This week’s garden offers a moment of enlightenment. Through a garage filled with the tools of a gardener, suburban farmer Mark Petruzio welcomes me to Oneness Farms, his Wanneroo food forest and education space. Here, ancient growing techniques meet innovation, guided by a simple philosophy: grow food with love, build community and share knowledge freely.

A committed Rastafarian gardener, Mark describes his garden as a mixed permaculture system demonstrating hydroponics, aquaponics, hugelkultur and coconut-slab plantings to show vegetables can be grown in the smallest balcony gardens and even by caravanners on the move.

“Travellers can grow anything anywhere,” he says. “You just need to understand the basic principles.”

We explore circulating hydroponic systems using clay balls and river sand, aquaponic displays, greenhouses and compost biomass piles. In the aquaponics system, fish play a critical role.

“The feed is the nutrient, so what you feed the fish is important for the output,” Mark explains.

One greenhouse is home to tomatoes grown from a jar of seeds collected by Mark’s Nonno in the 1970s. After years of failed attempts and advice from a friend in the United States, Mark trialled 50 seeds. Only one survived, beginning the revival of an old and highly productive tomato variety.

Another greenhouse is named after a tiny island off Puerto Rico, where Mark once taught people how to grow pineapples and papayas. Here in Wanneroo, perennial food plants dominate the landscape. Cavendish bananas, which Mark says survived recent storms better than other varieties, grow alongside pawpaws, moringa, rosella and Gungo pigeon pea, a nitrogen-fixing staple crop in many developing countries.

“I’ve been growing Gungo pigeon pea here for 20 years,” he says. “Five plants can produce a kilogram of peas.”

The garden follows “veganic” principles, relying on composting, biomass production and soil improvement rather than animal manure.

“I want to show people you don’t need animal manures to produce good harvests if you improve soil structure with compost and organic matter,” Mark says.

A productive tunnel garden is dedicated to feeding others. Families and charities regularly contact Mark for fresh produce, and he is happy to share as much as they need.

“This is what I do it for — to feed people in my community and teach the next generation,” he says. “If I have two apples and you have none, I will give you one so we can both eat, then plant the seeds together to grow a tree.”

Mark has contributed to 73 curricula across 17 countries. His message remains grounded in observation and connection.

“Don’t overthink it. Observe what happens in nature and try to replicate it.”

For Mark, gardening is about more than harvests.

“We grow love disguised as fruit and vegetables,” he says. “Giving something to somebody is an honourable thing. It’s a relationship, not a transaction.

“Sit under a tree, connect with nature, listen to the elders and pass life through food on to somebody else.”

Mark’s mission to build community through his garden has become his life’s work.