Brenna Quinlan // Permaculture Guru, Strawbale Home, Art Activism, Rest

~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~

Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator with a keen focus on permaculture and sustainability.

Her special skill is putting her energy, creativity and passion into making the world a better place. She's not afraid to take hard, uncomfortable or challenging subjects, but she always has humour at the core.

Through her art she has collaborated with the likes of Costa, Milkwood Permaculture, David Holmgren and the CSIRO.

Brenna lives, creates art and permacultures in a strawbale house that she built from reclaimed materials on Bibbulmun Menang boodja, in an intentional community in Denmark, Western Australia.

Before we get into this highly delightful, educational and entertaining chat with Brenna, Emily and Maddie are drinking a Joshua Cooper 2024 Pinot Noir, Maddie is talking about chickens and accidentally discovered the most delicious eggs she's ever tasted. She's making lots of homemade marshmallows with those bad boys.

We go deep into potatoes: Pink Eyes and King Edwards, and Maddie's planted out a bunch of cuttings from Emily's succulent garden - including Blue Chalk Sticks and something else whose name we don't know.

Maddie is recommending Wintering by Katherine May, and is embarrassed by her lack of chlorophyll knowledge. We also explore the abscission zone (of leaf and brain variety).

Emily's spending wholesome days with the kids at Birches Bay Art Farm, where she recently purchased some Native Pepper Berry. She's also experimenting with thornless blackberry.

Brenna is a wealth of information and recommends the following:

• Rewilding the Urban Soul by Claire Dunn

• Everyday Permaculture by Anna Matilda, aka Urban Nanna

• Koren Helbig's 'The Power of Quarterly Rest'

• Retrosuburbia, by David Holmgren

Follow Brenna here, and consider supporting her on Patreon here.