In conversation with Meg Travis

The serendipity of her ‘Girl Friday’ year of trades and how it led to Oak & Monkey Puzzle; the immersion of those first months together; and how friendship, making and garden rituals have shaped the life she’s built since.


Meg Travis at Oak and Monkey Puzzle by Natasha Morgan
Aerial photograph of Meg Travis productive garden.
Meg Travis in a garden

Introducing Meg Travis

Meg Travis (formerly Meg Lobb) is a grower, cook and writer based in Cornwall, where she tends One Field Farm, a small, windswept field in Crantock that feeds her family and a close circle of local cafes and restaurants. Her days track the weather and her daughters’ footsteps through the beds and polytunnel, folding field lunches, play, and quiet solo hours of tending into one seasonal rhythm that runs straight from soil to plate.

Her life in food and farming grew from her self‑styled “Girl Friday” year: a global, money‑free trading adventure in which she travelled between households and small creative businesses, swapping her skills for a place at the table and the chance to learn. That “sweet, simple adventure” brought her to Oak Monkey Puzzle in central Victoria in 2016, where an immersive season of shared work, ritual and preserving became, in her words, “the first day of forever” and set the course for the field‑based, community‑rooted life she has built since.

At One Field Farm her practice centres on simple, generous seasonal cooking and preserving, especially hedgerow cordials and syrups such as the spiced elderberry syrup first tuned late at night in the Oak Monkey Puzzle kitchen, now a yearly anchor in her own pantry. She treats these bottles as small time‑capsules – ways of holding the flavour of a lane or a season so it can be poured back into winter mugs, summer glasses and the everyday meals that keep her family, friends and community close.

Instagram: @girlfridays_notes
Instagram: @onefieldfarm
Instagram: @nancarrowfarm


The conversation

My conversation with Meg Travis, where we talk about the serendipity of her ‘Girl Friday’ year of trades and how it led to Oak & Monkey Puzzle; the immersion of those first months together; and how friendship, making and garden rituals have shaped the life she’s built since.


Workshops

My workshops are about fostering the reconnection between the layers of everyday life, the self and the natural world.

The Productive Garden with Natasha Morgan - Stonewalls Edition
A$320.00

Time: 10am to 1pm

Dates:

Saturday 21st November 2026

Location: Stonewalls, Musk.

For as long as I can remember, I have tended a productive garden. From childhood veggie patches to the abundant landscapes of Oak and Monkey Puzzle, growing has always grounded me and shaped how I see the world. This workshop draws from that lived experience.

Whether you're working with a courtyard, a veggie patch or a larger garden, this is about creating a productive space that offers both beauty and abundance.

We explore what productive gardening really means. I share how my process has evolved across very different properties—Oak and Monkey Puzzle and Little Cottage on a Hill and for the first time, Stonewalls—blending hands-on learning with thoughtful intent.

We cover soil care, compost systems, green manures, vertical growing, chickens, worms and closed-loop cycles. You’ll see how I use wicking beds as productive, water-wise microclimates, and how I approach different soil types and site conditions.

We talk about heirlooms and hybrids, perennial and medicinal layers, espalier techniques, and the role of beauty in even the most functional plantings.

This is not a technical how-to on growing food. It is a practical and inspiring session on preparing and shaping a garden that is generous, resilient and connected to place. You’ll leave with tools and ideas to help you begin.

'Wicking Bed Garden' workshop with Natasha Morgan
A$320.00

Dates: Sunday 1st November 2026

Time: 10 AM – 12.30 PM

Location: Little Cottage on a Hill, Daylesford

For years, I’ve designed gardens that balance beauty, productivity, and sustainability, but when I discovered wicking beds, they transformed the way I grow. These self-watering garden beds have changed everything—from reducing water use to making gardening more accessible, efficient, and abundant.

In this hands-on workshop, I’ll guide you through the practical steps to create your own wicking beds—whether you’re working with a small courtyard, a backyard, or a larger productive space. You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of how wicking beds work, how to build them using IBC containers, and how to create a thriving, water-wise garden with minimal effort.

We’ll explore my own wicking bed garden at Little Cottage on a Hill, where I’ve grown everything from celery and purple sprouting broccoli to sugar snap peas and edible flowers—all with less watering and less maintenance. You’ll leave with the knowledge and confidence to build a garden that is not only sustainable and resilient but also deeply rewarding to tend.

This workshop is designed for anyone looking to garden smarter—not harder. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned grower, wicking beds are a game-changer in sustainable and productive gardening.

Garden Design with Natasha Morgan
A$320.00

Time: 10.00am - 1.00pm

Dates:
Saturday 7th November 2026

Location: Daylesford, Victoria

Whether you're starting from scratch or reshaping an existing space, this half-day garden design workshop invites you to see your garden differently. From the structure of the land up, this is not a plant-by-plant session. It is a place to think like a landscape architect and begin shaping your dream garden with clarity and purpose.

Together, we’ll explore the fundamental principles that guide thoughtful garden design. You’ll learn how to observe and respond to the unique conditions of a site, and how to work with what already exists to support the kind of space you want to create. We’ll talk about how to create rhythm, balance and a sense of flow in the garden. Not through formulas, but through a practice of observation, clarity and intention.

Using tracing paper and bold textas, you’ll begin a layered, iterative design process based on Natasha's own garden. A technique that prioritises experience over detail. This isn’t about where your grandma’s rose will go. It is about learning to see the bigger picture, and how to design in a way that brings coherence and life to your space.

You’ll leave with the tools to create your own garden brief, a new approach to site mapping and design thinking grounded in landscape architecture, and a renewed way of seeing and shaping your garden. No matter its size or complexity.

We draw from real projects such as Oak and Monkey Puzzle and Little Cottage on a Hill, and explore how to reimagine constraints as creative opportunities. There is also a guided tour of Little Cottage on a Hill, where we see how theory comes to life in a compact space.


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Community & Collaboration

Everything I do is about connection and community. I’m deeply passionate about meeting and working with people, brands and businesses that align with my values. If you think we’d create magic together — I want to hear about it!

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Acknowledgment of Country

We acknowledge the first custodians of the land on which we live and work, the Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging and to all First Nations People. Sovereignty was never ceeded and treaties were never signed.

 

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