Helen Cushing 17/9/24 Helen Cushing 17/9/24

Corridors of Life

I can't get enough of Emma and her fantastic Melbourne Pollinator Corridor. Her mission to create 8km of street gardens for pollinators is a fabulously ambitious and important example of how to be a local activist for nature.

Helen Cushing 17/9/24 Helen Cushing 17/9/24

What’s the Buzz?

Stop killing insects! They are the most important pollinators, essential for life as we know it and for food production. Writing this article was a great opportunity to refresh my love of botany and the relationships between plants and critters.

It's all about plant sex, so read on.

Helen Cushing 26/7/24 Helen Cushing 26/7/24

Sharing the Farm

Farmers enclose vast amounts of land, fencing the public out. But in southern Tasmania, this farmer has thrown the gate open and found ways to entice us to explore. Whilst pioneering the production of Tasmanian Pepper berries, Chris and Sue have created a bushwalk and sculpture trail, community kitchen garden, pop-up cafe, art prize and art events. It’s organic, friendly and inspiring.

Helen Cushing 13/3/24 Helen Cushing 13/3/24

Welcoming the Wild Things

Published in the Organic Gardener, Feb-March, 2024.

It’s a hot day in Singapore but it’s pleasantly cool as I walk through a rainforest in the grounds of the National University of Singapore (NUS). I’m with a champion of urban rewilding, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Yun Hye Hwang, whose passion for ecological design and planning has transformed the grounds of the NUS campus.

Helen Cushing 2/3/24 Helen Cushing 2/3/24

Safe Refuge at Inala

Published in the Organic Gardener, Feb-March, 2024.

A driven conservationist has turned her property on Bruny Island (TAS) into a haven for endangered birds, plants and trees. Including a jurassic garden.

Dr Tonia Cochran is a self-confessed all or nothing person. So it’s not surprising to learn she owns a 600-hectare nature

reserve, an international wildlife tour company and a two-hectare (five-acre) Gondwanan Botanic Garden, all on Tasmania’s Bruny Island. Not that she ever planned any of the above.

Helen Cushing 29/2/24 Helen Cushing 29/2/24

Wall to Wall Green

Published in the Organic Gardener, Feb-March, 2020.

Building with rooftop gardens and living walls are part of a revolution to regreen our cities and homes and bring more nature into our lives. Helen Cushing tells how.