Gardens of WA: Michaela Driessen’s Safety Bay garden is a generous yield from the heart

A serendipitous meeting at the Kalamunda Garden Festival led me on an unexpected journey this week, when a casual conversation turned into an invitation to visit the Safety Bay garden of Michaela Driessen.

The front garden welcomes visitors with raised veggie beds heaving with healthy produce and artfully planted succulents.

Self-educated in all things green and guided by permaculture principles, Michaela’s garden is a joyful blend of structure and profusion.

Potted frangipanis bloom, scenting the air, while fruit trees and composting stations demonstrate a deep commitment to sustainability. Michaela has an eye for the unusual and is successfully growing the fast-growing, yellow-flowering loofah vine from seed. A banana grove towers and shades, while a raised triangular concrete planter housing a mature olive tree and herbs adds an architectural note, softened by potted succulents in assorted containers.

A habitat pond sits along the northern end of the garden, complete with hundreds of tiny motorbike frogs, observed mid-jump, bringing another layer of life into the busy landscape.

Michaela and her partner Dan attended a workshop run by Johnny Prefumo, The Frog Doctor, to learn how best to care for the habitat that came with their home, and have since created an inviting environment for nature to visit.

Her plant journey began during the pandemic with indoor plants. “Elephant ear alocasia was my first plant — it flowered and I thought, ‘oh my goodness, this is amazing’,” Michaela laughs. “Did you know they flower and smell like sweet vanilla?”

That sense of wonder sparked a passion that grew into an impressively curated indoor collection, expanding to plants hanging above a handcrafted long table. The benches, crafted by Dan from ancient pine, sit near a pizza oven — perfect for family gatherings. Dan is the resident handyman and supports Michaela with the practical application of her gardening ideas.

A fervent gardener, Michaela is about to commence TAFE studies in horticulture and is fascinated by the NASA air-purifying study, which influenced her indoor planting. Her home is filled with indoor plants of every description, making the transition from outdoors to in seamless. Michaela recommends Green Thumb by Craig Miller-Randle, which she credits for keeping her plants so healthy. She makes her own potting mix, tailored to individual plant requirements — a system that is clearly working.

What began as volunteering and supporting the local P&C with a plant stall fundraiser has evolved into plant sales via Marketplace. Michaela takes cuttings and pots them on for sale. “I can’t compost them when I know they will grow,” she says. Excess plants are sold — always healthy specimens only. Selling plants, she explains, is another way to connect with her community.

Michaela also volunteers with an organisation called Youth on Fire, offering fresh food support to those in need in her community. She extends that generosity further by posting excess produce on her Facebook page for locals to collect from her home. She also participates in a local group called Plant It Forward, where gardeners meet in each other’s gardens to share local knowledge, plants and cuttings.

A chance meeting has revealed a garden — and a gardener — with a very big heart, rooted in generosity to her community through volunteering, creativity and personal growth.