Here's just a small taste of the projects Sun and Soil have been involved in since 2017…

Community GardenS

Jane Street Community Garden, West End

Sun and Soil has been heavily involved with the Jane Street Community Garden over the years, with both of our co-founders (Melissa and James) acting as garden coordinators at various times. The redesign of the gardens in 2022 to include the new greenhouse, raised garden beds and updated composting hub was carried out by the Sun and Soil design team.

QPASTT Community Garden, Wooloongabba

QPASTT (Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma) in Wooloongabba approached Sun and Soil in 2020 to give the existing community garden along the front of the facility a facelift including a new hardwood screening fence, a storage seat and a general garden bed overhaul using a community grant. This garden is an important aspect of helping vulnerable people feel more comfortable and in many cases giving them the ability to connect back to their culture through gardening.

Common Ground Rooftop Community Garden, South Brisbane

Common Ground Queensland provides supportive housing solutions to families who are at risk of, or experiencing homelessness, or who suffer from a disability, including mental health and addiction. Located on top of a 13th story building in downtown South Brisbane, the Common Ground Roof Top Gardens provide tenants access to freshly harvested organic fruit, vegetables and herbs. The garden grows a range of crops including citrus fruit tress, grape and passionfruit vines, herbal medicine and seasonal crops. Sun and Soil co-founders Melissa and James acted as working bee facilitators for many years and were responsible for keeping the gardens healthy and productive.

School Gardens


Bulimba State School

Co-founder James worked as the Garden Specialist within the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program at Bulimba State School for over 5 years. The program provides students from years 3 to 6 the opportunity to grow, harvest and cook their own produce, while learning about environmental sustainability and nutrition. Students visit the garden every 3 weeks during school term to learn techniques such as propagation, composting, bee keeping, seed saving, waterwise gardening, worm farming and more. During his time working at the school, James developed a keen sense of how to communicate gardening knowledge simply and effectively and carried out an extensive renovation of the school gardens to maximise the growing space.

New Farm State School

Sun and Soil were engaged to carry out the design and implementation of two major gardens within the school over a number of years. The first project was the ‘Learnscape’ school gardens in the middle of the school, which were completely overhauled including the addition of new raised timber garden beds with automated drip irrigation systems, new pathways, fruit trees, shed and composting area. This garden was then able to be used for school groups to learn about propogation and growing food in small spaces.

The second garden project involved the conversion of a large weedy, unused and steep patch of land behind the oval into a engaging, accessible terraced garden showcasing Australia’s bush tucker species and providing a chance to educate children about indigenous food culture. The garden incorporates an elaborate swale system to reduce water use and includes over 50 different species of edible and medicinal native plants species. In 2023 this bush tucker garden was integral in New Farm State School winning the national Grow It Local award for the school garden category, “Growing the Future”.

Ashgrove State School

Sun and Soil was engaged by Ashgrove State School in 2020 to install a fully automated irrigation system throughout the school gardens to allow the gardens to survive the summer school holidays. The system included a combination of drip lines, sprinklers and nursery misters and was setup to be run from the rain water tanks on site. A novel automatic tank top-up system was also fitted to ensure the tanks prioritised the use of rain water but never ran dry.

COMMERCIAL PROJECTS

Hope on Boundary Cafe, West End

Sun and Soil were engaged to design and construct a food garden and composting system for the Hope on Boundary Cafe (West End) in 2017. The garden was designed to supplement the fresh food for the cafe along with being a welcoming space for people and a chance to demonstrate urban gardening systems. The gardens were built at the front of the cafe right on Boundary St, transforming a previously rocky patch of ground into a thriving edible garden incorporating raised timber vegetable gardens beds, a large wicking bed, an overhead trellis for passionfruit vines and shade in summer, bench seating, a seedling nusery, fully automatic drip irrigation and a commercial worm farm and compost bins for cafe scraps.

The Hope on Boundary Cafe (by Micah Projects) fosters social and economic inclusion by offering paid employment and training to members of the community that might otherwise struggle to find a way in. Through their various projects and spaces, they provide diverse and authentic connection opportunities and help to break social isolation.

info@sunandsoil.com.au | 0481 756 057 | Permaculture Design Brisbane