The desire to grow fresh, homegrown produce can clash with the limitations of leasing your home. Renting often translates to uncertainty, restrictions on alterations, and a perceived lack of permanence.
Meet the Bates family, who have navigated these challenges to create The Bates Homestead one rental property at a time.
In 2015, Katy Bates dreamed of creating a homestead that would provide a sustainable lifestyle for her family through growing their own food. An experience she had throughout her own childhood. The big problem was that they were renting a small home in suburban Canberra. Katy talked to her landlord about digging up patches of lawn to create a vegie garden, an agreement was struck, and The Bates Homestead was born.
Now residing in their third home, a rental in the Strzelecki Ranges of Childers, Gippsland, The Bates Homestead has consistently sought landlords’ permission to transform lawn patches into flourishing vegetable gardens.
From humble backyard lawn beginnings in Canberra, The Bates now cultivate an area of around 1500m2, producing 450-600kg of food a year, including eggs, meat and vegetables, to feed their family, friends and, when in abundance, their wider community.
You can visit The Bate’s Homestead as part of the open edible food garden garden weekend in West Gippsland, @creativeharvestgippsland, on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 January, 2024. See the website ticket details and when Katy will host free talks on ‘Gardening by the Moon’.
Katy has also been kind enough to share five tips for negotiating a vegetable garden space with your landlord. Click here: https://pipmagazine.com.au/grow/edible-gardening-tips-for-renters/