Case Studies / The Physic Garden
Rosebery • 2013 - 2015
Where food and medicine meet.
After opening Kitchen by Mike in 2012, the goal was to extend the restaurant’s ethos — simplicity, honesty, and nourishment — beyond the kitchen and into the soil. With only an 80-square-metre carpark to work with, the challenge was how to create something green, educational, and meaningful in such a confined space. Growing enough vegetables to feed thousands was impossible, so a new idea took root: a Physic Garden — a living classroom exploring the relationship between food and wellbeing.
Approach
Five raised garden beds were designed around five systems of the body: musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, neurological, ENT, and dermatological. Each bed was planted with herbs and edible plants known for their traditional medicinal uses — from turmeric and oregano to lemon verbena and parsley.
Visitors could follow a hand-drawn map to each bed, where plaques identified the plants, their active parts, and their healing properties. Classes were held regularly, teaching guests how to use herbs in dressings, tonics, and natural remedies drawn directly from the garden. Every element embodied the Hippocratic principle: “Food is thy medicine, medicine is thy food.”
Every element embodied the Hippocratic principle: “Food is thy medicine, medicine is thy food.”
Outcome
The Physic Garden became an oasis in an industrial suburb — a space that invited curiosity, learning, and restoration. It reframed the conversation around health from diet trends to mindful nourishment, inspiring guests to see food as both pleasure and healing. The project cemented Kitchen by Mike’s philosophy of food with purpose — pure, seasonal, and rooted in the belief that what grows together, heals together.
