Welcome to Gardens By Chives
Who are we? What do we do?
Hi, my name is Chris Ives — also known as “Chives” — and I’m the owner/operator of Gardens By Chives, a small Sunshine Coast based business offering services in permaculture consultation, design, and organic horticultural maintenance. Guided by the ethics and principles of permaculture, the aim is to create beautiful, regenerative backyard ecosystems that promote biodiversity, produce nutritious seasonal food, and provide a sanctuary for you to unwind in. Gardens that deliver functional aesthetics.
Gardens By Chives has the skills and expertise to bring your permaculture dreams to life, whether it be a humble raised veggie bed or a fully fledged food forest. Providing one-on-one consultation services ranging from a once-off visit to give you a nudge down the sustainable garden path, all the way to ongoing guidance throughout the entire design process — to empower and educate you on how to manage the system — as well as horticultural maintenance services for those who are just a bit too time poor to get their hands in the soil. With five years experience servicing high-end residential properties, you can rest assured your gardens and lawns will always look in tip-top shape. While I appreciate the appeal of a well kept green space, all work completed is done so that biodiversity, soil health, food production and waste reduction are also paramount considerations. In taking this approach to garden maintenance and design I can be confident I’m working in alignment with the core ethics of permaculture…
EARTH CARE. PEOPLE CARE. FAIR SHARE.
If you’re curious about how permaculture can transform your property, or you already have a vision that you’d like to make a reality — but you aren’t sure where to start — get in contact today to arrange a consultation, and we’ll get you moving in the right direction. For any horticultural maintenance work, please get in touch to organise a free estimate.
How did I get here?
I started my career in professional horticulture five years ago, working for a small Brisbane-based company which specialised in organic garden maintenance and landscape design. After moving on from that company having only spent a few months with them, I spent time as a school groundskeeper and then working in a wholesale nursery before shifting back into a maintenance role for yet another small local venture. Having spent time in these different roles, seeing and experiencing some of the more conventional techniques and mindsets applied in the industry, I came to realise how much I appreciated the organic approach.
My intention for entering the horticulture industry was always to eventually work for myself, originally thinking I would continue down the route of landscape design/maintenance in a very industry-standard way. During 2022, my desire to venture out on my own grew rapidly, knowing that I wanted to continue working on people’s gardens but doing it in a way that stepped outside the conventional. One aspect I wanted to incorporate was food production/veggie beds, as I had begun to really take notice that, despite having ample space, many people around Brisbane are NOT growing any of their own food. Enter permaculture, I had heard the term thrown around here and there over the years, the whole time thinking it was just a fancy word for vegetable gardening. How wrong I was. Permaculture is a sustainable, solutions-based approach to habitat design that can be applied at any scale — from urban to rural and everything in between — centring around food production, while also taking into account how we build, use resources, and organise our living spaces in alignment with the flow of nature.
Having completed a Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) in early 2023, and currently completing a Permaculture Teacher’s Certificate (alongside a second PDC — there is always more to learn), my goal with Gardens By Chives is to bring permaculture into your world. Educating you on how to grow food organically, empowering you to take action in regenerating our soils, and help you take a little a little bit of power back into your own hands by becoming more self-reliant.