
With just enough money to pay for compost and mulch, plus a generous donation of land, Justin Hartley established the thriving and popular Duck Foot Farm: the first notill, small-scale and land-share farm in the Southern Highlands in New South Wales.
The importance of soil biology and health has become more apparent in recent times, partly perhaps spearheaded by books such as Matthew Evansâ Soil and Charles Masseyâs Call of the Reed Warbler and, of course, a flourishing community of passionate permaculturalists across the globe. After centuries of using aggressive agricultural techniques that heavily cultivate land, many contemporary farmers are simplifying their farming methods by using no-till, no-dig or regenerative agriculture to inspire more environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices. It could spell the end of depleting soil health, spraying chemicals and poisoning waterways.
WHERE IT BEGAN
With over 15 years horticultural and gardening experience, Justin Hartley fell in love with growing food while working at an organic farm. But he often found himself frustrated by the farmâs use of conventional cultivation processes.
âWhen you heavily cultivate soil, you destroy soil structure and biology, all of those relationships with the plants, so the plants have a lot of deficiencies,â he explains. It was a chance encounter that inspired him to think more deeply about the fascinating intricacies of soil biology and health.
âOne day someone visited the farm with a lupin, and he showed me the nitrogen nodules on the root. He explained that when you have the right type of bacteria in the soil, the nodules can hold the nitrogen, but it doesnât necessarily mean that itâs available to the plants,â he says. âBut, if you have a particular type of bacteria in the soil, these nodules will turn pink because theyâre full of nitrogen. As you cut them down, they release the nitrogen which makes it available to the plants. I was struck by it.
âEver since then, Iâve been studying and looking into soil biology and the interactions that soil has with plants. Itâs just mind-blowing. I havenât been so interested in anything like this before in my life.â
Justin was motivated to find another way to farm. This led him to no-till farming (sometimes described as no-dig or regenerative agriculture), a simpler, less labour-intensive approach that also minimises weeds, pests and diseases.
âIâd been hearing about no-till and I couldnât work out a way to make it work when youâre farming on a larger scale with vegetables,â he says. âIf youâre farming 20 acres, how do you make that happen? Itâs really difficult. So, I decided to focus on land management, on how to really build and preserve the soil.â
SMALL SCALE
The Duck Foot Farm model is all about small-scale farming, which helps keep the workload manageable. Justin has half an acre of land in Moss Vale, and has recently established more small-scale farms in nearby Exeter (one acre) and Penrose (one acre). As Justin says, âIâm demonstrating that itâs possible for anyone to do it. We donât have to rely on âbig agâ and individual millionaires to do farming.â The small-scale farming model simplifies things, and promotes health and community connection. For Justin, itâs about bringing a localised food system back to the people.
âItâs not just healthy for the land, but itâs healthy for the people who buy the produce, and for promoting healthy relationships with farmers and consumers. Farming is also a healthy lifestyle. It doesnât have to be overwhelming, back-breaking work.â
According to Justin, small-scale farming works because itâs financially, physically and emotionally viable. Heâs documenting his model and processes so he can showcase them to budding farmers.
âThis is a high turnover, too. Iâm laying cardboard, building my vegetable beds with compost, creating mulch pathways, I plant the seedlings and once Iâve harvested them I can replant again.
âI can do that all year and then top it up with compost at the end of the year. I donât have to bring in any fertilisers, I just add some compost or worm tea.â
LAND SHARE
Justinâs wife Eriko introduced him to local landowners Ian and Sandra Oates.
âThey jumped on board straight away,â he says. âThey asked me to choose the paddock I would like. They trusted me, even though I felt like I had no idea what I was doing!â
It took a lot of hard work. Justin describes is as âa mad, tough slog. I had a wheelbarrow and stringline and went for it. I was on my own, wheelbarrowing every day, I was physically exhausted and sore. But I could see where I wanted this little farm to go.â
Since then, the farm has been getting plenty of attention, with Justin being offered more land throughout New South Wales. The donations come with lease agreements for one dollar per acre per annum, just to keep things official. Still, thereâs something beautifully radical about it.
âWeâre going from people saying, âI need millions of dollars to buy landâ, to being able to access an acre of land for a year for a dollar.â
Justin and his farm have almost become too popular. Heâs finding a way around that by providing three-month internships to budding farmers, and then partnering them up with landowners.
âI just want to see more small-scale farms around the place,â he says. âI want to see people growing food in a healthy way that looks after the land and provides nutrient-dense food because of no-tilling and not using any chemicals.â
Land share is a mutually beneficial arrangement, especially when portions of land have been unused for years. Justin is not only growing healthy food, but regenerating and looking after the landownersâ land.
âTheir land is going from being a bare, overgrazed paddock to an oasis, and thatâs always going to be theirs in the end. And they also get a family box of vegies every week, of course.â




Clockwise from top: Passion and self-belief allowed Justin Hartley to launch Duck Foot Farm; Joh Davidson is a local gardener assisting the project; Chef Veena Qureshi gains a greater connection to the food she prepares through the farm; Soil is left undisturbed and seedlings are planted into a top dressing of compost.
THE CHALLENGES
WEEDS
Weeds are a perennial concern in farming, but the no-till approach minimises them.
âEven if youâre farming small-scale and you use a hand rotary tiller, which is the way most people farm, you end up weeding forever.â
Soil cultivation unearths a lot of weed seed, which increases spread and growth.
âThe only seeds that get in are blown in. On this halfacre farm I can get the weeding done in half an hour, once every six weeks.â
PESTS AND DISEASE
Healthy soil is the best defence against pests.
âThe healthier the soil is, the healthier your plants will be, so theyâre resistant to pests and disease,â he says, but does concede itâs impossible to eliminate all pests and disease. âYouâd have to get your soil into some kind of ninja state to combat everything. There will always be something to deal with, but itâs certainly minimised through having healthy soil.â
For Justin and many farmers like him, itâs a neverending learning process.
âSoil health, observation, learning about crops and pests and what they do and donât like helps. Last year I put nets up to stop the cabbage moth, for example, but it created a perfect environment for aphids. The aphids could get through the nets, but their predators couldnât.
âItâs important that youâre always learning and every environment is different.â
WEATHER
Climatic events can also devastate farming crops, but the no-till approach strengthens resistance to severe weather.
âWeâve had huge rain events â like nine inches of rain in a couple of days â and the farmâs intact. Weâve also had about 18 heavy frosts in the past year. The plants get frozen but as soon as the sun comes up they thaw out. Thatâs a sign of healthy soil. The plants have high sugar content, their cell walls are really strong, so they can protect themselves. And thereâs no erosion.â
TRIAL AND ERROR
At the beginning, Justinâs enthusiasm led to lots of experimentation. âI planted lots of summer crops, eggplants and tomatoes, and we had the wettest, coldest summer after four years of drought and scorching heat, so I lost a lot of income.
âI was trialling lots of crops, getting excited looking at different seed varieties, but I realised I had too many small amounts of things. Now Iâll just have one row of something, another row of something else. Iâve streamlined it to make it more manageable. There are so many plant species to learn about, and then itâs about what sells and what is valuable per square metre.â

COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION
Duck Foot Farm has grown a solid team of volunteers. This includes Justinâs friend Andrew Picker, local gardener Joh Davidson, chef and budding farmer Veena Qureshi, and his first intern Sam Hansen. Theyâre all learning a lot and can see a bright future. Justinâs vision is to see Duck Foot Farm become a hub for community, education and connection.
âI want to create an environment where people are comfortable to visit. I want to do workshops and events, like with The What If Society. We will do farming, harvesting and cooking events. People will come to the farm, pick some vegies, Eilish Maloney will do a cooking demonstration, then we will all enjoy the food together.â
Duck Foot Farm is the place for inspiring and educating future farmers. âIâd love to have local schools come along and have education days where kids run around and pick some vegies. Itâs really important to get kids involved, so they can see where food comes from before it turns up in the shop or in their fridge.
âItâs about getting people connected again to what weâre putting in our mouths,â he says. âWhat I love about Duck Foot Farm is that itâs giving people an alternative, if they donât want to support âbig agâ and the wilted silverbeet in the supermarkets. Itâs going to cost a bit more, but they have an option to buy healthy, nutrient-dense food that has been harvested that morning. Itâs heart is still beating, itâs fresh, itâs crisp.â
Global movement
TWO FARMERS WHO INSPIRED JUSTIN TO TAKE THE PLUNGE
For further reading on no-till, small-scale farming, look up Conor Crickmoreâs Neversink Farm based in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, or British small-scale farmer Charles Dowding, whose been practising no-dig growing techniques on his Homeacres Farm since 1982.