the design from the start, and a property that gets more self-sufficient in stages instead of needing one overwhelming build.

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