Our Services
We design integrated home and community gardens to provide an abundant food source for urban families while regenerating natural habitats and local biodiversity. Our designs are built on the patterns of natural ecologies and permaculture principles, and can include food forests, kitchen gardens, herbal and medicinal gardens, small livestock, water harvesting, forage crops, and more. By including greater diversity and multiple components, we can help you establish healthier gardens for you and your environment. To learn more about our methods, contact us to schedule a consultation.
We are also available to give classes on our organic and holistic gardening methods. From basic composting to organic pest control, fruit production and gardening for kids. We work with youth groups, civic organizations, and religious communities, among others. Whatever the interests of your group, we can organize a program for as few as 5 participants.
Our Story
We began in February 2013 as an experimental garden in Colombo, Sri Lanka seeking to provide families and community partners with the resources to grow sustainable food systems in tropical and urban landscapes. With our own 60 square foot rooftop slab, we began experimenting with growing solutions any urbanite could use. Our goal is to develop and adapt the best urban growing practices to be shared with the community through youth programming and economic ventures.
We are also expanding to include a more traditional home garden near the heart of Colombo. As we transform the landscape to include more wildlife habitat, perennial food trees, and most of the annual vegetables the household will use, all progress and resources will be shared here as well.
We focus heavily on identifying and raising the most nutrient-dense varieties for the climate and region, as well as developing space- and nutrient-efficient growing structures that anyone can reproduce for home use.
Who We Are
The “we” here is Margie Bopearatchy, a transplant from the southern United States, her very patient husband, Naveen, allowing the home to be taken over by the garden, and our baby girl, Amara.
Margie has over 15 years experience in the garden and exploring organic growing practices, and is now going beyond organics with holistic food production based on natural ecologies. Margie holds a Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton and is continuing to study the advances of multiple disciplines (such as analog forestry, agroforestry, and water conservation) to find the best solutions for a variety of landscape concerns. She also holds a degree in Psychology and is interested in the therapeutic benefits of gardening. Contact Margie to discuss site consultation opportunities and garden design services.