I’m Connie Cao.
‘Cao’ pronounced like the TV show ‘Connie the Cow’.
I’m a passionate urban permaculture gardener, homesteader, photographer and digital content creator.
Based in the suburbs of Melbourne, I’ve spent the past eight years (and counting!) transforming a backyard full of weeds into a abundant space overflowing with veggies, berries, fruit, flowers and beneficial plants. And as of a few months ago, chickens as well!
When I first started gardening, I thought I’d need acreage to grow enough food for our household. Turns out, I was wrong. Through creative experimentation (including growing lots of plants in containers!), I now harvest more than enough to both preserve and share with family, neighbours and friends. This is why I’m a firm believer that any-sized space can become a thriving garden, and love sharing small-space friendly gardening ideas.
I love creating beautiful, productive and sustainable gardens - lush green pathways filled with surprises at every turn, spaces that welcome pollinators, and soil teeming with life.
Beyond growing food, I see the garden as a teacher of deeper life lessons. I encourage everyone to embrace the imperfect perfection of nature, and give gardening a go, no matter their experience.
When I’m not in the garden, you'll probably find me reading about gardening, cooking and preserving from the garden or exploring other people's gardens. A gardening journey is always an ongoing one, and I love documenting and sharing mine with my garden-loving community online.
How it started
I’m a social media native, having first started blogging in 2010. During the early years, my blog was a creative outlet for me to share my love for fashion styling and thrifting. This followed my thirst for travel and exploring beautiful corners of the world, with a focus on off-the-beaten-path destinations, the local food scene, walking through nature and travelling through Asia, partnering with brands including Canon Australia, Japan National Tourism Organisation, China Southern Airlines and Visit Copenhagen.
No matter what I was doing or writing about, there was one thing that remained constant - my thirst for capturing the fleeting moments, and weaving creativity into all that I do. And a fondness to live by my values, and find ways to do things that are a little lighter for the planet.
Many of these posts are still referenced regularly, which is why I continue to keep them online. If you want to follow some of my travel itineraries or guides, you can find them here.
How it’s going
My fascination with edible gardening began in primary school, where I was first shown how a tiny seed could grow into an edible plant. I was in awe of nature’s ‘magic’, and wanted to recreate this in our backyard. Growing up, I begged my parents for a veggie patch. My persistent efforts became successful in my late teens, when my dad and I started growing veggies in the front yard of our family home. None of us had experience, so we learnt alongside each other.
My dad grew all sorts of Asian veggies that my mum would cook up for dinner. It fascinated me that we could grow all their childhood favourites here in Australia, as bok choy, celtuce, loofah and edamame weren’t common sights in most veggie patches. Friends would often comment how exciting it was to receive freshly harvested Asian veggies. During those years, I so fondly remembered how happy I felt whenever I was in the patch. I’d often find myself just standing there, soaking it all in, admiring the magic of nature and the joy of growing food at home.
Even then, I couldn’t wait to start my own veggie patch. After moving into our first home in 2018, the dream began to take shape.
From dreaming, designing, building raised beds, enclosures, greenhouses and chicken runs - my garden has been a source of pure, utter joy, and I’ve loved every moment of writing and sharing about it along the way.
My education
I graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) & Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Marketing) and while I learnt nothing about the growing industry of social media during that time, I left with a big passion for opportunities in the digital space, and building a career that is aligns with my values.
In 2019, I went on to do further study and completed a Permaculture Design Certificate and in 2021, a Diploma of Sustainable Living (with Honours) at the University of Tasmania.
My unique mix of educational background provides me the skillset to effectively and accurately communicate concepts in an engaging and easy-to-understand way.
I so deeply resonate with my alma mater’s motto - ‘ancora imparo’, an Italian phrase meaning ‘I am still learning’. I am a curious soul, and look forward to growing, evolving and sharing my knowledge -through books, videos, writing or social media - wherever the journey takes me.