UnitedNatures Design by Erik C. van Zuilekom

01/05/2026

Oh well, I’ve posted on every page in existence, I might as well post it on my own too 🤣

Something I've been building towards for a long time is now open for bookings.

I'm welcoming people into our garden in Thornlands, QLD, for hands-on Edible Garden Workshops.

These are four hours of garden tours, teaching/demonstrations, honest conversation, and practical systems you can take home and apply to help develop food sovereignty and healthy home habitat. Whether you're starting from bare ground or refining what you've already built.

You'll be walking through a living family homestead on a quarter-acre block, including Permacultural mini-food forests, syntropic assemblages, in-ground & raised beds, wicking beds, composting technologies, biochar-use, microbial brews for regenerative soil development, swales, native stingless bee hives, organic vegetable growing, native edibles, and habitat production, getting your hands into soil biology, working through real design solutions together.

As featured on ABC Gardening Australia, I have finally decided to share our home food growing and personal family habitat journey, design expertise and humble gardening lifestyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjDAOQqruwY&t=9s

Our garden has grown exponentially since this filming. Feel free to enjoy it with us!

Three workshops are now available:

~Abundant Garden Systems — Sat 4 July ~Permaculture design, practical home garden structure and workflows, syntropic techniques, water management & living soils. This workshop is an overview of "How to Bring it All Together" in an efficient and coherent way.

~Productive Soil Biology Essentials — Sat 8 August ~How to make regenerative soil part of your garden journey, including biochar science, microbial brewing systems, green manure cropping, advanced composting, etc. The science in a practical and achievable way for you.

~Advancing Ecological Planting — Sat 5 September ~Food forests, syntropy systems, plant guild & consortium design. This workshop delves into using plants to generate fertile outcomes through ecological design patterns that underpin all life. We will cover companion-planting, succession & transitions using practical design methods I've developed through my living architecture, conservation/revegetation and organic food growing career of 27 years.

Each workshop stands on its own ...attend one, two, or all three. They complement each other, but each delivers complete, practical value independently.

A$145 per workshop | 9 am – 1 pm | Max 10 participants — deliberately small so everyone gets genuine engagement. Workshop notes provided.

📖 Introductory offer: First 5 bookings for each workshop receive a FREE copy of my recently published Seasonal Crop Rotation Planner & Log.

To BOOK workshops and to gain further details:
https://unitednatures-edible-garden-workshops.square.site/

To learn more of BOOK's I've written and other social media I've shared:
https://linktr.ee/unitednatures

10/03/2026

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE 🌱

The first book of many I will be releasing:

Some of might not know I have a second IG channel and page on organic food growing, following my food-growing journey on our homestead (UnitedNatures Edible Garden).

I’ll be offering workshops and producing books on a diverse range of organic food growing and garden design subjects. This is the first offer or many to come!

The Seasonal Crop Rotation Planner & Log is live and ready to transform your way of gardening.

A comprehensive 3-year planning system covering:
✓ Crop rotation across all climate zones
✓ Succession planting for continuous harvests
✓ Companion planting & plant family reference
✓ Seasonal planning with soil management insights
✓ Regenerative & organic growing principles

🌏 PURCHASE IN YOUR REGION:
🇦🇺 Australia: amazon.com.au/dp/B0GRRJ9HH5
🇺🇸 USA: amazon.com/dp/B0GRRJ9HH5
🇬🇧 UK: amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GRRJ9HH5
🇨🇦 Canada: amazon.ca/dp/B0GRRJ9HH5

💡 TIP: If you see multiple price options, choose the lowest-priced “Prime” listing—that’s your local print with no import fees.

Designed for any climate type, from tropical, subtropical, Mediterranean to Temperate gardens and beyond —wherever you grow.

— Erik C. van Zuilekom | UnitedNaturesres

20/12/2025

I’ve written a three-article series for Hort Journal Australia.

This is a glimpse of the first article, titled: Plant Community Paradigms: The Missing Links in Design.

It introduces concepts that may offer pragmatic solutions and perspectives to challenge designers, horticulture professionals, and home gardeners -enhancing ecological performance and plant longevity through integrative design.

The subsequent articles expand upon these concepts, elevating them to key design methodologies that highlight significant opportunities to deepen one’s knowledge and efficiency, and to plug into the remarkably expansive unfolding of ecological design, whether applied to ornamental, edible, wildlife-orientated, terrestrial, or aquatic plantings, including novel gardens such as living architecture.

Regenerative capacity is key. Achieving this requires understanding, the core of which is offered herewith.

For those who would like to read the full articles and those to follow, feel free to subscribe to Hort Journal Australia via the links below:

🌐 https://hortjournal.com.au
LinkedIn: JOURNAL AUSTRALIA
Facebook: Journal Australia
Instagram: .journal

13/09/2025

This species of palm, Ravenea glauca, is known by its limited distribution within the Isalo National Park in Madagascar, hence named Ravenea glauca ‘Isalo’.

It’s considered endangered in its native habitat, therefore there is great value in cultivating it to protect.

It is specifically adapted to the dry forests and gullies of central south Madagascar, extremely challenging conditions transitioning between dark valleys to hot and full sun as it achieves notable lengths.

These conditions are remarkably similar to the constructed urban canyons of cities, thus it is a palm of the future for living architecture and urban ecologies.

It’s rarely offered for sale, hence will be an ongoing endeavour to make it more freely available. It will be many years yet till it flowers.

I’m keen to learn if I can expedite the process through growing healthy soil ecologies to boost its growth and maximise symbioses with beneficial bacteria and fungi.

06/08/2025

Brisbane Green Wall Tour -rescheduled for Sun 31 Aug.

Unfortunately, the ASA committee has made the decision to postpone the SEQ field trip and Green Wall Tour, which was scheduled for Sunday, 24th August.

There is a potential large-scale event occurring in Brisbane CBD, which will contain large crowds and potentially impact our walking tour, public transport, and possibly driving routes. Safety to ASA members and guests remains the highest priority.

The new date will be Sunday, 31st August, and the times and meeting point will remain the same. The Eventbrite booking has been updated, and everyone with a ticket has been made aware of the changes.

If you wish to attend the new event date, please RSVP by clicking the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seq-south-brisbane-field-trip-featuring-erik-van-zuilekom-unitednatures-tickets-1488633756639?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm_campaign=quickandeasy&utm_medium=email&utm_source=join-it

A clickable link is available on the UnitedNatures Design Fb page, otherwise copy and paste the link text above into your browser.

Thank you for your understanding

06/08/2025

Brisbane Green Wall Tour -rescheduled for Sun 31 Aug.

Unfortunately, the ASA committee has made the decision to postpone the SEQ field trip and Green Wall Tour, which was scheduled for Sunday, 24th August.

There is a potential large-scale event occurring in Brisbane CBD, which will contain large crowds and potentially impact our walking tour, public transport, and possibly driving routes. Safety to ASA members and guests remains the highest priority.

The new date will be Sunday, 31st August, and the times and meeting point will remain the same. The Eventbrite booking has been updated, and everyone with a ticket has been made aware of the changes.

If you wish to attend the new event date, please RSVP by clicking the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seq-south-brisbane-field-trip-featuring-erik-van-zuilekom-unitednatures-tickets-1488633756639?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm_campaign=quickandeasy&utm_medium=email&utm_source=join-it

Thank you for your understanding

The ASA presents Erik van Zuilekom who will be taking members and guests for a guided walk around South Brisbane to discuss his living walls

04/06/2025

This was a most enjoyable interview by Jordan from Jordan - The Shed Organics for his YouTube and podcast channel.

We covered a broad range of subjects. Enjoy!

Wow, what an episode this one was! The incredible Erik Van Zuilekom from United Natures Design joined me and we covered so many awesome topics. From Biochar ...

16/05/2025

This relatively unassuming Palm, started its life on a limestone cliff-face in Yunnan, southern central China, in monsoonal rain forest in the Salween River valley at elevations of 1,500–1,900 metres.

I grew it from seed, germinated ~17 years ago. It has become a semi-bonsai due to being kept in a pot and grown hard with minimal TLC.

With great relief, I decided to set it free within this newly created garden bed, excavated into our driveway.

It is a most majestic, rare, species that will speed up in growth to develop a wonderfully wooly trunk into which I will weave epiphytic orchids, ferns, Aroids and Gesneriads.

For now, though, I’ll do nothing, rather taking time to appreciate the wonderful feeling knowing it can finally send its roots deep into soil ecologies and start a new chapter.

One less pot to water, one more plant in the forest.

02/05/2025

Inspired by photos my sister shared of her garden in the UK, I felt it was time to kindle a bit of enchantment into ours.

There’s a mystical, deep, space within all things, something that resonates and causes shifts within us.

There are design techniques that may stimulate these energies to start resonating, yet the deepest movement draws not upon knowledge or technique.

Our home habitat is growing with us, as we walk and run, fall and listen, find stillness, move and feel our ways as part of life.

Death, growth, syntropy and entropy reveal movement and layers upon layers that become patterns.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
we create by being present 🙏🏻

21/02/2025

A lesser known Aroid in the garden.

This Stenospermation sp. is located in the food forest (edible plant rainforest). In our back garden.

I have not looked into the ID of this one even though I’ve had it for 7-9years, having tentatively noted it as ‘possibly S. marantiifolium’.

It’s a compact and heavily branching specimen with short internodes seemingly more interested in scrambling than climbing.

It produces aerial roots though is a bit temperamental, with success from cuttings being surprisingly average for me unless provided with ideal conditions, yet it is easy to grow and tolerant of a relatively wide range of conditions.

Without knowing much about this specimen to understand its ecological niche, I’ve decided to put it in conditions that resemble an ecological ‘fringe’, a zone where two separate exposure types meet. Such dynamic transitions between exposures often generate highly diverse niches and highly productive outcomes.

In this context the ‘fringe’ is located on the edge of two converging pathways where sunlight enters during the afternoon and air movement is high.

I’ll patiently observe and with an unbiased perspective, respond to what the plant presents 🙏🏻

15/02/2025

Philodendron maximum.

Super slow growing outdoors in the coastal subtropics though certainly an impressive species.

This one is potted and growing up a felt-covered 100mm PVC pipe totem, outdoors on the south-eastern side of my office.

It’s rooted through the pots drainage holes into composted bark mulch and into our red Krasnozem soils.

It’s taken over 2 years to lengthen its stem by 40cm though it’s growing in ambient outdoor humidity and has not been fertilised.

I plan to set it free from the pot to ascend a tree, though I’m waiting for such realestate to open once I remove a hulking Philodendron warszewiczii that’s dominating an entire tree.

Watch this space 🙏🏻