A work of heart Two decades of devotion have nurtured an enviable urban oasis. STORY: MADDY FOGARTY PHOTOGRAPHY: RODNEY BRAITHWAITE
I
t might be tucked away in Tatura, but at first glance it's as though something has escaped the pages of classical antiquity, a chaotic cornucopia spilled across two acres (in the old language).
orchardists, market gardeners and broadacre producers — all those historical pedigrees don't mean he can escape some of the harsh agrirealities circa 2021.
But it's a vision 20 years in the growing — an edible Eden, if you will, which helped nurture and raise the Flett family.
Because in an enterprise of this complexity and consistency, it's still all about water and, in this day and age, water does not come cheap.
Such as water bills.
For its creator, however, this wasn't just a dream — because it's real. And it wasn't just work either, rather it was — and remains — a labour of love.
So to save himself from drowning in water bills, Denis put in automated drippers and micro-sprays to dry up any water wastage in his garden.
Denis Flett has rotated hundreds of plant varieties through his self-contained, sustainable oasis in the urban environment of the country town.
“It is possible to automate all watering and operate it from an iPhone,” he said.
Today more than 80 of the most productive sustain him and his wife Claire, surrounded with their own fruit and veg shop. If they want something not in the fridge or the cupboards, they can often just pop into the garden and pick whatever takes their fancy.
“What I've got is 14 different watering systems for different rooms in the garden. “Some rooms rely on either rainfall or the occasional back-up squirt with a hose. “It's set up so we can go away, and I can have a friend, or someone else, manage it really easily.
As a visitor, even when you have soaked it all up, you still won't see the same thing Denis does.
“And I do change the settings, or cease watering, to minimise water use as we go through the seasons.”
For him his garden is as much a home as the house at the centre of the block. For Denis the grounds are more like extra rooms — they don't have walls and there are no doors, but they are his rooms.
Enjoying the occasional old fashioned approach, Denis confessed to preferring not to have the watering system fully automated; he likes to observe the changes in his eco-escape up close and personal.
“The general layout — we wanted to have a road that got around the back of the block and then have the concept of outside rooms,” Denis said. “Paths play the part of walls, the sky is the ceiling (and the limit) and it all slowly came together.” And while he is walking in the footsteps of countless generations of subsistence farmers, followed by surplus cropping and then
If you had stood there with Denis on day one, and come back 20 years later, you would take some persuading to believe you were at the right address. He said his number one priority from day one was “the structural stuff”. “When we bought this when it was just a permanent pasture block, there was no vegetation we wanted to keep on at all. Continued on page 36
OUR HOME // WINTER 2021 // 35
