Here you are the amazing opportunity to be inspired to do something good and useful for the planet and your soul like Jonathan did.

Athan Jon aka Jonathan Pampling grew up on the Fraser Coast returning to his place of birth, Brisbane Queensland when he was 20years old. Turning his back on a potential career as bush ranger on Fraser Island after working in conservation and land preservation, the decision was made to study fashion and a three year plan was hatched. After less than five months into a three year course, Jonathan left to begin stocking a small boutique and began dressing local musicians. The three year plan was achieved in 8 months. This was a surprising shock that lead Jonathan to develop his creative art fashion name of Athan Jon with his wears being sold locally. With a twenty year background in fashion, costume, tailoring and now performing arts, Athan hopes to achieve success in his brand of awareness of environmental issues. He’s an environmentalist and also a futurist and this combination, along with fashion and art, is his mouth piece to express what he holds dear. “Candy Wrapping” issues such as consumer waste , challenges him to think outside the box using his love for the avant-garde to create eye catching pieces that draw you in inspiring and educating at the same time turning the discarded into amazement.

Tell me more about your sustainable garden. Is it hard to take care of it?

I began the Sustainable Garden back in mid 2018 after moving here end of December 2017 with my musician  flat mates Alexis and Churv (2/3) of Australian band Sin Soto. Part of the decision to move a bit out of the city was to save money. Having more money means you can be more sustainable. Plus more room to be creative , for the band to rehearse and have a home studio and to have out of town guests stay. The year was quite dry here in Queensland and in January 2019 after my gardens had become dormant after  a great tomato season, the rains came and kickstarted them up again. I began planting heaps of different varieties of fruit and vegetables. Being on one acre of land it was lucky that there is established fruit trees too like mangoes, jackfruit, pomelos and mandarins. When the lockdown happened I was thankful that I’d already had established my veggie patches and thought to buy more than 50+ different seed varieties online and just give it a super red hot go. It’s trial and error and lots have come to full cycle with seeds being collected along the way and sowing of seeds can be a weekly task. Watering is a daily task and having a good size rain water tank has been great plus putting buckets out to collect extra gutter runoff for the garden is a bonus. The biggest change to the household has been collecting water from the shower and kitchen sink . 200 to 500litres plus can be saved each day keeping the garden sustainable and green. Composting is huge for the garden. All kitchen scraps are fed into the compost heap along with lawn and other garden clippings. The compost rejuvenates the garden along the way. The addition of four chickens now has helped fill in some vital roles in the chain to being Super Sustainable. They have finally started laying eggs daily and their addition to the garden has been great for fertilizer and tilling of the gardens and of course eggs. No green waste and grey water goes unused . This has added to the cycle that began just as one pumpkin patch now blossoming into 10plus patches that are ever evolving, growing and producing.

Do you think sustainable living can actually be the future?

Without a doubt Sustainable Living is the future but it’s also Now. It’s the perfect time to get your garden in order to reap the benefits. There are many ways to contribute and help nature in its course to a healthy productive future. Saving water, buying secondhand, reusing things, being resourceful, thrifting and staying away from shopping centers. Creating at home is the best way to get started in being sustainable and living your best life. Don’t be afraid to buy new if you want to. Buy good quality and long wearing . Buying online is great because you don’t have to leave the house and items turn up at your door. This saves you money and the environment plus you won’t get sucked into things you don’t need. So always try to stick to the list when purchasing. 

What do you suggest to make our lives more sustainable?

Making your life more sustainable can be done right in this instance. Making choices and deciding to become more sustainable starts with the thought and then the actions will play out. My household, we recycle our cans and bottles and this pays for our internet bill each month. The bottles that can’t be recycled become seedling planters and with decorative applications that can result in amazing gifts too. Plus don’t throw things away as there is a movement to cleanse our homes of things we don’t need, I totally disagree with this practice. I’ve been saved multiple times with items I’ve recycled or in crisis used to help solve problems or help somebody out. It’s that 1940s approach. Being resourceful saving tins and glass jars. You may use these things in the future for practical or creative uses. Walking or taking public transport is a great way to lower your carbon footprint . I’ve never been a driver and that had been solely an environmental decision when I was a teen. 

Stay away from big shopping centers if you can, they are traps for you to buy, most of it is overpriced crap anyway. Look into swapping more, whether that be seeds and fruits from the garden to clothes and household items. Finding people to give things to rather than throwing in the bin helps reduce our landfill. Look into hiring and loaning items too.

It’s all of our responsibility. It’s the worlds issue, our water, our land, our air, we are all part of the problem and solution.

What's the hardest part of a sustainable living?

There is really nothing hard about becoming more sustainable. Giving up on bad habits, making better choices and wanting to live a better future is well and truly your first steps in the right direction. Also sift out new and vibrant ideas to become greener. There is a lot of “parroting” out there and yes it gets super boring hearing the same shit over and over again. So stay clear of these “plain Jane” channels, you want fresh up to date information with a dynamic approach.

Look at supporting environmental causes and sustainable eco green groups online. Here you’ll find like minded folk. You may feel like you are not making a big enough impact but you are, lead by example. Look for genuine understanding and appreciation of what your setting out to achieve. Find humans supporting humans who support every living thing.  Stay clear of “women supporting women “ movements or groups that exclude anyone in our society, this is where someone like myself feels excluded for being a man and also gay. This is backward and not inclusive for a sustainable healthy future. You want tribal mentalities and equality, you want a mix of minds. The best “ist” to be , is an Environmentalist. We all as humans can be this, anything else is just not forward thinking enough. 

What's your next project?

Next on the cards for me is more creativity. Making more sustainable fashion and costumes that I can show off in my sustainable garden through photography and when I can do my Fashion Performance Art at festivals again. Because it’s not only talking the talk you have to walk the walk. I’ll continue to seek out people who are like minded and open to the ideas of high concepts, dreamers, artists and musicians, film makers and photographers, models, actors and performers. There is so much boring stuff out there, so when you come across my work it’s like a jewel in a sea of bland helping you to understand art, fashion,  performance and how we can look at the world differently and use creativity to save it.

@jonathan_pampling