“We engaged Sun and Soil for a consult and concept plan while we were building our house on our challenging acre property. We were very impressed with their services. They travelled to our site and spent the time with us to understand our needs, which we didn’t have a very clear idea of ourselves! The concept plan was incredibly detailed and thorough, with some really great ideas. It’s clear they are very passionate about what they do and have the knowledge to support the passion. On top of this, their prices are very reasonable. I highly recommend their services!
”

“Sun and Soil provided a top quality service for a very affordable price! They worked within our budget, and led a very fun working bee where we ripped up lawn, planted fruit trees and dug swales all in a very productive morning. I had some gardening experience but was very stuck on where to plant trees and how to layout a food forest - Sun and Soil were very encouraging and the results have been amazing.
”

“We used sun and soil a few years ago when we built our house. They came out to have a look and designed a great concept with our specific house and needs in mind. They suggested specific plants and came up with a gorgeous garden layout. Almost 3 years later the veggie garden is thriving and it’s one of our favourite places to be!
”

“We had a really excellent experience with Sun and Soil. We had a very degraded area of our garden that was shady and weedy with rocky, poor quality soil. We really didn’t know what to do with it but Sun and Soil provided a really excellent, creative and affordable design solution that we were able to implement ourselves and the space is transformed. They provided a hardscaping plan as well as a detailed planting plan that took into account the soil type, climate and sun exposure of our garden and all the plants are thriving. They were very collaborative in their approach and so we ended up with something that was exactly what we wanted. Can’t recommend these guys enough for helping you to create the garden you want!”

“James came to our school and helped us design our permaculture garden. He was super-friendly, engaging, knowledgeable, and generous with his time. He came back for a follow-up session and really got us going in the right direction. Highly recommend!”

“New Farm State School P&C have worked with Sun and Soil over many years to design and develop a number of gardens on our campus, including an indigenous edibles garden that transformed a difficult slope, and a raised bed vegetable patch next to the tuck shop. We have loved working with this company, and in 2023 NFSS won the national Grow It Local award for the school garden category, “Growing the Future”. Sun and Soil have inspired our community gardens, bringing knowledge, expertise and joy to their design and realisation.”

“The short course ‘Intro to Permaculture for City Folk’ run by Melissa and James at Jane St Community Garden was fantastic. Really accessible and relevant information for the permaculture newcomer, and they were well-organised, adaptive to learners’ needs and generous with resources and information.
Looking forward to more courses in future! 🌱”

“I have learnt a lot from Melissa during my time volunteering at The Jane Street Community Garden. She has really helped me learn about plants, permaculture and horticulture. It has been an empowering experience in many ways and I have used the information learnt volunteering under Melissa’s guidance to start my own growing business! She is helpful, an expert in the fields of permaculture, edible plants and making things grow, and also a lovely, graceful person to work with, who is easy to learn from, and this makes her a great teacher about all things plants.”

“My literally down-to-earth, gentle and courageous friend was first my Garden Mentor. Melissa not only nurtured my early gardening experience, while I volunteered at Jane Street Community Garden but continues to inspire me with her diverse knowledge and interests. I excitedly received her news of this formalised Garden Coaching Service and can truly say, that if your patch is lucky enough to have her tend it, you’ll gather some of the happiest harvests, kind encounters and will be most pleased!”

“Melissa’s generous & hardworking nature are expressed wonderfully through her love of gardening. Her flair for building beautiful life enhancing spaces that connect people to nature is inspirational. I wish her great success.”

“With a dedicated passion for working in edible landscape design and permaculture Melissa proves herself to be a fountain of knowledge and experience. Her capacity to network and effectively get results in both the garden and in the community demonstrate her powerful commitment and her abiding love for working with gardening and all things natural. She operates with such integrity, I recommend her highly.”

“I know Melissa Smrecnik from my volunteer work at Jane Street Community Gardens. Melissa is a mine of information: she knows so much more about gardening than one reads in books, obviously learnt through her vast experience working in the gardens and her keen observational skills. She has an uncanny ability to identity and treat pants which show signs of disease or stress and nurse them back to health. Since she took over the role of Coordinator at Jane Street the garden has flourished. I admire Melissa’s ability to approach such projects in an inexpensive way by using recycled materials where possible without sacrificing the aesthetic appeal of the end result. Melissa has a gift for looking at an area and environing how it can be utilised for maximum efficiency and aesthetic appeal as well as making the area as pest free and water resilient as possible without resorting to toxic chemicals and building the soil up to increase productivity. She has come up with original and innovative ways to attract pollinators and other desirable creatures to the garden, as well as keeping the destructive creatures at bay without resorting to cruelty. Melissa’s knowledge of plants and their uses is vast. I have my own small garden at home and on Melissa advice, I am growing many plants which help me with my health problems. I feel much better for using them. I could go on and on about Melissa’s talents, but suffice to say that Melissa is a lovely and serene young lady who’s wealth of knowledge and ideas will be of great value to any gardener.”

“I recently went on a edible garden tour hosted by Melissa and she is obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about not just plants but gardening design and implementation.”