Why does someone who has never really cared about her plants and even managed to kill an orchid before, suddenly want to grow her own vegetables and take care of a balcony garden?

I never had much fun helping my parents in their garden. It was a very ornamental garden, all trees and plants, and only the odd zucchini or blackberry plant in the corner. It was all roses, ivy, maple trees, … The grass was always cut to perfection and no dry leaf could be found on the ground. Very proper and beautiful to look at, but where was the fun? The satisfaction of growing your own and eating your own food?

My parents never really thought about this. And I never did either. Until now.

It all started with moving with my boyfriend to Australia over 8 years ago. We wanted a change and were looking for a new country to live. By coincidence this country was Australia. And we have never looked back. I had never ever thought about moving to the other end of the world, but it felt right and within weeks we felt at home.

Living by the beach, the mostly warm weather and the relaxed vibe made us soon realize what paradise Australia is. The closeness to the sea, bush and animals started to make us realize what impact humans have on this planet. While we were never massive shoppers and your typical consumer who follows the crowd and believes what advertising tells you, we had to make changes which was about two years ago.

It started with Plastic Free July which quickly became single-use plastic free living, making more conscious decisions about what we buy and where we buy, what we can make ourselves rather than buy, what we eat, how we travel (this is a tough one and due to the distance to family back in Europe very hard to tackle). We are really blessed here on the Northern Beaches as we have access to so many great alternative shops and markets.

This blog is about my journey and my learnings (including failures), on the quest to live a more sustainable life and will hopefully inspire you to make some positive change in your life, too. 🙂