Welcome to Footprint Garden Farm
Each of us has a unique footprint. Our feet help us to stand tall and they are our connection to the Earth. Our ecological footprint is a shorthand way of describing the unique impact we all make on the Earth through our choices and actions.
Footprint Cottage, our new home and garden farm will help us to tread more lightly upon the Earth. We hope that by making conscious and ethical decisions about as many aspects of our lives as possible and by living as simply as we can, we will leave a minimal footprint. We are doing what we can to ensure that our grandchildren can enjoy flourishing and fruitful lives on a planet that remains bountiful and beautiful.
We would like to acknowledge that the land where we live is part of the traditional country of the Kaurna people. We pay our respect to them and their Elders and Ancestors. We celebrate their traditional way of life as a great example of small-footprint living.
Coming Event! The first of our monthly workshops/tours of the house and garden is on the first Saturday of November (the 2nd) at 1pm – 13:00. We would love to see you and answer all your questions! Please book ahead as below.

Our House
The floor plan of our house reflects a traditional settlers’ cottage layout with a central front door and rooms on either side. The roof is steeply pitched with space for rooms in the loft. The house is a rectangle with its long sides facing north and south. To the west is a covered deck which is accessed from the living area.
The house is around 170 square metres including the useable upstairs space and deck. The living area has high ceilings to the roof space so that there is extra light from the clerestory windows.
To the north there are large windows to capture winter sunshine for heating. These windows have vine covered pergolas for extra shading in summer. The windows on the south side are small and positioned to allow cooling breezes to enter the house in summer. There are windows in the east and west gable ends. On the south there are 2 skillion windows in the roof.
Beneath the house we have a cellar and under the deck are 2 large rain-water tanks which give us most of the water for the house and garden. A grey-water system situated under the deck will provide supplementary water for the garden. Thermal mass is provided by a polished concrete floor and internal rammed earth walls. The external walls are a mixture of very well-insulated rendered eco-board, mini-orb Colorbond and sustainable timber. Solar panels are positioned on the north side of the roof which is light coloured Colorbond.
We hope this house will enable us to generate all our own electricity, as well as return excess to the grid, and supply all our water needs including enough to grow most of our fruit and vegetables. We are using sustainable, recycled and environmentally-friendly building materials where possible. We are creating a beautiful house that is welcoming and homely and that is a pleasure to live in.
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Upcoming Events
We are enjoying the challenge of creating a new sustainable home and garden but we know that not everyone wants to do the same. However we do think that we can do many things to make our homes more sustainable, grow organic food, change the way energy and water is used and significantly reduce waste. By taking small steps to make positive changes, we can all reduce our ecological footprint and learn to live lightly on the planet.
Over the years we have learnt a lot about environmentally friendly building materials, planning and building houses, use of energy and water, zero waste living, healthy homes and urban farming. We are still striving to put in place all the knowledge we have acquired by means of many small steps. We believe that the best way to help others is by ‘walking the talk’. We love sharing our knowledge and experience with others and are planning to run workshops, tours and open days in the near future. If you would like to attend one of these events please contact us. Sue also has a Permaculture Design Certificate and can help with planning and designing a Permaculture-based garden.
We invite you to join us on this ecological adventure. Together we can work on the changes we all need to make to save our environment. We love a quote from the I Ching Book of Changes…A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step!
Upcoming Events …
We had a great day opening our home and garden for Sustainable House Day on Sept 15th. So we hope to open again next year. Next year you will be able to book on line to see us and other inspiring, energy efficient houses Australia wide! https://sustainablehouseday.com/
We are planning to run the first of our monthly tours of the house and garden/workshops on the first Saturday of November (the 2nd) at 1pm 13:00. We would love to see you and answer all your questions. Please book ahead via the contact below.
news and articles
Ramblings
A few years ago I read a great book called One Magic Square by local Adelaide Hills author Lolo Houbein. She wrote about growing vegetables on one square metre of…

We’ve done it again! Featured in ‘renew.’ the Alternative Technology Association’s magazine! As a case study in articles about cladding. Tackling this tricky subject for the first time they requested…
