Hello! We two are Lauren and Oberon, head gardeners of Spiral Garden and your hosts for the Seedlings course.We live with our three daughters in southern Tasmania, Australia, slowly growing our permaculture dream on an average-sized suburban block. We run our home-based business by night and work, write, garden, learn and play by day, spending as much time in nature as possible. Our children are home-educated, and we aim to make the most of the beauty and positive learning experiences that Tasmania has to offer. We’re also advocates for waste free living, and in March 2019, you will find our first book, A Family Guide to Waste Free Living at your local bookshop or library. Here is a little more about us:

Lauren

I am a long-time blogger at Owlet and I have written broadly about unschooling, gardening, creativity, cooking, community, birth and natural living. As hands-on facilitator of our children’s learning journeys, I’ve learnt quite a bit about the natural learning process! I trained and worked for many years as a textile designer and have always been passionate about gardens, garden design and permaculture. I volunteer behind the scenes as a member of Permaculture Tasmania, and co-founded Zero Waste Tasmania, with Oberon. After completing a Permaculture Design Certificate in 2013 with Milkwood Permaculture, I noticed strong links between permaculture principles and many of our life choices and wanted to impart my new found knowledge with my family, and now with you via this course.

Oberon

I work as a conservation scientist by day, and over many years I have developed an understanding of (some of) nature’s processes and enjoy big-picture environmental thinking. I spend my days addressing conservation issues in Tasmania such as how to manage biodiversity under climate change and working towards a sustainable future for Tasmania. I’m also volunteer as the president of Permaculture Tasmania and run Zero Waste Tasmania. I completed a Permaculture Design Certificate with Good Life Permaculture in 2014 and a Permaculture Teacher Training Course in 2015 with Rosemary Morrow. I have since been drawing links between ecology, lifestyle, education and permaculture design and these all feed into the content of the course. I want to encourage healthy and sustainable life-style choices for myself, my family and the broader community.

I also have a thing for photography and hanging out in nature, identifying fungi and other small creatures on the forest floor. You can find my photography here.