MAROUBRA is perhaps best known for its famous surfing beach. Who of sufficient age does not remember Little Patties‘ 1960s song, Stompin’ at Maroubra?, a minor anthem of the surfing culture that emerged during those hectic years?

Surfing remains a preoccupation of those fortunate enough to live within close distance of that curve of golden sand, but new times have thrown up now ideas in the suburb. One of those new — and good — ideas can be found not all that far from the famous beach in the front yard of a modest block of 1970s walk-up apartments. There, an innovative young woman by the name of Kimberley has turned a monoculture of lawn grass into a polyculture of vegetables, all in a garden of curvaceous edges.

Look beyond the circular garden — it’s called a ‘mandala’ garden design because it copies the shape of Indian mandalas — and you will see a number of young fruit trees down the side of the building as well as a compost bin.

It seems that in the City East the idea of food gardens in apartment blocks is slowly catching on.

See another apartment food garden here.

Visitors from the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance's Food Summit tour of food systems in the City East region get an introduction to Kimberley's apartment garden.

The 'mandala' shaped garden is a variation on the circular garden bed design. Plastic weed stripping has been used to define the garden edge and to present a barrier to lawn grass invasion.

Kimberley - the woman behind the garden — who did the Randwick City Council Living Smart course.

The curved shape of the apartment's vegetable garden is evident in this photo.